DOUBLE DOINK
With a chance to win on the line, the Bears’ late field-goal attempt went ...
CHICAGO — Samuel is more than just an Uber driver who watches football games through a telescope on his brother’s balcony in the highrise across from Soldier Field.
And he’s more than simply a confident Chicago Bears fan.
“We’ve got this game,” he said early Sunday afternoon. “I tell ya, we’ve got it.
“I’m somewhat of a visionary.”
Well, not even Samuel could have seen this one coming, at least not the way it played out.
Nobody could have imagined Bears kicker Cody Parkey — who hit the uprights four times in a November win against the Detroit Lions — ping another post to enable the Philadelphia Eagles a chance at repeating as Super Bowl champions.
With the NFC wild-card game resting on his toe, Parkey connected on a 43-yard field goal with 10 seconds left — but just a tick after Eagles head coach Doug Pederson iced him with a time out. Asked to do it again, his kick went off the left bar, then down off the crossbar and out, sealing a 16-15 victory over the Eagles.
Parkey said later the wind was blowing left to right. It just didn’t blow hard enough.
While the 12-4 Bears now go into hibernation, the 9-7 Eagles take a four-game winning streak into New Orleans, where they’ll face the Saints in the divisional round playoff.
“My confidence was going,” said Parkey, who hit all three of his field goal tries (from 36, 29 and 34) earlier. “There’s really no answer to it. I thought I hit a good ball. And unfortunately, I didn’t make it.
“I feel terrible. I’ll take that loss on me. It is what it is. But the sun’s going to shine tomorrow, life is going to go on. Unfortunately, it’s going to sting for a while.”
Parkey planned on talking to his supportive wife when he left the stadium.
“And the dog when I get home,” he said. “He’s not going to care whether I made it or missed it.”
Chicago, however, is now in a state of depression.
Meanwhile, Nick Foles spun his magic again. He has now won nine in that he has started and played entirely in the months of December, January and February.
Foles overcame bruised ribs, two first-half interceptions and a late five-point deficit against one of the best defences in the NFL.
He orchestrated a 12-play, 60-yard drive to the Chicago two-yard line, then connect on a fourth-down toss to Golden Tate for what turned out to be the winning touchdown with 56 seconds left.
“It’s really a simple play and he did a great job of really selling his route, hesitation and getting out,” Foles said of Tate’s move to get free while the Bears were bringing the heat. “He made a lot of great plays for us.”
In the huddle before the final drive, Foles reminded his teammates to stay in the moment.
“That’s what I’ve been focusing on, what we’ve been focusing on,” he said. “You know, it was a crazy game. That’s a tremendous team. This is a crazy place to play. Our defence did an amazing job tonight keeping us in it.”
While it was a dramatic finish and a very entertaining fourth quarter, the first half wouldn’t have kept a casual fan from changing the channels on his TV.
Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky completed about half of his passes for just over 100 yards in the first half of his post-season debut and Foles threw two picks as Chicago had a 6-3 lead at the break.
But Foles led the Eagles to paydirt on his first series of the second half, when he combined with tight end Dallas Goedert on a 10-yarder for the game’s first touchdown. It was set up by Chicago’s first two penalties of the day.
Now actually needing to score a touchdown, Trubisky finally came to life. He found Joshua Bellamy with a 34-yarder down the sideline, then followed it up with a 22-yard TD pass to Allen Robinson with 9:04 left in the game.
But not to be denied, Foles pulled another one out of his hat.
On the post-game podium, Pederson was told it looked like he was still emotional from the victory.
“I have something in my eye, I still do,” he said. “Actually, it was a great win.
“I’m just overwhelmed. That’s a tremendous team, and quite frankly for us to come in here and just hang together for 60 minutes, we knew it was going to be that type of football game, and we just hung in there. It wasn’t pretty at times, but we made the plays when we needed to.”
And Foles, who completed 25-of-40 passes for 266 yards, was “Nick being Nick,” Pederson said.
“He’s going to stay calm, he’s going to stay collected,” Pederson said. “Very efficient. It wasn’t pretty at times.”
After his slow start, Trubisky finished with 26 completions on 43 throws for 303 yards and did what he had to do to put the Bears in position for victory on the last drive.
“We win and lose as a team, and really as a family,” Trubisky said. “There’s never one play that decides the game. There’s a lot of things we could have done throughout as an offence, as a defence, as special teams to make the game go our way, and we had a chance at the end. That last play didn’t go our way, but it doesn’t define our game. I’m proud of the way we played and the way we battled. We stick together.”
The crowd was wild before the start of the Bears first home playoff game in eight years and it was cranked up by special-teamers who ran through the end zone waving the fanatics on after the touchback on Parkey’s opening kickoff.
Silence was delivered by the Eagles centre, of all people, on the second play from scrimmage. That’s when veteran Jason Kelce jumped out to the flat and blew up Roquan Smith with a block that sprung Wendel Smallwood for a 22-yard gain.
That carry gave the Eagles the momentum, and even a shot of confidence, they used for a 10-play, 50-yard drive that led to a Jake Elliott 43-yard field goal and a lead before the Bears touched the ball.
A dramatic swing in the noise level occurred later in the first quarter, when legendary linebacker Dick Butkus did a sideline interview that was shown on the video board.
The crowd gave the 76-year-old an appropriate rousing welcome, and then you could almost hear a pin drop when Butkus spoke.
“The Bears have always been known for defence,” he said at one point. “They’re picking up the tradition quite well, I would think.”