Ben Johnson faced a tricky decision.
The Chicago Bears led the New England Patriots by six points late in the fourth quarter Thursday at Soldier Field when quarterback Caleb Williams took a sack on third down. The sack forced the Patriots to burn their final timeout with 1 minute, 39 seconds remaining, but it came at a cost. Williams lost 10 yards on the play, pushing the line of scrimmage back to the Patriots 40.
Three points would make it a two-possession game and all but lock up a Bears win. But a 58-yard try would be a career long for kicker Cairo Santos.
A miss in that situation would give the Patriots great field position. Earlier in the game, the visitors needed just 14 seconds to go 66 yards for a touchdown. Option No. 2 was to punt. A good one there could’ve pinned the Patriots deep in their end but still would’ve given quarterback Drake Maye the ball back with a minute and a half to go.
Johnson called for the punt unit.
“I was right next to (special teams coordinator Richard Hightower) and Ben originally called a punt,” Santos said. “Then the injury allowed us to talk about it.”
Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore fell on the grass and, as trainers tended to him, the Bears had a little more time to talk about the decision. Santos walked onto the field and assessed the line where the ball was spotted on the right hash marks. Santos missed a similar 53-yard try toward the same south end zone just minutes earlier.
Then the 34-year-old veteran heard his coach ask into the headset if Santos wanted it.
“I heard it and I told (Hightower) I wanted it,” Santos said.
Hightower relayed the message, and it was all systems go on the field-goal try. Snap, hold and kick all went smoothly, and Santos nailed a career-long 58-yarder to extend the lead and essentially put the game out of reach. The Bears went on to close out a 30-24 victory over the Patriots and move to 5-2 on the season.
“I’m thankful that Ben trusts me on that and I delivered a great kick right down the middle,” Santos said.
The kick tied Robbie Gould’s team record 58-yard field goal from Sept. 8, 2013, against Cincinnati.
The earlier miss from 53 yards, which hit the right upright, came with 8:02 to play. That one was on Santos’ mind as he measured up the latter try.
“A lot of time and effort goes into it, and our process pregame tells us a lot about how he’s feeling and what we feel like those maximum distance lines are,” Johnson said. “It was, one, we felt good about being inside that line and, two, you ask him and he’s like, ‘Absolutely, I need redemption because I missed one earlier.’”
NFL kickers spend plenty of time in pregame warmups assessing the conditions and testing their maximum distances toward both end zones. On Thursday, Santos had near-perfect kicking conditions for late October in Chicago. It was a clear night with almost not wind.
Santos said he made pregame kicks from 62 yards toward the north end zone and 60 yards toward the south end zone.
Nobody knows the elements at Soldier Field better than Santos, who has been with the team since 2020 and is the most-accurate kicker in franchise history, even ahead of Gould. So when Santos lined up for the 53-yard try midway through the fourth quarter, he detected a slight right-to-left wind and figured it might push his kick ever so slightly. He adjusted accordingly.
Instead, the attempt went straight and nicked the upright, making an all-too-infamous “doink” sound that is etched in Bears fans’ minds as the ball ricocheted out.
“That’s as close of a miss that you can have, it hit the inside of the upright, which is so annoying (because) I didn’t need to do that,” Santos said.
But that intel informed his next try. Johnson had confidence in his kicker, even after the miss. NFL teams have all the analytics in the world available to them, but sometimes a decision comes down to feel. Santos wanted the kick, and Johnson went with his gut.
Tight end Colston Loveland pointed to a third-down play earlier in the fourth quarter when he dropped a pass from Williams. Johnson immediately called Loveland’s number again on fourth-and-2, and the tight end caught it this time for a 9-yard gain.
“Ben comes right back to me on a fourth-down pass,” Loveland said. “Having the trust in the coaches and understanding that Coach knows, man, ‘He’s bitter right now and you know he’s not going to let that happen two times in a row.’ So we’re all very confident in Cairo. Cairo is confident. He knew he wanted that for us.”
Loveland was on the field-goal unit for Santos’ game-sealing kick, and right away he threw his hand into the air in celebration as the kick sailed through the night.
Santos’ previous career long was 55 yards, made in 2020 and matched in 2023. Entering Thursday, he was 35-for-53 on field-goal tries of 50 yards or longer in his career and 27-for-37 from 50-plus with the Bears.
Johnson saw how much the miss from 53 frustrated his kicker.
“There’s always a silver lining when the bad stuff happens to us and you can learn from it — you find out what you’re made of,” Johnson said. “I know we’ve got the right guys in this locker room, that they can handle anything that’s thrown their way.”
Added Santos: “(To) have a chance to have their back at the end with a career long, that was awesome.”