Cairo Santos' Had Quite An Answer On His Extra Point Woes

Cairo Santos was excellent in 2021, especially when it came to extra points. In 28 attempts, he made 27. The guy was as close to automatic as one could get. Something has gone wrong since. Whatever worked for Santos last year isn't working anymore. Problems emerged immediately for the veteran kicker when he missed two extra points in the opener against San Francisco. That could be forgiven. The weather was borderline-hurricane conditions. Nobody criticized him about it.

However, it's hard not to wonder if those misses affected his confidence. Since then, he has missed three more extra points. One resulted in the Chicago Bears losing to Detroit 31-30. Another allowed Green Bay to put the game out of reach 28-19 rather than keep it a one-score affair. Santos' problems struck again on Sunday against Philadelphia. Fans are getting tired of the inconsistency. So what is going on? Reporters asked him about it after the game.

Santos had an answer ready, and it was not what you thought it'd be.

“There’s a glitch,” Santos said. “I have done it and felt comfortable with it for eight years. Today I decided to make a change and kicked them from the middle. I think I needed a change of scenery. To be honest and fair, I’m not missing them in practice. I don’t feel there is a technical problem. But for some reason when the visuals with the right hash aren’t clicking, I changed it to the middle at halftime and felt really good about it.

“It’s a wrinkle. It bugs you. Every miss frustrates and annoys you. Eats me alive. It doesn’t become a mental lack of confidence. Like I said, there is a mental bug about the right hash that I felt it was time to make a change, and I think the change of scenery put me in the field-goal mindset. I feel that locked me into the kick more. It’s something I am going through.”

Cairo Santos offered a window into how kickers think.

Any of them will tell you that 99% of their profession is mental. It's similar to a golf swing. You can have all the power in the world, but you need mental precision for each shot to be accurate. That requires discipline. If something feels even slightly off, it's going to affect your swing. That is what keeps happening to Santos. It is worth mentioning that all five of his misses have come at Soldier Field. He is perfect on the road. So what he says has merit. Whatever he's been seeing when kicking from the right hashmark hasn't worked. When he made the switch to the middle, he was a perfect 2-for-2.

It is a safe bet he'll keep that alignment for the rest of the season. Soldier Field is going to test him. The weather for next Sunday is already looking ugly with cold and snow flurries. He'll have to be on his game. The Bears haven't indicated that they're getting frustrated with Cairo Santos. Of course, that can change fast. Another missed kick that should be a gimme for someone in this league might compel GM Ryan Poles to start searching for replacements.