Khalil Mack is still the best player on the Chicago Bears roster. Don't let anybody fool you. Teams routinely had to game plan around stopping him. Unfortunately, the stats just weren't quite there like they were in 2018. He sits at 7.5 sacks with two games to go. If he fails to collect 2.5 sacks in that span, it will mark the first time he hasn't had double digit sacks since his rookie season back in 2014.
This has caused a lot of people to criticize him, believing he hasn't been giving everything he has. Teammates and coaches laugh at such an assumption. A deeper dive into the stats do reveal he's been affecting quarterbacks almost as much as last year. He just hasn't gotten them on the ground. In spite of that, the defense still ranks 3rd in the NFL in points allowed and Mack did enough to earn a trip to his fifth-straight Pro Bowl. When asked about it though, he didn't even want to discuss it.
"Yeah, next question."
Mack was prodded on it a few more times but he refused to answer. However, when the subject of the defense having a successful season came up, he did open up.
"I mean the only thing you can really count on is getting to the playoffs. That's my mindset. You can't really say it's been a success in that...It's tough. I'm a tough critic. Especially on myself. It definitely wasn't what I wanted to put on film all year."
Khalil Mack isn't going to settle for lower expectations
Give Mack credit. He's not going to hide from the criticism. He knows the level of expectations he set after last year and he didn't reach them. He'll own that. The defense too didn't do enough. Granted, most of the fault lay on the 28th ranked Bears offense but the star pass rusher doesn't care. To him the job is to keep the opponent from scoring enough to win. The Bears didn't do that too many times. Brian Urlacher always said the same thing back in his day.
This team should be in the playoffs. They aren't and that's a team failure. Mack is part of that and he made it clear no amount of individual accolades will change how he and others should feel about it.
