Cairo Santos asked for the kick before anyone had finished asking him, then hit it from 58 yards, the longest field goal of his 13 NFL seasons, to put the Chicago Bears two scores up on the New England Patriots with 1:34 to play on Thursday night.
The kick came roughly seven minutes after his 53-yard attempt struck the inside of the right upright. It was the decisive score in a 30-24 win at Soldier Field that lifted Chicago to 5-2, and it earned the veteran one of Ben Johnson’s four game balls in the locker room.
SANTOS JUST DRILLED A 58-YARDER TO GO UP TWO POSSESSIONS.
NEvsCHI on Prime Video
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/XgUaLFdlzS— NFL (@NFL) October 23, 2026
The answer on the sideline
Chicago led 27-21 and faced fourth down at the New England 40. Johnson’s first instinct was to punt. A Patriots injury timeout before the snap gave him time to reconsider, and he asked special teams coordinator Richard Hightower over the headset whether his kicker wanted the attempt. Santos was standing beside Hightower, heard the question and answered it himself.
“I told HT, ‘I want it,'” Santos said after the game. The ball cleared the crossbar with room to spare, and punter Tory Taylor and guard Joe Thuney were the first to reach him.
A miss would have handed Drake Maye the ball near midfield with about a minute and a half left. Santos said he knew that while he lined up, and that the earlier miss only sharpened his appetite for a second chance.
"I said I want it because I want to have y'all's back every single time."
Not only did Cairo Santos get his redemption after his missed field goal, but he kicked a new career long to help give the @ChicagoBears the win 🔥@insidethenfl Week 7 Mic'd Up on X pic.twitter.com/b9CoJ68aF4
— NFL (@NFL) October 23, 2026
The misses behind it
The make ended a stretch that had worn on him. Santos had missed from 53 and 56 yards the previous week before the 53-yarder against New England, and he described the gap between his practice work and his game results as the source of his frustration.
“I’m making those kicks all day in practice and pregame,” he said in a postgame radio interview, explaining why the in-game misses had stung so much.
His line for the night: 3 of 4 on field goals from 43, 31 and 58 yards, all three extra points, and 12 points. The 58-yarder tied the Bears’ franchise record, set by Robbie Gould in Week 1 of 2013, and is the third-longest field goal ever kicked at Soldier Field. It was also his 28th make from 50 yards or more for Chicago, extending his own club record. His previous career best was 55 yards, first in 2020 and again in 2023.
Why it mattered
New England answered with a 47-yard field goal by Andy Borregales with 37 seconds left, so Santos’ kick was the difference between a one-score scramble and a game that could be closed with an onside recovery, which the Bears secured. Chicago has now won four of five. The full game is in the Game Center and the recap.
What comes next
The Bears have extra rest before visiting the Seattle Seahawks on Monday, November 2, at 8:15 p.m. EST.
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