10 thoughts after the Bears’ season ended with a 16-15 loss to the Eagles Sunday night at Soldier Field in an NFC wild-card game. 1. The three-hour window that is the final game of the season brings closure quickly to what was, in all regards, a terrific season for the franchise all the way around. The work that the players began putting in back in April, with plans that had been mapped out by the coaching staff before that, all comes to a sudden halt. “It's amazing,” coach Matt Nagy said. “It's just, as with every team, when you lose the next day, it's like a bomb hits and everyone is gone, and they're just — you have exit interviews and they leave. We'll be busy (Monday). But I'm excited to sit down and individually talk to every single player on the team and just, No. 1, thank them for what they did, but No. 2, in the plan going forward, how can you get better, what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses, and I'll do it with every coach, too, and then I'll have them tell me what my strengths and weaknesses are so that we can all just continue to sharpen each other.” That leaves a ton to process, including moments in the game and the season. There’s plenty to get to that was positive — really positive — and I’ll get to that here and in the days and weeks to come. But it’s impossible to recap a game like this without starting with kicker Cody Parkey, whose 43-yard attempt from the right hashmark with five seconds to play clanked off the left upright, fluttered down to hit the crossbar and then fell in the end zone, no good. Eagles defensive lineman Treyvon Hester, a 6-foot-2, 304-pound defensive tackle in his second season from Toledo, said he got fingertips of his left hand on the ball as it soared into the night toward the north end zone. “Me and Haloti (Ngata) running our play,” said Hester, who didn’t join Philadelphia’s 53-man roster until October. “Got penetration, got the hand up like coach always say. Tipped off fingertips. Felt good. “Actually I thought I didn’t get enough of it. I thought it was going to go in. So when I seen it going in, I turned back around and then I heard everybody screaming. He missed it.” It’s incredible that Parkey hit the upright six times during the season and not one ricocheted in. Unbelievable, really. Tipped kick or not, Parkey didn’t reference Hester after the game. He said he played a left-to-right wind and the ball didn’t come back in. Parkey hung his head. Teammates were stunned. “He was having a good day,” holder Pat O’Donnell said, adding Parkey was perfect on three earlier field goals in the game from 36, 29 and 34 yards. Said long snapper Patrick Scales: “When it happens, it’s just a sad situation. Everyone has his back which is nice to see in the locker room. Everyone is picking him up. It was refreshing to see that. I’ve never seen someone as mentally strong as he is for all the of the stuff that has happened through the season. He’s always come back the next day and been very strong and that is so refreshing to see.” Said cornerback Prince Amukamara: “It is tough. I feel like we have to remember that is not the reason why we lost. I could point at my pass interference (penalty) that put them in the red zone and they ended up getting a score right after that. I am still kicking myself because of that but because it happened earlier in the game, it’s not really heightened. I feel like the game shouldn’t have come to (the field goal). I know Cody wants that kick back and we all do. That’s just the NFL and that’s just the hype around the playoffs.” The Bears got pro-active with Parkey after his disastrous game vs. the Lions on Nov. 11 when he hit the upright and missed on two field goals and two extra points. The Bears still won that game handily and the plan was to send him to Soldier Field during the week to practice. Traffic helicopters captured his first practice visit to Soldier Field . The Bears kept sending him down there for the final three home games, and again this past week, with morning trips on Wednesday and Thursday that allowed them to return to Halas Hall in time for practice. He was better and started this game well by hitting his first three kicks. Parkey is the first Bears kicker to practice in the stadium during the season since the Bears sent Robbie Gould there was a rookie in the 2005 season. Was is a huge help? Probably not. Was it necessary? The statistics here are mind-boggling. Including this playoff game, Bears kickers were 30 for 41 (73.2 percent) on field goal attempts at home since the start of the 2016 season. You say the Bears need to send the kicker to Soldier Field even more to practice, to get adjusted to how the wind plays the ball there? Eagles kicker Jake Elliott hit his only try from 43 yards to raise opponents at Soldier Field since the start of the 2016 season to 47 for 50 (94 percent). Those opponents aren’t practicing at Soldier Field ever, yet they come in game after game and drill their kicks. Three factors, really four, when you consider the uprights being hit repeatedly this season, have brought intense focus to the kicking situation since Gould, who attended the game with his sons, was cut on the same day the Bears signed guard Josh Sitton a week before the start of the 2016 season. 1. Bears kickers, Parkey included, haven’t been accurate. During the last three regular seasons, they’re 57 for 75 (76 percent). Only the Buccaneers (72.8 percent) have been worse.

2. Opposing kickers have been nearly automatic. Since the start of the 2016 season, opponents have made 93.6 percent of their field goals vs. the Bears. That’s stunning. “It is uncanny,” special teams coordinator Chris Tabor said last week. “In Cleveland, we were one of the top field goal block units in terms of we’d either pressure and they’d miss or we’d get it. It’s crossed my mind. If you watch it, (Sherrick) McManis is flying around the edge. It’s just one of those things. It is what it is.” 3. Gould has been better than he ever was with the Bears since departing. In 42 games since (32 the last two seasons in San Francisco and 10 with the Giants in 2016), he’s 82 for 85 (96.5 percent). Process all that and it looks like Bears general manager Ryan Pace opened one of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books and kept making the wrong decisions. But it wasn’t Pace alone that made the decision to launch Gould. Coach John Fox and special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers were ready for a new kicker. It’s convenient to forget Gould had some high-profile missed kicks during the 2015 season and the coaching staff viewed him as high-maintenance. Reality is, since winning a tryout to be signed by the Bears as a replacement for Doug Brien back in 2005, it’s the best thing that’s happened to his career, as Gould has been laser-focused. And with his $4 million, two-year contract with the 49ers coming up, he should be in line for a handsome pay raise in free agency. I’d be willing to bet Gould would welcome the opportunity to play for the Bears again. I don’t know what is going to happen with Parkey. It’s too soon to say. Did Hester’s fingertips alter the trajectory of the kick enough to cause Parkey to miss? I don’t know. But there were too many missed kicks this season, I do know that. His teammates did a remarkable job rallying around him after the game. Right tackle Bobby Massie embraced him on the field. In the locker room, many guys said there were plenty of things they could have done better in the game. That’s all true. But what the Bears can’t have happen in 2019 is have other players answering for the kicker in the locker room. It’s a production-based business. “He's taken a lot,” Nagy said of Parkey. “He's had an interesting year with going through the highs and lows, going from missing those kicks the one game to winning special teams player of the week. But in the end, I'm going to do everything I can to take a part of the human side of it because that's, I think the easiest way you look at that is that you put yourself in his situation. You think he tried to miss it, no, I know that. But you've got to learn from it. You've got to figure out the why part, and he'll do that, and we need to do that, too, and just come together. We need to support each other. I think it's cowardly when anybody with anything - you've got to be there and you've got to talk - you've got to figure it out and understand it. “It's hard. I mean, this is a hard one to swallow. But we'll all be in it together.” Again, I don’t know where this heads from here with the kicker. Parkey handled things with class after the game and he’s been that way all season. I can’t imagine the Bears will have a plan for the position when the coach and Pace talk later this week. It’s going to take some time to work through it. I do know this: Parkey signed a $15 million, four-year contract that includes $9 million guaranteed. He earned $5.5 million this season so that leaves $3.5 million fully guaranteed for 2019, whether Parkey is kicking for the Bears or not. He’s not the only reason the Bears lost this game but the kicking situation, as I detailed above, has been problematic and I’m not sure practicing at Soldier Field more is the solution. 2. It wasn’t a flawless game in Mitch Trubisky’s first career postseason start, but he played well enough to win (26 of 43 passes, 303 yards, one touchdown) and certainly got better and more comfortable as the game went on. Quarterbacks making their first postseason debut were 0-3 this weekend, with the Texans’ Deshaun Watson and Ravens’ Lamar Jackson also losing. I think it’s fair to say Trubisky had the best game out of that trio. He made some big throws and got comfortable picking on Eagles rookie cornerback Avonte Maddox in the second half. The Eagles cornerbacks were squatting hard on routes and the Bears started to make them pay. There was the 45-yard shot to Allen Robinson late in the third quarter that helped set up Cody Parkey’s third field goal. On the touchdown drive in the fourth quarter — amazingly the Bears’ first go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter of a playoff game since one from Sid Luckman touchdown in the 1946 championship game (according to pro-footballreference.com )— there was a bullet to Taylor Gabriel on third-and-11 for a 19-yard gain. On a screen fake, he found Josh Bellamy for a 34-yard gain and then Robinson for a 22-yard touchdown. On the final drive that led to the missed field goal, he exploited the hole in Cover Two behind Maddox and in front of safety Corey Graham to find Robinson for a 25-yard gain. Maddox should have had much more depth but it was a dialed-in throw.

“Just a guy that continued to make plays,” coach Matt Nagy said. “He's done it all year long. He's made plays when he's had to. We looked at each other with whatever time, under a minute to go, and we knew we were going to move the ball and go down there and have an opportunity, and he did that. He looked at me and he gave me a smile, and I just told him, ‘This is where the story begins.’ He did it. He did a great job. “I was just telling somebody in there, no one, not one person truly knows how far that kid has come this year (other) than me. I mean, we're lucky. We're lucky to have him. I'm looking forward to the future. I really am, with him, because the city of Chicago is lucky to have that kid at quarterback.” What are some examples of the journey Trubisky has taken in his second season, the first in this offense and first with most of the skill position players on offense? “Just coming into OTAs, coming into training camp, we threw a lot at him, as I told you. We threw a bunch at him, and he didn't really have a big library into seeing a bunch of different defenses,” Nagy said. “So he was trying to learn our offense and then pair it up with the defenses he was going to see, and some defensive coordinators they did a good job of throwing a bunch of different stuff at us this year, so we got to see a lot of different things. And what he did was early in the year, it was maybe a next play, ‘Hey, let's forget that.’ And he grew there. So he got better in regards to he forgot about what just happened the previous play. So that's No. 1. “No. 2, his vision and his progression within this offense got a lot better, because he starts to learn, he starts repeating plays, and so he gets to know the offense. “The third part is he starts looking at the defense, and now he can start seeing, ‘OK, was it Cover Three, was it Cover One, was it 22 man, was it 55 boundary, was it cover zero, was it quarters? So he can see all that and test it, and then the last part, I think, is having wide receivers, tight ends, running backs that have never been in this offense before helping him out, as well, getting more volume, and now that trust, and you saw that tonight was a prime example of taking (Tarik Cohen) away but (Robinson) having a big game.” The nice thing for Trubisky is that entering Year 3, for the first time in his career, he won’t have a new playbook put in front of him when he arrives for work in the spring. He won’t be starting from the bottom up in an offense and that should allow for the kind of growth that Nagy has talked about. 3. The Bears won’t look the same in 2019. There will be changes, but a lot less than there were this past season. Chances are there will be new coaches as well. It’s rare that a staff doesn’t have at least small change from one season to the next, as defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s candidacy for a head coaching job will be front and center. He’s scheduled to meet with the Broncos on Monday and the Dolphins are reported to have an interview with him as well. It’s possible a head-coaching opportunity finally materializes for the 60-year-old Fangio, who in a four-year span has really built the Bears defense into something terrific. There could be other departures as well. I am told veteran defensive backs coach Ed Donatell, who oversaw one-half of the team’s All-Pro players in free safety Eddie Jackson and cornerback Kyle Fuller, is coming out of contract. Donatell, 61, did not sign a contract extension a year ago when Matt Nagy arrived, creating a situation where he can become a coaching free agent. That’s the only way assistant coaches can have some flexibility; it gives them the upper hand when it comes to negotiating a contract as well. Would Donatell go with Fangio if Fangio lands a head job? One source said to keep an eye on the Falcons as a possible landing spot for Donatell. You hear all sorts of rumors this time of year. Some stick, some don’t. Maybe Donatell would like another shot to be a coordinator, a role he hasn’t held since 2004-06 with the Falcons and before that from 2000-03 in Green Bay. I know this: The Bears were very good in the secondary this season, posting a league-best opponent passer rating of 72.9. No one else was even close to them. Yes, an energized pass rush with the addition of outside linebacker Khalil Mack helped. But Fuller’s ascension as an elite cornerback has come under Donatell’s watch. Jackson was a fourth-round pick a year ago and he’s turned into a star and a strong case could be made this was the best season in Prince Amukamara’s career. Strong safety Adrian Amos has been solid and nickel cornerback Bryce Callahan is a nice, young player. I imagine the Bears would like to keep Donatell. Maybe that happens. We’ll have to see what happens. “Every team is different from here on out,” coach Matt Nagy said. “So there will be, I'm sure, new players, new coaches. It's always a little bit different.” 4. Brad Childress was about to head into a meeting Friday night with his players for the Atlanta Legends in the Alliance of American Football (AAF) when he called. Childress was on staff for the Bears from the very beginning of Matt Nagy’s days at Halas Hall through the fourth preseason game against the Chiefs in August. They’re close friends and Childress was able to assist in a lot of different ways as Nagy was pulled in different directions. Having a former head coach as an assistant, especially a guy that know the ins and outs of the offense being installed, made a lot of sense.

Childress, an Aurora native who attended Eastern Illinois, has kept close tabs on the Bears all season and he greeted the team at its hotel at the Mall of America before the regular-season finale at Minnesota. He sat in on the install meeting and had dinner with Nagy and others. He marveled at the success the Bears enjoyed. “People were saying 8-8 would be great, right?” Childress said. “The way that they started out, obviously the Khalil Mack trade, but I am not going to put it all on that. Just watching them playing the Packers on opening night, you could say well, as it turned out the Packers were average at best. Just being able to snap back and get that Monday night win and I just think they got better bit by bit and the confidence grew bit by bit and you know what, it’s what have you done for me lately in this business. You’re two weeks away from an absolute catastrophe. Kind of the route of a good team is you don’t usually see them lose three in a row and a lot of times not two in a row.” What struck Childress most during his time with the Bears was how Nagy was able to install the offense. It’s interesting what he said and how he said it because Childress has been in coaching most of his life and he’s seen systems installed countless times. He’s seen the process play out. He’s never seen it quite like he did alongside Nagy. “I told Matt this before I left and I’ve texted him this a couple times, Andy (Reid) did a great job installing plays,” Childress said. “Matt did an unbelievable job of not just putting lines up on the board or things like that, but showing guys concepts, showing guys tape. Everybody learns differently. Showing them video tape. Making guys give him answers. Why are we doing this? Making the whole room give him an answer. In other words, he wasn’t just up there lecturing but having it be interactive. It was so impressive and so great to watch him take off and build his own thing. I told him that. I don’t know if I have ever seen anyone do it better through a training camp. “He would be the first to tell you about the mentoring process and how Andy does it and he really doesn’t keep anything from you and he’s not a selfish guy and Andy really didn’t care who got credit. There was no ego. If you had a good idea, it was bring a problem or bring a solution with a well thought out way to do it and so when we’d get in our offseason studies, Matt was one of the first guys, we’d be evaluating Carson Wentz and seeing what they do at North Dakota State, and pretty soon we’d put six or eight plays together and we’d say, ‘Shoot, this fits for us,’ and present it to Andy and next thing you know we’re running Kareem Hunt down the middle against New England and he’s scoring from 67 yards out. He’s always been a creative guy and he’s put his own twist on it because he believes it doesn’t have to be a Bataan death march. He believes in having fun and having the guys laugh and I think that is an important part of it, where you feel like you are excited to go to work and find out what is new every day.” Childress likes the direction quarterback Mitch Trubisky is headed also. “I’ve seen him grow,” Childress said. “I’ve seen him take a step forward. I’ve seen him take a little bit of a step back. But he’s in there swinging, in there competing and I have seen him do things I didn’t think he could do and (quarterbacks coach Dave) Ragone and Matt have him got him doing those things. I think he is only going to get better and better and better and Matt is going to keep challenging him to get better. “Some of the deep ball touch throws, some of the corner throws, some of those things. You knew he was athletic. Some of the things he has done with his feet are great. I always feel like he has a downfield mind-set when he’s doing that and that is when big plays happen on scrambles when people start coming to you. I’ve seen him be able to drive some throws and use that brute strength on power throws but I have also seen him make a bunch of touch throws as well.” 5. Eddie Jackson went through some exercises on the field with head athletic trainer Andre Tucker about two hours before kickoff. There wasn’t a lot to it and it was less than 10 minutes of work. Jackson backpedaled some and then broke forward, testing out the high ankle sprain he suffered in his right ankle in the Week 15 against Green Bay. The Bears made him active for the game but he didn’t play a snap, replaced again by Deon Bush. Jackson was limited in practice on Thursday and Friday, but wasn’t quite there. “Pretty close, yeah, but not close enough obviously,” he said. I asked Jackson what it meant to be selected as an All-Pro in just his second season. His measured response was very good. “It’s a blessing but this game meant more to me than that, you know what I mean, and for me not to be able to go out there and even play, it kind of sucked,” he said. “But all that is cool and you will always have compliments but going to the playoffs, going to the Super Bowl, stuff like that is bigger than me and All-Pro and Pro Bowl.” Jackson said the important thing was to be candid about how his ankle felt after rehabilitating it every day at Halas Hall since the injury. “It was all right but it just wasn’t there and the fact in my mind was that coach asked me, ‘Can you go out there and play man-to-man and really cover somebody?’” he said. “Sometimes you tell yourself, ‘Yeah,’ but in reality you really can’t. “It was in my best interests as a player and the best interests of the team. I didn’t want to go out there and wouldn’t be able to perform to the level that I can, that I know I can. There was no point in going out there to play a bad game and hurt the team. That was the biggest thing, don’t go out there and try to be a superhero. You can’t perform and you’re hurting the team giving up big plays like that. (Stuff) sucks. We fought this hard. We do everything to come this far … it’s football, man.” 6. Four prominent Bears will be unrestricted free agents in March. Strong safety Adrian Amos, nickel cornerback Bryce Callahan, right tackle Bobby Massie and punter Pat O’Donnell. I think in the right situation all of them would like to be back. But what player ever wants to close a door on the team he’s on, especially coming off a 12-4 season? My hunch is Callahan will be the top priority for the Bears in that group but you never know. I asked Amos, a dependable player who has made 56 starts since being a fifth-round draft pick in general manager Ryan Pace’s first class, and he was still processing the loss.