Cody Parkey did a good job of kicking

One of the big problems the Chicago Bears had last season was their kicking game. They had several kickers who could not make field goals on a consistent basis. The Bears lost a couple of games because of the kicking game. Furthermore, the placekickers they had couldn’t get the ball into the end zone on a consistent basis either. Instead of getting the ball into the end zone for touchbacks, the opposing returners usually had a chance to field the ball outside the ten and get a decent return. That meant instead of the opposition starting a drive at the 25 they’d start at the 35, or 40. That made it a little easier to have a scoring drive.

The Bears brought in Cody Parkey to change that. In Week 1 he did that very well. He made all three of his field goal attempts and both of his extra point attempts. In addition, He had six kickoffs. Of those, he had three touchbacks. Of the other three that were returned, one was to the 25, another to the 21 and the third to the 26. The Packers may have scored at will late in the game, but Parkey did his job at keeping them deep in their territory.

Having a kicker you can trust goes a long way in helping a coach decide what to do late in games. I was surprised Nagy didn’t go for a field goal attempt on a fourth-and-four at 6:49 in the second quarter. It would have been a 55-yard attempt. Instead, Nagy went for it, but Trubisky got sacked and the Bears lost a chance at a scoring opportunity.

I feel Parkey will earn more of Nagy’s trust as he continues to hit his field goals. Yes, I know that touchdowns are preferable to field goals, but sometimes you need a field goal to either win a game or to add to a lead and make a comeback difficult. This is another area of improvement for the Bears. The teams will celebrate some victories courtesy of Parker’s leg.

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