When the Bears kicker competition carried over to preseason last week, there was a new pressure that came with live game action.
Add in the fact that each kicker was rotated in a game with limited opportunities, which only added to the fact that every kick carries weight.
In the Bears’ first preseason game against the Panthers, Elliott Fry was a perfect 2-for-2 on his kicks, including a 43-yard field goal. Eddy Pineiro, on the other hand, was 1-for-2, including a miss of 48 yards.
When every kick matters, it’s easy to start to feel the pressure. But the Bears are looking for a kicker that not only has the physical ability to connect, but the mental toughness to kick in the NFL.
“It can be a little exhausting,” Pineiro said last week of the kicker competition. “Every day you feel like, ‘Oh damn, if I miss this kick, am I going to get cut? Are they going to trade for somebody else?’ It does get annoying, but I can’t control any of that.”
While Pineiro struggled in the first preseason game, Bears coach Matt Nagy has said on more than one occasion that it’s important how a player responds to those situations.
So how did Pineiro respond to that adversity? By connecting on both field goals, of 27 and 41 yards, in the second preseason game against the Giants.
“I knew coming in that, ‘I gotta bounce back,’ ” Pineiro said, via the Sun-Times. “It just shows you what type of kicker you are, bouncing back from a miss. That’s what I wanted to do, was bounce back.”
With both Fry and Pineiro deadlocked in this kicker battle, Nagy reiterated that at the end of the day it’s about results. At this point in the competition, both kickers have missed one field goal in the preseason.
“I’m at a position right now where you get two games into the preseason and they’ve just gotta, again, produce,” Nagy said. “Elliott had one kick tonight . . . and he missed it. We’re evaluating. These guys fall right into the [category] of everybody else.
“These games carry weight. Don’t have regrets. It’s all about production. That’s where we’re at.”
With just two preseason games remaining — and less than three weeks until the regular-season opener — things are getting down to the wire for the Bears in a kicker competition that desperately needs a happy ending.
