Ben Johnson Lets It Ride with Cairo Santos as Bears Come Away Winners

Cairo Santos was still irritated with himself after the Bears won 30-24 over the New England Patriots.

The team record 58-yard field goal he made, the longest in his career, let the Bears escape with a win and was nice but he could have made it much easier for everyone simply by making a 53-yarder that doinked off the right upright in the south end zone earlier in the fourth quarter.

By giving the Bears a 30-21 lead inside the final two minutes, Santos actually tied Robbie Gould's team record for distance at 58 yards, a mark set in the 2013 season opener. The field goal came after Caleb Wiliams took a sack, when he could have simply thrown away the ball and let Santos try from a much easier 48 yards instead of 58.

The sack left coach Ben Johnson with a big decision. Leading by six, did he punt from the Patriots 40. Right. Ben Johnson punt from the 40? Fat chance. He also could have gone for it but Williams' sack left them in fourth-and-15.

So Johnson just did what coaches do. He asked the kicker what he wanted to do. After all, Santos was near the end of his range .

"It's close," Johnson said. "But, it's one of those things. A lot of time and effort goes into it. Our process pregame tells us a lot about how he's feeling and what we feel like those maximum distance lines are.

"One, we felt good about being inside that line, and two, we asked him, he said, ‘Absolutely, I need redemption because I missed one earlier.’ He came through for us in a big way.”

No doubt the missed 53-yarder will aggravate a faction of Bears fans who think they need a kicker like Jacksonville or Dallas have, who can 65-yard kicks. The answer always had been Santos has better accuracy, but he has slipped this year.

Still, there's much to be said for hitting it when it really counts, and besides, those 65-yard kickers don't grow on trees.

The 53-yarder was eating at Santos afterward, and no doubt still does, because when everyone else was still celebrating in the locker room the Bears kicker wasn't.

"I'm having a hard time just celebrating these moments and I shouldn't act this way but I just feel like I'm hitting the ball way too good to have these misses happen," Santos said.

Santos missed from 56 in Atlanta on a kick that had plenty of distance. He missed a 43-yarder against Green Bay and had a 23-yard chip shot blocked due to poor blocking.

"Even though they're from 50-plus, I've been making them all the time so I'm just annoyed and have to get back to work and keep pushing through," he said.

Santos said he felt strong in pregame and his range was 62 yards going north and 60 going the direction of his miss and his 58-yarder.

He did admit the miss from 53 was, "... as close of a miss as you can have," after it seemed to strike the inner part of the upright.

"I'm just thankful they gave me the chance to bounce back," Santos added.

The Bears didn't need a 65-yard guy then. A 58-yard guy was just fine.