The Minnesota Vikings noticed that Cairo Santos looked nervous.
There were subtle hints. The glazed look in Santos’ eyes, the slump of his shoulders. Who could blame him? The Green Bay Packers had blocked his potential game-winning kick the week before.
Green Bay’s special teams coordinator, Rich Bisaccia, noticed a weakness in Chicago’s special teams unit. They were using depth guards, and Santos kicks with a low trajectory.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur recounted, “Rich said to our team last night, ‘I will not understand if we come out of this game without a block.'”
It’s easy to guarantee something after a game, but Minnesota’s field-goal blocking unit felt the same. They knew they would block a kick and delivered on Chicago’s fourth drive. The 6’6”, 295 lb. defensive end Jerry Tillery blocked Santo’s 48-yard attempt with the score tied 7-7.
“We don’t really cover too many kickers that have this type of low trajectory,” Vikings safety Theo Jackson told ESPN. “Other weeks you are trying to figure out, like, at what hash is he better on, left or right hash? But I feel like this week we were chomping at the bit to get that.”
The trajectory of Santos’ kick mattered. However, Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels felt it was a matter of what Minnesota did well rather than something Santos did wrong. Santos later connected on a 48-yard kick as time expired to send the game into overtime. The difference was the Vikings got enough penetration on his first kick to block it.
“That was more so great execution by us more so than a lack on their end,” said Daniels. “It was more so the amount of penetration that we got on the guys. Between JT (Tillery), Jalen [Redmond], and Hadi (Jihad Ward), we’ve been really emphasizing a field-goal block over the past, like, three weeks now, and post-practice work.”
Ward told ESPN after the game that Daniels told them they’d get a block. Daniels’ emphasis was on getting an inside push.
“[Santos’] kicks are always a little lower, so we emphasize getting more push on the inside this week,” Jackson said. “Because if we get to our spot where we’re supposed to be and put our hands up, it’s going to get blocked because it has a low trajectory.”
Daniels refers to the players’ ability to get off the line of scrimmage once the center snaps the ball as “ball get off,” or BGO.
“It really kind of paid off,” said Daniels. “We got great ball get off, great BGO right there. … [W]e worked our technique.
“Ideally, you want to get about a yard and a half of penetration in order to have an opportunity to block a kick. We just ended up getting like two to three yards deep into the backfield right there. That really allowed us to be able to go and get that ball.”
Santos signed a four-year extension in the offseason. He told ESPN that he can’t change how he strikes the ball because he might mis-hit it. Coaches instruct kickers to treat every kick the same. Take the same number of steps and hit the ball in the same place. That way, they don’t overthink kicks in crucial moments.
“I don’t even think it was truly a low kick,” said Daniels. “It’s just where we blocked it at. We were so deep in the backfield that we were just kind of able to get it.
“We kind of talked [about] penetration, separation, elevation. It’s kind of how that goes. So we got good penetration, good separation.”
Santos’ trajectory was less of an issue than Chicago’s line play. Patrick Jones II was surprised that the Bears didn’t fix the spacing issues along the line the Packers exposed when they blocked Santos’ kick the week before.
“That’s kind of rare because normally teams will go clean up what they need to clean up,” Jones said. “You always expect teams to fix stuff, but we knew if they didn’t get it fixed, we’re going to go get us one.”
Minnesota’s blocked kick will get lost to history because of everything else that happened on Sunday. Still, it was spectacular. Tillery barely allowed the ball to get off the ground, and Brian Asamoah instinctively grabbed it before it hit the turf. Asamoah returned it to near midfield, setting up a touchdown drive for the Vikings.
It doesn’t help that Minnesota’s special teams gave up a 55-yard return to DeAndre Carter late in the fourth quarter. John Parker Romo toed the kick, which was supposed to go through the end zone for a touchback, and they covered the kick poorly. Then Chicago’s onside kick hit off Johnny Mundt’s foot while he was blocking, setting up the tying field goal.
Sam Darnold led the Vikings on the game-winning drive, saving them from a historic collapse. While nobody should excuse Minnesota’s special-teams mishaps late in the game, we shouldn’t overlook the blocked kick. Such plays can instantly change games. They’re the kind of plays that can rattle a kicker before the holder calls for the snap.
