What's Special About the Bears?

Is it possible the Bears need a new kicker?

Perish the thought after what Chicago went through in 2018 and 2019, but Cairo Santos did miss two extra points last week and had a hand in Towelgate. That was the attempt by himself and punter/holder Trenton Gill to pat down the wet ground before a 47-yard field goal attempt that resulted in a 15-yard penalty and lost scoring opportunity.

The antics with the towel aside, it's a legitimate question about the kicking. After all, Robbie Gould had little trouble making an extra point and field goal on the same soaked field. Those did come earlier in the game before the Bears began scoring and the field became saturated beyond belief.

"Guys drop balls, guys miss extra points, things happen," Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said. "I mean God bless him if he can make them in that type of condition, all of them."

There appears to be no movement afoot to get another kicker even though Santos became the first Bears kicker to miss two point-after kicks in one game game outright since the infamous Cody Parkey hit the left and right upright with misses against Detroit in a 34-22 Bears 2018 win -- he also hit the uprights on two field goal tries in that same game but had no double-doinks.

"I mean I got all the confidence in the world in Cario and everybody here does and he had a really great day yesterday (at practice)," Hightower said. "Looking forward to seeing him kick again. I know he's fired up about it."

Santos did miss a 47-yarder in preseason that would have locked up the win in the final exhibition with Seattle, which the Bears won anyway. He had missed a couple from 45 or less indoors that week in practice as well.

Hightower blamed the wet ball more than the saturated turf for Santos' misses against the Niners.

"Nothing with the turf. Nothing with that," he said. "It's tough to snap the ball in that condition. It's tougher to catch a ball in that condition and it's actually the hardest to kick the ball in that condition because when it's raining like that, the balls become heavier, they don't travel as well.

"I don't attribute it to anything because they had to kick in the same weather we had to kick in. So I don't have any excuses or anything like that. It's just a difficult situation to kick in."

Special Packer Guy

The Bears haven't had many edges on the Packers over the last two to three decades but other than Parkey's stumbles they were definitely better in special teams during most matchups. They had a huge edge here in the Devin Hester/Dave Toub era.

Last year the Packers were one of the worst special teams groups in the league but brought in former Raiders interim head coach Rich Bisaccia to handle special teams following the debacle in the playoffs when Hightower's 49ers won because of a blocked punt. They also made one other addition.

"They acquired Rudy Ford, who's a really good special-teams player," Hightower said.

Ford, a safety, was with Philadelphia when Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham was there and in Jacksonville when Bears assistant special teams coach Carlos Polk was with the Jaguars.

"He's a good player," Hightower said. "You just see different plays that they have now, so there's definitely some influence there."

Towelgate

As for towelgate, Hightower didn't want to reveal whether he or other coaches knew about the rule and let players know about it, although it seems obvious because after the game neither Santos nor punter Trenton Gill knew the rule.

"So we don't really talk about what's been talked about in our room but it's a mistake, you know?" Hightower said. "I think we all acknowledged that it's a mistake and we all learned from it and we are all ready to move forward to Green Bay."

Gill Comes in Handy in Water

It was essentially the first terrible weather game for the Bears rookie punter from North Carolina State, who is from that state. A 46.2-yard average for six punts in those conditions probably deserves some sort of badge of courage.

"I think he did outstanding; he did a phenomenal job," Hightower said. "To handle the weather, to handle catching all of those balls, molding all of those balls, not panicking, responding to the one penalty we got. The very next play he gets out there, he goes out there and punts and catches it cleanly, pins them at the 9-yard line. To respond like that, and a young kid, the way he kicked the ball, we couldn't be happier with that kid right now. He's just got to keep going and keep growing."