While the biggest storyline about the Bears’ Week 5 match-up is Khalil Mack playing the Raiders for the first time since they traded him, there’s another player that’s looking for revenge against his former team.
Bears K Eddy Pineiro believed, like Mack, that he would be a part of the Raiders organization for the long haul. That is, until Oakland traded him for nothing more than a conditional seventh-round draft pick.
“They said I was supposed to be there for the next 10 years and this and that, then I get traded,” Pineiro said, via Jason Lieser of the Sun-Times. “But I’m happy that I’m here. I’m happy that the Bears gave me an opportunity.”
The Bears are happy, as well, as it seems like Pineiro is the answer to the kicking woes that have plagued them since Robbie Gould’s release in 2016.
In four games this season, Pineiro has connected on 8-of-9 field goals and all 6 of his point-after attempts. Not to mention, Pineiro kicked a 53-yard game-winning field goal against the Broncos that saved Chicago from a 0-2 start.
The impressive thing about Pineiro’s performance this season is that he has been playing hurt for two of those games, as he nurses a pinched nerve in his right kicking leg.
Pineiro’s lone miss, a 44-yard field goal against the Redskins, came when he was first dealing with the injury. He had to limp out on the field in order to kick, and kickoffs have been left up to P Pat O’Donnell since Pineiro sustained the injury prior to Week 3’s game against Washington.
But it’s safe to say that Pineiro on one leg is more effective than Cody Parkey ever was on two legs in Chicago.
Maybe Parkey’s infamous double-doink missed field goal against the Eagles was a blessing in disguise. While the pain of that double-doink stung for months — and prompted this circus of a kicker competition — it also might’ve led to the Bears finding their next great kicker.
