Despite being just 26 years old, tight end Cole Kmet is one of the longest-tenured members of the Chicago Bears. Kmet, who went to high school in nearby Arlington Heights, is entering his sixth season in the NFL, all of which have been spent with the hometown team. And in that time, he’s played for three different coaching staffs and alongside eight different starting quarterbacks.
This is all to say that in a short amount of time, Cole Kmet has gotten the full Chicago Bears experience. Kmet has been through a handful of highs but far more lows, and interestingly, there have been three instances where Chicago won their Week 1 game, creating the illusion that a season of success was on the horizon, only for that illusion to be shattered within weeks.
Therefore, the grizzled young veteran who hauled in just one reception for 31 yards in the 27-24 loss, knows all too well that overreacting after a Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings would be about as beneficial as overreacting following a Week 1 win.
“I’ve actually had my fair share of opening day wins, and down the road, they end up not meaning as much as you think they do. So hopefully that’s the case with this one,” Kmet said while speaking to reporters after the game. “We gotta be able to move on here quickly to Detroit. On Sunday, it’s gonna be a quick turnaround for us, so it sucks right now, let it sting tonight, but come tomorrow afternoon, we gotta be able to move on to Detroit.”
No Reason For Panic Yet, But Cole Kmet Sees Room For Improvement
The level-headed Kmet may not be panicking or adopting a sky is falling approach just yet, but he’s not oblivious to the work that the Bears need to do — and make no mistake, they need to do it quickly — so this season doesn’t get away from them before it really has the chance to get off the ground. The Bears are already one game in the hole in the NFC North standings, and with a visit to Detroit looming this Sunday, the Bears cannot afford to drop to 0-2.
The good news is, it’s not that difficult to see what needs to be improved upon. A mostly non-existent rushing attack will open up some play-action opportunities down the field that were either missed by Caleb Williams or not available at all against the Vikings. In time — fingers crossed — the Bears defense will get healthier, and Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon and TJ Edwards will all be able to return to the lineup.
But maybe the biggest problem area coming out of Week 1 were the 12 penalties that cost the Bears 127 yards throughout the game, the second-highest total in the NFL in the opening week of the season.
“Our execution has to be better, and when it comes down to those penalties, that’s where we can be better and more disciplined, and that’s on us as players,” Kmet said. “Unfortunately, that’s been a little bit of a theme for us throughout preseason and in training camp, and it showed its head here today a little bit, so we gotta practice harder, gotta be better and continue to work on those things.”
New head coach Ben Johnson echoed a similar sentiment in his postgame remarks.
“We said going into Week 1 that the team that would make the least number of mistakes would win the game. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of that. We made too many there late in the game, myself included,” Johnson said, per Courtney Cronin of ESPN.
In the end, the penalty issues that plagued Chicago ended up being a perfect microcosm for the game as a whole. The Bears jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, saw that lead swell to 17-6 to start the 4th quarter, but then just as was the case with multiple Bears offensive possessions in the 2nd half, the entire game just started unraveling.
“You got it moving, got it going, then all of a sudden it starts going backwards,” Johnson added after the game.
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