Last Sunday the Bears gave up the lead late to St. Nick and the Eagles. With one minute left, the Bears offense came to life and stormed down the field. Mitch Trubisky got the team into field goal range with just seconds remaining on the clock, down by one stinking point.  The kicking team ran on the field. The Bears snapped the ball as whistles blew. Timeout called by the Eagles. Cody Parkey, the way kickers are taught, just kicked the ball anyways. Like a practice swing in golf, he halfheartedly kicked the ball and drilled it through the uprights perfectly. After the ice down of the kicker was over, play resumed. The Bears snapped the ball and the kick was off. Everyone stood up watching with hearts stopped. People clung to their bar stool ready to leap out of their skin to high five each other. This would be a Bears win. A playoff Bears win does not come around often. Doink off the upright. Then another doink off the cross bar. People gasping for air, jaws dropping. As the ball hits the ground in front of the goal post. The referees wave no good. As a hush falls over the stadium. People in disbelief. People thinking, “not again.” Rage fills the pit of the stomachs filled with beer and chili. While the Eagles looked stunned themselves. St.Nick Foles had pulled off another Christmas story that would poke the eyes out of the Chicago faithful.

Was this miss something so deep and dark that somehow you can not explain it? In a world with so much mystery. Where usually good tramples over evil. Where miracles happen and you might not be aware of them. Could Nick Foles be the savior in this situation? Could the Eagles be the miracle? Weeks ago, the Eagles looked like a team found dead on the road. Road kill exactly. They looked like Charlie Sheen suffering from the biggest hang over of all-time. Found waking up in Mexico with no clue how you got there. This seems like the same plot as last year when Nick Foles took over from an injury and took them to the Superbowl. They even slayed a team we know is pure evil, in the Patriots. The Evil Empire to be exact. Could the Eagles be the good team while the Bears are just a team in the way of this miracle we are seeing?

Perhaps this unexplained miss could be the works of former kicker, Robbie Gould. His name was probably mentioned a lot after that miss. His name has been screamed by fans for years now, as he is some kind of Greek God. Suddenly the Bears ex-kicker is sharing a Chicago style Mount Rushmore with the likes of Michael Jordan, Frank Thomas, Patrick Kane, and the late great Walter Payton.  Robbie stood out most of the time during the good, bad and mostly ugly years he was in a Bears uniform. He was on hand with his kids at Soldier’s Field witnessing an ending to one of the most exciting seasons in Chicago Bears history. At least most exciting in a very long time.

The crazy people which most fans are, will want to gather all the torches and pitch forks they can find. Find Cody Parky, drag him to the town square, and beat him to a bloody pulp. This is football damn it!!! Some have already sent death threats. The smarter people will follow the trail. Because when you lose one like the Bears did, you need a scapegoat. Who is the fall guy in this? Would it be Ryan Pace, the one that chased out Robbie Gould for his one bad year in a Bears uniform? Because if Robbie Gould was still in uniform, Bears would win this playoff game?

Did it even have to come down to the kicker in this one? Looks from my eyeballs that Cody Park scored 9 out of the 15 points that were on the score board for the Bears. You have to say the defense did not look good on that last Eagles drive. However they held the Eagles to only 16 points. What happened to the Bears offense in this game?  What happened to Jordan Howard? He hardly got any carries in this game. The back up running backs had some carries in this one. Was Coach Nagy out-coached by former co-worker Doug Peterson? I did not see any misdirection plays done by the Bears in this one. No interesting formations, some of Nagy’s cutesy plays were not seen. Suddenly Mitch Trubisky comes to life on the last drive chucking it down field to set up the kick. This was not your regular Bears offense that we had enjoyed, seen and hung to edges of seats excited to see what was coming next.

Since Ryan Pace has gotten rid of Robbie Gould, he had missed on many kickers. Connor Barth, Mike Nugent… sounds more like a rock band than guys that can kick the ball in between the goalposts. The Cairo Santos experiment blew up immediately. You can throw in Kevin White, a bust even though he is not a kicker.  But Ryan Pace has hit on everything else that has worked on the defense, including working out the deal to land Khaili Mack. He provided his young quarterback with many weapons in the off season. He even found a coach to mold his young quarterback into something special, only in his second year as a pro. Cody Parker, you thought he had fixed the kicking game. You could say Cody Parker was unfortunate to doink 4 kicks in one game against the Lions. In a game the Bears won. In the fourth quarter Cody Parky was 11-12 in field goals this season.

You could put all the blame on Cody Parker. Perhaps then we agree with the likes of Rex Ryan who thinks he was a great coach. Who took teams and ran them into the ground. Thought quarterbacks like the Butt Fumbler and Geno Smith would lead his teams to the promised land.  If the Bears could of held on and beat the Packers in week one, would their destiny come to an end with a miss kick? Sure you add the Dolphins game they blew and gave away, the Bears would of never been in the wild card weekend games.They would of had the first round bye. I believe Coach Matt Nagy was out coached by Eagles head coach Doug Peterson. This is the same Matt Nagy who coached and did the play calling last year for the Chiefs. The Chiefs were ahead at halftime by three scores over the Titans in the first round of the playoffs and faltered in the second half.

You can break it all down like shredding a brick of cheese of what went wrong and how the season ended.  You could say the missed kick was like Scott Norwood’s big miss wide right that cost the Buffalo Bills a Superbowl. Cody Parkey could suddenly turn into Ray Finkle and carry a grudge against Mitch Trubisky in years to come. I know Mitch was not the holder but work with me.  Maybe it was the goat that jinxed the Chicago Cubs all those years. Perhaps the goat is working on new streaks like how the Cubs seem to be crashing, after winning the World Series in 2016. The only explanation is it has to be the ghost of Robbie Gould. Can you have a ghost and be alive? Maybe he has jinxed the Bears, after all he was there when this kick took place. Plus the Bears have hit only 60 out 79 field goals since Robbie was cut. That is 19 field goals. During the same time, Robbie Gould has hit 82 out 85 field goals since he was cut. Would one of the three been that crucial miss versus the Eagles if he was still here? Could it be part of a plan by Robbie Gould to get his old job back? He should be heading to free agency once again. He can circle the wagons and come back to Chicago. He could make the kick that will send everyone in Chicago home a winner.  As long as we don’t give games away and not get out coached in our own building. Perhaps not go down that road to be forced to win the game with special teams.