Bears' Parkey after miss: 'One of the worst feelings in the world'

As the Bears' hard-luck PK Cody Parkey so aptly put it: "You can't make this up."

And who would be cruel enough to do so. Parkey had a chance to be the hero in a miracle finish in Sunday's wild-card playoff game at Soldier Field. But his 43-yard field-goal attempt with five seconds remaining hit the left upright, then fell onto the crossbar and finally dropped into the end zone inches short, giving the Eagles a 16-15 victory.

The amazing back story is that on Nov. 11 against the Lions, also at Soldier Field, Parkey missed 4 kicks -- 2 field goals and 2 extra points -- and all four hit one of the uprights. But the Bears won that game 34-22.

"I feel terrible," Parkey said after his latest miss sent the Bears home after a 12-4 regular season that nevertheless ended with a bitter loss. "I let the team down. It's on me. I have to win it. I have to be a man. Unfortunately, that's the way it went. That's one of the worst feelings in the world to let your team down."

After the four-miss game, Parkey and LS Patrick Scales and P Pat O'Donnell, the holder on place-kicks, started practicing at Soldier Field during weeks before home games to acclimate themselves with conditions. Parkey hit nine of his next 10 FG attempts. He hit his first three FG tries Sunday, from 36, 29 and 34 yards. He actually converted the 43-yarder, but the Eagles had called time out just before the ball was snapped in an effort to "ice" the kicker. It worked.

"I thought I hit a great ball," Parkey said of the fateful miss. "Trying to play the wind. (My) confidence was going. There's really no answer to it. One hundred percent, take that loss on me. It is what it is. Sun is going to shine tomorrow; life's going to go on. Unfortunately, it's going to sting for a while."

Parkey's teammates stood behind him despite the miss, his eighth of the year on 34 attempts.

"That's our guy," DL Akiem Hicks said. "I'm gonna ride with my guy. If you've got that 'C' on your helmet, I'm gonna ride with you 'til the end, I don't care what happens on the field, we're together. That's it."

LB Danny Trevathan watched the kick's trajectory and was hopeful, even after is struck the upright.

"I was for sure it was gonna bounce in," Trevathan said. "Stuff happens in this league. It's tough. In certain situations, everybody can't be perfect. You work hard at tour job, and sometimes there's a lot on you, and that situation's tough. I'm sure he hurts more than anybody else."

Parkey said he would lean on his wife for support and his dog, who "doesn't care if I miss a kick or not."

The Bears signed the 26-year-old Parkey as an unrestricted free agent in March, and het got $9 million of a four-year, $15-million contract guaranteed, but his future with the Bears appears tenuous.

"I'll continue to put my best foot forward and sleep at night knowing that I did everything in my power this week to make that kick," he said. "I still couldn't do it."

• Bob LeGere is a senior writer at Pro Football Weekly. Follow Bob's Bears reports on Twitter @BobLeGere or @PFWeekly.