LAKE FOREST White Adam Shaheen Jerseys , Ill. (AP) — a tough day for Cody Parkey.That might not be the case very soon.A day after Parkey missed two extra points and two field-goal attempts in a 34-22 victory over Detroit, coach Matt Nagy reiterated he has no plans to take a look at another kicker this week. But he acknowledged Parkey’s performance is only going to take on greater importance as the NFC North-leading Bears try to get back to the playoffs for the first time since after the 2010 season.“The end of this regular season, these are huge now. You got to make them,” Nagy said Monday, “and it’s just too important, they’re too crucial.”The most remarkable part of Parkey’s trouble against Detroit might have been how he missed the four kicks, finding an upright each time.After Chicago scored on its first drive, Parkey kicked the extra point off the right upright. He hit the left upright on an extra point in the second quarter. On consecutive Chicago drives in the third quarter, Parkey rattled the right upright on a 41-yard field goal and again on a 34-yard attempt.“I don’t think I’ve hit the post four times in my whole life and I’ve been kicking probably for 15 years,” Parkey said right after Chicago’s third straight win.It got so bad that the crowd roared when the Bears went for a 2-point conversion after a touchdown later in the third. But Parkey’s teammates offered their support.“Everyone has a bad game every once in a while, so we’re going to rally around him, continue to have his back Sam Acho Jerseys Stitched ,” quarterback Mitchell Trubisky said, “and I know next week when we need it he’s going to make a big kick and we’re not even going to think twice about it. We’re a family in that locker room, we have each other’s back no matter what.”Parkey connected on 21 of 23 field-goal attempts and 26 of 29 extra points last season with Miami, prompting Chicago to give him a four-year deal in free agency worth a little more than $15 million. It included a signing bonus of $2.25 million and a fully guaranteed base salary for the first two years, making it unlikely the Bears will cut him.The 26-year-old Parkey has missed five field goals in 18 attempts this season. The empty extra points were his first two in 32 tries.Nagy chalked up the performance to a bad day.“You go back to a few weeks ago when Mason Crosby missed a few for Green Bay and then the next week he ended up kicking the game winner,” Nagy said. “It’s just a crazy cycle and it’s just a matter of your patience that you have with it and fortunately for us yesterday we did have the lead. … But now, he also needs to take the next step of trying to figure out how he can get better and we’ll go ahead and do that.”One way might be some practice time at Soldier Field, one of the NFL’s toughest spots for kickers because of its proximity to Lake Michigan. Nagy said they are discussing the possibility.How quickly Parkey can recover from his difficulties against Detroit could be huge for Chicago (6-3), which hosts Minnesota on Sunday night. The Vikings have won four of five and are second in the division with a 5-3-1 record.The Bears and Lions play again on Thanksgiving in Detroit, and Chicago also hosts Green Bay and visits Minnesota before the season ends. Asked about balancing support for Parkey with any frustration with his performance, Nagy said he believes in being honest.“I’m not going to sugarcoat anything and he wouldn’t want that from me,” he said. “So we’ll have our own conversations and keep it between us, but I’ll always handle it as best as I can for the team and for him and then just stick with my gut.” MINNEAPOLIS (AP)The Minnesota Vikings have won a whole bunch of games since their previous matchup with Chicago Adam Shaheen Jerseys 2019 , a steady march to become NFC North champions that has put plenty of distance between the playoffs they’re about to enter and that ugly first half they played against the Bears. That’s precisely where their path to the postseason began to straighten out. When Case Keenum replaced the ailing Sam Bradford again at quarterback, the Vikings steered themselves back on course that night of Oct. 9 for a 20-17 victory that was the first of eight straight. For as much as coaches and players speak about the clich�d one-game-at-a-time focus, momentum can be an undeniable force. ”It was big,” said wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who hobbled through that game with a groin injury. ”I wouldn’t say really like a turning point, but definitely some momentum moving into the rest of the season that no matter how we’ve got to do it, we can get a `W’ and finish.” The Vikings had fallen to 2-2 at the quarter point of the season, stinging from a 14-7 defeat at home by Detroit made possible by three lost fumbles and made worse by the season-ending ACL tear to running back Dalvin Cook’s knee suffered that afternoon. After missing the three previous games with knee trouble, Bradford was cleared to return against the Bears. He clearly wasn’t right. Bradford was sacked four times, and the Vikings totaled 34 yards on six possessions while he was in the game. Keenum took over again late in the second quarter and, 10 wins later, has the Vikings on a Super Bowl track that could’ve been wrecked by the absence of two of the team’s most vital players. ”It was that stretch that we talk about,” wide receiver Adam Thielen said. ”Every game seemed like a bigger game.” This rematch with the Bears (5-10) on Sunday has proven to be just as important for the Vikings (12-3). With a win in this final regular-season game White Mitchell Trubisky Jerseys , they’ll secure the No. 2 seed for the NFC playoffs that comes with a first-round bye. That’s basically a bonus victory, and the Vikings have been treating this scenario accordingly. ”The biggest thing is the confidence that this team is playing with,” tight end Kyle Rudolph said. ”We feel like if we take care of our business and we play the style of football that we’re accustomed to, it doesn’t matter who we play, when we play, where we play. It’s just how we play.” The Vikings can also get the coveted bye with an assist from any of three other teams: New Orleans beating Tampa Bay on the road, Atlanta beating Carolina at home or Los Angeles beating San Francisco at home. Just one of those would need to happen. That’s quite the safety net the Vikings have no desire to use. ”We don’t want to get any help from anyone. We want to go out and take care of our business, play well, continue to ride this momentum into the playoffs,” Rudolph said. ”The last thing you want to do is limp into the playoffs coming off of a loss. We want to go out and play well and end this season the right way.” Here are some other key angles to follow during the game on Sunday: FOX WATCH: With a 14-33 record in three years, this could be John Fox’s final game coaching the Bears. If so, it’ll be the end of one of the least successful tenures in the franchise history. Only Abe Gibron has a lower winning percentage as a Bears head coach, going 11-30-1 (.274) from 1972-74. Fox helped orchestrate quick turnarounds with Carolina and Denver Mitchell Trubisky Jerseys 2019 , joining Don Shula, Bill Parcells, Dan Reeves, Dick Vermeil and Mike Holmgren as the only coaches to lead two franchises to Super Bowl appearances, but he hasn’t experienced similar success in Chicago. ”I’ve never had trouble getting employment in this league,” Fox said this week, ”and I’m not going to start worrying about it now.” YOU AGAIN?: This is the fifth time in 13 years that the Bears will wrap up the regular season in Minnesota, including three of the past four, but this is the first of these finales that features any kind of postseason impact. Both teams were eliminated in 2016, 2014 and 2011. The Bears already had the division title clinched in 2005. ”It’s still a game. Everybody has to play it. And you have to approach it that way,” Fox said. ”It will be no different for us.” LONG WAY: Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky has come a long way since he debuted against the Vikings in that matchup in Chicago nearly three months ago, and the second overall pick in the draft would love to show it. Trubisky completed 12 of 25 passes for 128 yards on Oct. 9, and his interception in the closing minutes set up the winning field goal by the Vikings. Though his passer rating is a paltry 78.5 White Joel Iyiegbuniwe Jerseys , Trubisky already holds the franchise rookie passing record with 2,015 yards. With the Bears expanding the playbook for him, Trubisky has gone from completing 53 percent of his passes through his first seven games to 71 percent over the past four games while throwing for 880 yards. ”Hopefully the game will slow down for me a little bit, and I’ll be able to see things a little better,” Trubisky said. STANDING PAT? If the Bears fire Fox, Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur could find himself a candidate for the vacancy. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said this week he believes Shurmur deserves another opportunity, five years after his tenure with Cleveland ended at two seasons. ”He’s done a really good job. He’s a good guy to work with. He’s smart. He’s respectful,” Zimmer said. Shurmur has bigger priorities for now. ”At some point, if somebody wants to sit down and visit about being the head coach, I can talk about a job that I’ve already done and about how I’m better since I did that job,” he said. —
