Bears kicker Cairo Santos accepts blame for 'stink' with blocks - ESPN

CHICAGO — After two straight games with a blocked field goal attempt — and an NFL-high three this season — Bears kicker Cairo Santos said he takes the blame for the «stink» on the unit after a 30-27 overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

Santos' 48-yard attempt in the second quarter was blocked by Vikings defensive tackle Jerry Tillery. How it happened was similar to his potential game-winning field goal getting blocked by the Green Bay Packers in Week 11.

Minnesota recovered the ball near midfield after the block and soon took a seven-point lead.

Just like Green Bay players the week prior, Vikings special teams players said they'd been preparing all week to knock one down because they knew that Santos' low-trajectory kicks, combined with weaknesses in Chicago's protection, provided the perfect recipe to prevent points.

«I take the blame in kind of the stink that we have on our field goal unit right now,» Santos said. «We've gone so many kicks in a row without getting kicks blocked, 16 50-yarders the last two years not getting a kick blocked. And sometimes they happen like that, back-to-back.»

Chicago had not had three field goal attempts blocked in a season since 2012.

«We don't really cover too many kickers that have this type of low trajectory,» Vikings safety Theo Jackson said. «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.»

Santos later connected on a 48-yard field goal to send the game into overtime tied at 27.

The veteran kicker, who signed a four-year contract extension last December, struggled to pinpoint potential problem areas with his kicking trajectory that could be the root of