Parkey bounces back, named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week

Bears place-kicker Cody Parkey didn't stay down for long.

One week after missing four kicks in Week 10 - two field goals and two extra points - Parkey is the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Sunday night's performance in the Bears' 25-20 victory over the Vikings.

Parkey connected on all three of his field goal attempts, including a 48-yarder with the pressure on and just 2:48 left in the game that gave the Bears some breathing room with a 25-14 advantage. Parkey also converted a 33-yard field goal in the first quarter to open the scoring and a 41-yarder in the second quarter that gave the Bears a 14-0 lead.

A week earlier, all four of Parkey's misses hit one of the uprights at Soldier Field, a unique twist in the Bears' 34-22 victory over the Lions.

Parkey, a five-year veteran who is with his fourth team, is the first Bear to win the Special Teams Player of the Week award since Robbie Gould in Week Four of the 2015 season.

Bears special teams coordinator Chris Tabor said the 26-year-old Parkey did an exceptional job of handling the adversity that went with his disappointing performance a week earlier.

"Cody's a pro's pro," Tabor said. "He never gets too high; he never gets too low. He stays the course, he believes in himself. He had laser focus, just like he has each and every week. It just happened the previous week that the ball hit the upright four times."

In an effort to simulate game conditions, Parkey went down to Soldier Field to practice two nights during the week before the Vikings game. As he said at the time, "It can't hurt."

"We went down there Wednesday and Thursday and he did a great job," Tabor said. "I think that probably helped (in the game) because the wind on Sunday night was like it was Thursday night. Wednesday night was a totally different wind, so we had some good recall about where to play it and those type of things."