Welcome to the Monday edition of The Cooler, where sometimes you can't even make things up. Let's get to it:
*An embattled kicker who had endured an up-and-down regular season but emerged with confidence going into the playoffs lined up a potential game-winning kick for a division-winning NFC North team playing at home and locked in a low-scoring battle during wild card weekend.
The kicker had made all three of his field goal attempts in the game leading up to that final attempt, and if he could just make one more his team would escape to the next round.
Vikings fans watched with anticipation — and then horror — when this scenario played out three years ago and Blair Walsh missed way wide left on a 27-yard attempt in what became a 10-9 loss to Seattle.
And now Bears fans have their own demons, after Cody Parkey had the same thing happen with the exact same buildup. He missed a 43-yarder — hitting the left upright and the crossbar, an especially cruel twist after clanging those objects defined his turbulent regular season — and the Bears lost 16-15 to the Eagles.
Parkey's kick came in better conditions than Walsh's, who was kicking in subzero temperatures three years ago at TCF Bank Stadium. But Walsh's kick was 16 yards shorter. Both were boots that NFL kickers usually make. Alas, Chicago fans are now left with the same what-ifs as Vikings fans were three years ago, with a stout defense and second-year QB suddenly having their seasons ended.
If anything sums up the agony of a missed playoff field goal, it is the reaction of the Bears mascot. With perhaps the best view in the house, the pain was very real.
*I'll have plenty more thoughts later today about the Timberwolves' firing of head coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau, but here's one stunning fact that's hard to escape:
