Bears kicker Cairo Santos dashed to his phone to find out what went wrong after Packers defensive lineman Karl Brooks blocked his 46-yard field goal as time expired to deny the Bears an invigorating victory.
He quickly got his answer: nothing.
In the aftermath of the Bears’ 20-19 loss Sunday at Soldier Field, there was no Tyrique Stevenson to blame for this failure — pending film review, of course. Santos tipped his cap to Packers special teams coordinator Rich Basaccia for a good play and vowed to be better next time.
“I think they just made a play more than anything,” Santos said after the 6-3, 296-pound Brooks penetrated the middle of the Bears line to block the kick. “The ball looked right on target. I like the way I hit the ball. Maybe if I hit it a little higher that doesn’t happen. But they got enough penetration to make a play and credit to them.”
While this latest episode of Bears misery is unlikely to yield a culprit like Stevenson in the aftermath of the Hail Mary fiasco, the agonizing fail on the field goal attempt wasn’t quite that cut-and-dried.
Long snapper Scott Daly wound up on his backside on the play, but he wasn’t sure if he was hit while snapping the ball — a penalty in the NFL. But he wasn’t crying foul after the game — though he also wants to see the film to make sure.
“I knew I was on my butt on that one,” said Daly, who has snapped virtually all season as a replacement for injured veteran Patrick Scales. “I knew they were gonna bring pressure up the “A” gaps and do something. They’re going to save their best play for last. It’s just hard to tell.
“Once we watch the film we’ll be able to figure out what happened. It’s one of those things where … they made one more play than we did. They timed it up great and just made it happen.”
And the Bears might have gotten outfoxed on the play as well. Brooks said Bisaccia identified a weak spot in the Bears’ interior blocking and players maneuvered to take advantage of it. And coach Matt LaFleur said Bisaccia saw a block coming.
“Rich said to our team last night, ‘I will not understand if we come out of this game without a block, whether field goal or PAT,.’ So great job by our special teams coaches,” LaFleur said.
All the Bears could do is give credit where it’s due.
“If they made a change that made that play, credit to them,” Santos said. “Bisaccia’s a great coach. We respect their unit, him as a coach. I think they just made a play and got enough penetration to get right in the path of the ball.”
The Bears also could have made the kick shorter for Santos after Caleb Williams’ 13-yard pass to Keenan Allen gave the Bears a first down at the Packers 30 with 35 seconds left. But after Roschon Johnson gained two yards on first down, the Bears let the clock run down to 0:03 before calling time out.
“They were loading the box [against the run],” Eberflus said. “You could say you could [get closer], maybe get a couple more yards. But you’re also going to risk fumbling and different things there. I felt very confident where we were at that time with the wind and where we were on the field.”
Santos was fine with the distance. He was 7 for 7 on kicks from 46-55 yards this season coming in — and 22 of 24 since 2022.
“That was a comfortable range there — left hash in that left-to-right wind,” Santos said. “Everything felt great. The operation was good — snap, hold — and they just made a good play with the penetration there.”