Packers call their shot on blocked field goal as Karl Brooks’ middle finger gives them 11th straight win over Bears
CHICAGO – Midway through the final team meeting Saturday night in Chicago, Green Bay Packers special-teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia gathered players inside a downtown hotel and offered a bold, even daring, expectation.
Nobody predicts a blocked field goal in the NFL. It’s like calling your shot before a home run. But Bisaccia had buried himself in the film room last week, as he does before every game, and emerged with a hidden gem. A flaw he knew the Packers could expose if Sunday’s game came down to a kick.
When the Chicago Bears lined up for field goals, they were vulnerable. Their guards too often were pushed back off the line of scrimmage. The football’s trajectory off kicker Cairo Santos’ foot was low.
They were begging for the kick to be blocked.
“Rich said to our team last night, ‘I will not understand if we come out of this game without a block,’” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “Whether a field goal or (point-after attempt.)”
So the Packers did not sense any doom watching Santos line up for a potential game-winner from 46 yards Sunday at Soldier Field. No, what they felt was more like an edict. It had been a frustrating afternoon, uncommon given the lopsided nature of the NFL’s oldest rivalry. The Packers lost the turnover battle. They were poor on third down. And they had not blocked a kick.
Splitting the uprights would have sent shockwaves through two fan bases, one desperate to regain relevancy, the other relishing its dominance. Both sides could be excused for feeling some inevitability, but Bisaccia’s tip lingered on the Packers sideline. It gave hope, sparked belief. The Packers knew this would not be a normal 46-yard field goal attempt.
“We were going to block it,” defensive lineman Kenny Clark said.
Off the snap, Packers lineman T.J. Slaton knocked Bears guard Larry Borom on his butt. The collision cleared enough space for Karl Brooks to squeeze through the protection. Brooks had spent the moments before Sunday’s final play “visualizing” a blocked kick. Now he was reaching his left hand in the sky, leaping as Santos swung, and feeling the football graze the tip of his left middle finger.
The block sealed a 20-19 win for the Packers on a day they did plenty to lose, but instead left Chicago with their 11th straight win against the Bears, the longest either team has had in the rivalry.
“It was just an unbelievable feeling,” Brooks said. “At first when I touched it, I didn’t think I got enough of it, and then it fell short. That’s when I really celebrated. It was fun. It was cool. It was a good experience.”
Brooks’ fingertip sent the Packers sideline flooding onto the field while the Bears field goal unit stared in disbelief. Jordan Love clinched both fists as he screamed in exhilaration. Rashan Gary made a beeline for Brooks. “Happiness,” he said. Gary heard the charge Bisaccia gave Brooks on Saturday night. He knew it was unusual to expect a block.
Brooks, a sixth-round draft pick last year, knew entering the league his career ticket would be special teams. It was Brooks who blocked a 44-yard field goal against the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field last season. The Packers lost that game, but Brooks ensured they didn’t lose this time to a division rival. Watching from the sideline, Gary said, the adrenaline sent him into delirium.
“I saw his hand hit it,” Gary said, “and I ran straight to him. Like, right to him. I just took off running. Because I know what he put in all week. It probably meant more to me than it did to him because he got challenged at the beginning of the week. So I understand about him being a young guy into the league, and just being challenged, and being able to answer the call. You don’t understand the impact that has, or what that says about him, but I’m just happy for him. Because he just works.”
The Packers gave plenty of chances for Sunday’s game to not come down to a kick. They scored a touchdown on their opening drive but floundered after that. Twice, red-zone trips ended without points. Love threw his 11th interception on the first, sailing a pass over wide-open tight end Tucker Kraft on third-and-11 from the Bears’ 15-yard line. In the fourth quarter, Love scrambled right on fourth-and-goal from the 6, but got only 5 yards.
Love pushed across the goal line on a 1-yard sneak to put the Packers ahead with 2 minutes, 59 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but running back Josh Jacobs was stuffed short of the goal line on a 2-point attempt. The stop kept their lead to a single point, meaning a field goal would beat them. After a pair of sacks to start the Bears’ potential game-winning drive, quarterback Caleb Williams found rookie receiver Rome Odunze for 16 yards on third-and-19. On the ensuing fourth-and-3, Williams and Odunze connected for 21 yards.
Williams did his part. He pushed the Bears into field goal range. Chicago had more than 30 seconds to run another play, try to give Santos a closer attempt at his potential game-winner, but Bears coach Matt Eberflus let the clock tick down to 3 seconds before using his final timeout.
“They were loading the box there,” Eberflus said. “You could say you could do that for sure, maybe get a couple more yards, but you're also going to risk fumbling and different things there. We felt where we were, if we're at the 36 or 35, you definitely want to do that because you want to get it inside there. I felt very confident where we were at that time with the wind and where we were on the field.”
The fear a potential turnover or botched snap could cost his team a chance at its game-winning kick was a poor excuse. It’s coaching not to lose, rather than attacking. The Packers benefited, meeting their special-teams coordinator’s expectation. It took almost 60 minutes Sunday, but they finally blocked a kick.
In the visitors locker room, LaFleur gathered his team in celebration. “First of all,” he told his players, “we will never, ever apologize for a win in this league.” In one play, the Packers showed why they are the Packers, and the Bears showed why they are the Bears. Good teams find ways to win games. Bad teams find ways to lose.
“I just wanted it more,” Brooks said. “I fired off the ball and wanted to get a win.”