MINNEAPOLIS — Bears kicker Cairo Santos started Monday night’s game with a miss — and ended it with the game-winning 30-yarder to clinch a 12-10 victory against the Vikings.
In between, though, Santos tied a career high by making a 55-yard field goal. Coach Matt Eberflus deciding to kick on the third play of the fourth quarter was a boost that Santos said he needed.
“Him letting me kick a 55(-yarder), especially after I didn’t execute a long one, I remember that thought going through my head: ‘I love this coach for allowing me to do that,’” Santos said in the Bears’ locker room after the game. “That confidence kinda passes onto me on that kick. I said, ‘Let’s go.’ Right before that, it’s almost like I knew the kick was going in because of the confidence he showed in me.”
Santos provided the Bears’ only points of the night, making a 25-yarder in the second quarter, a 39-yarder in the third and a 55-yarder in the fourth before making the 30-yarder with 10 seconds to play.
He pushed a 48-yarder right on the Bears’ first drive. He said he needed to pull his foot through the kick better.
“We just kind of kept doing what we do; we didn’t have to change anything,” Santos said. “The miss is on me, I just couldn’t finish the kick, so I was disappointed for sure.
“It was eating me alive for a while but I knew I had to stick with it and just do what we do. Getting the opportunity to bounce back was awesome.”
