When Cairo Santos split the uprights from 30 yards away with 13 seconds remaining Monday night, he didn’t just propel the Bears to a 12-10 victory over the Vikings. He helped Chicago do something it hadn’t done in more than 30 years: win despite not scoring a touchdown.
Entering Monday night, the Bears had lost 39 consecutive games when they didn’t score a touchdown, going all the way back to Oct. 3, 1993, when they defeated the Falcons, 6-0. Jim Harbaugh was under center for Chicago in that game, and Kevin Butler converted on kicks of 48 and 52 yards to account for all the scoring. Hall of Famer Richard Dent had 1.5 sacks for the Chicago defense, which shut out an Atlanta offense quarterbacked by Bobby Hebert (who actually made the Pro Bowl that year) and Billy Joe Tolliver.
To further illustrate how long ago that was, only five players on the Bears’ active roster were even born when that game happened: offensive linemen Lucas Patrick (30 years old) and Cody Whitehair (31), Santos (32), long snapper Patrick Scales (35) and tight end Marcedes Lewis (39).
Santos made four of five field goal attempts Monday, converting from 25, 39, 55 and 30 yards.
League-wide, Chicago’s win makes teams that don’t score a touchdown 1-28 this season.
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Author: Zachary Pereles
November 28, 2023 | 2:15 am
