In blustery conditions at Soldier Field, Santos converted all three field goals he attempted from 46, 51 and 43 yards and played a key role in the Bears rallying from a late 16-6 deficit. He closed the gap to 16-9 with his 43-yarder with 1:59 remaining, executed a perfect onside kick that teammate Josh Blackwell recovered and then drilled an extra point that tied the score 16-16 with :24 to play.
“It’s not really the individual accolades that you play for,” Santos said. “Those just come to you after you have the opportunities to affect the game the way that we were able to. I just want to thank our whole unit … Especially in a game where it meant a lot and there were other elements, everybody had to take care of their details. The snap. The hold. My elevation. And the blocking, they stopped a great field goal unit. So this all goes to them and to coach [Richard] Hightower for motivating and inspiring us every week to be as good as we can be.”
Santos called the wind “the gustiest I have ever seen.”
“There have been stronger, consistent winds that didn’t gust like that,” he said. “Those aren’t too difficult to play. You have more of a feel. It’s more predictable when you have gauged the strength of the wind. But when it’s gusty like that, you can kick the same ball twice within 30 seconds and it’s going to react differently. So you just have to trust all of your fundamentals and your homework that I’ve done in that place. And you kick it with confidence.”
“For him to just have the mental fortitude to stay focused and play the conditions is what we talk about doing,” Hightower said. “Not trying to beat the conditions, not being upset about the conditions, but play the conditions. I thought he did an excellent job with that. Struck the ball really well. It helped us. It helped us a ton.”
