Khalil Mack was a machine in his first game for the Chicago Bears. In one half of football, he delivered a sack, a forced fumble, a recovered fumble, and a pick-six. Considering he missed all of training camp, all of the preseason and had spent just one week practicing in the Bears defensive system, that’s utterly baffling. It’s also a testament to how gifted he is. Akiem Hicks was right there in the middle of it.
Hicks has played with some great players in the past, but it was evident during and after the game that he had never seen something like that before. One need only watch his reactions during the game. Hicks had been mic’d up by the Bears given his place as team captain and one of the more notorious talkers.
As great as that reaction was, Hicks seemed to grow even more in awe of his new teammate a couple days later. Speaking to the media on Wednesday, he talked about the difficulty of the loss, how to get over it and what to expect in Seattle. Soon enough the topic of Mack came up. Hicks referenced one play in particular that blew him away.
“Did you see Khalil’s (strip-sack) where he just snatched the ball from (Kizer)? Like, who does that? You dream about that type of play.”
Clearly, Hicks didn’t watch film of Mack because the star pass rusher has actually done that a number of times in his career. He’s a master at going after the ball. As he works his way into proper football shape, he figures to become even better than he was at Lambeau. Hicks sounds like a man who is dying to see what he does next. No doubt the rest of Chicago is right there with him.
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Chicago plays the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night of week two. Russell Wilson was sacked six times in the season opener against Denver.
