MINNEAPOLIS — It would be difficult to find a more professional, composed Bears player than Allen Robinson, but he’s still human.
Robinson and Vikings rookie cornerback Kris Boyd had a lively conversation throughout the Bears’ 21-19 win Sunday, and it reached a boiling point for Robinson in the third quarter.
After beating Boyd for an 8-yard catch on the sideline to convert a third-and-6, Robinson popped up and immediately made sure Boyd knew about it. He quickly drew a flag, which Boyd pointed at and laughed.
Robinson said Boyd had been chirping at him all afternoon and he couldn’t keep abiding it. It was time to put the rookie in his place.
“Everybody’s just going out there to compete,” he said. “I don’t care who’s out there. It could be backups. It could be starters. It could be somebody’s mom out there. It don’t matter to me. If you line up across from me, I’m going at you. That’s just me.”
It was his first unsportsmanlike conduct penalty as a Bear, but he confirmed a reporter’s note that he received one in 2016 with the Jaguars.
“It’s not my first one and probably not my last, either,” said Robinson, who is the team’s nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award and won the media’s Good Guy award.
Robinson got the best of the matchup overall and finished with nine catches for 71 yards. That pushed him to 98 receptions, 1,147 yards and seven touchdowns for the season. It’s impressive in any context, but especially with how poorly Mitch Trubisky played and how much the offense sputtered overall.
“From the beginning, he was the constant,” coach Matt Nagy said of Robinson. “He was always the same every game. You could rely on him on big catches wherever that was — red zone, third down, end of game, two-minute [offense].
“I can’t emphasize enough how great it is how he handles himself away from game day. And these wide receivers that we have, just for them to understand the importance of having a guy like him to see how to do it every day. When you transfer it to the field, as a play caller and as a coach, [it] goes a long way. Means a lot. I’m appreciative of that.”
