MINNEAPOLIS — About 10 yards into his route, Chicago Bears wide receiver DJ Moore thought to himself, “Something ain’t right.”
With 1:06 left and trailing by two near midfield, Moore’s route was a deep in-cut. All game long, his production had been limited to the perimeter, the way the Bears planned to counter the Minnesota Vikings’ pass rush. But in this moment, the most critical of the game, Moore and his teammates ran deep.
Advertisement
Rookie Tyler Scott’s deep corner route had Vikings defenders bailing, leaving a lot of room in the middle of the field.
“I was like, ‘Shoot, there’s nobody in the middle,’” Moore said after the Bears’ 12-10 win. “Well, this deep-in gonna be in the middle. We connected on it and, yeah, the rest is history.”
Quarterback Justin Fields, who had yet to make that clutch throw to put his team in position to win in the past two seasons, threw a strike to his best player.
Fields and Moore get the @ChicagoBears into field goal range 👀
📺: #CHIvsMIN on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/J5tLNJHyh1 pic.twitter.com/WtydkAlSgB— NFL (@NFL) November 28, 2023
“That’s a play we run all the time in practice,” Fields said. “We’ve been running that play since I can remember. Saw the deep defenders get a bunch of depth with … Tyler. The only player that was in the middle right there was 44, (Josh) Metellus. He had no idea where DJ was. O-line did a great job protecting. Great play call by Luke (Getsy).”
Watching from the sideline, kicker Cairo Santos had told his coaches that he could make the field goal from 60, so he needed only seven yards, but he was perfectly content with the easier kick. He asked for it to be on the right hash.
GO DEEPER
Something good is happening on Bears defense and it showed against the Vikings
Fields took three kneel-downs, putting the ball where Santos wanted it. Coach Matt Eberflus decided to take the safe play and felt comfortable leaving only 10 seconds for the Vikings.
Santos, who missed his first kick of the game — a 48-yarder wide right — made his next three, then drilled the game-winner as the clock ran.
“Relief, relief,” Fields said. “Defense was playing a great game. Offense got off to a slow start. Our message was finish, finish, finish. There have been too many times we didn’t do a good job of finishing.”
Professional athletes are usually wired in a way to not let the gloom and doom creep into their minds. Asked if he thought to himself, “Here we go again,” Moore laughed.
“I wasn’t thinking about that,” he said. “When they went up, I was like, shoot, we’ve just got to go on offense and make a play because the defense was shutting it down all game and doing what they do best and taking the ball away.”
Advertisement
Moore had a 16-yard catch on the Bears’ first play of the game-winning drive. Most of his game was doing the dirty work.
“The way he played today, the way he took a lot of those short passes and would take them for eight, nine yards at a time, those aren’t easy,” Eberflus said. “He’s a heck of an athlete and a better teammate.”
One look at Moore’s receiving chart from Next Gen Stats shows where he spent most of the night, before the play of the game.
No one could’ve been thinking, “Here we go again” more than Fields. In 10 previous situations since the start of last season with the ball in his hands and trailing by one score, he didn’t get the job done.
Interceptions. Dropped passes. Fumbles. The Bears were wandering dangerously into the territory of being another anomaly. NFL teams are now 63-1 since 2014 when intercepting the opponent four times, like the Bears defense did Monday night.
Fields’ two lost fumbles gave him seven turnovers in the fourth quarter this season. On the two plays that preceded the throw to Moore, he was almost sacked and needed desperation heaves to throw the ball away.
We were set to tell a similar story. Fans watching on TV probably thought that. It certainly felt that way in the press box. Fields, who said the fumble made him “sick to my stomach,” couldn’t think that way.
“Guys never wavered,” he said. “Told the guys in the locker room that I appreciate them for sticking beside me, believing in me. Defense did a great job getting us the ball back for that last drive.”
On Fields’ Next Gen passing chart, there’s one, lone green dot down the deep middle of the field. The most clutch throw of his NFL career.
As Moore got open, Fields didn’t let himself think about all the failures that led to that moment.
“I’m just locked in,” he said. “There’s no feeling. It’s just straight tunnel vision and locked into that.”
The end-of-game drought ended. He finally made the throw to set up a Bears victory, this one their first division win in more than two years.
“A great bounce-back,” Moore said. “He had the fumble and came back like a true leader does and somebody on the rise as a young quarterback to just block that out and make that throw.”
GO DEEPER
Greenberg: Bears finally win an NFC North game. Playoffs anyone?
Few athletes need a shorter memory than kickers. Rarely does an 8:22 drive end with no points, but that’s how the Bears started the game when Santos pushed his 48-yard attempt right.
The next one was easy — 25 yards. Then a 39-yarder. At the start of the fourth quarter, he was called on for a 55-yard field goal, which would tie his career high.
Advertisement
“(Eberflus) letting me kick from 55, especially after I didn’t execute a long one, I remember that thought going through my head, I love this coach for allowing me to do that,” Santos said. “That confidence kind of passes on to me on that kick. It’s like, let’s go. I knew the kick was going in because of the confidence he showed in me.”
The game-winner, from the preferred hash, should be a gimme for Santos. But he said it was his first field goal in a “hurry-up” situation, as the clock was winding down. They practice it often. It was also a pressure-packed kick in a road environment. It didn’t matter. He got the Bears out of Minnesota with a win.
King Cairo for the win 👑 pic.twitter.com/ZByLUzoB6K
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 28, 2023
“We’re going to have adversity throughout the game,” Fields said. “We’re going to have ups and downs. The past is the past. We can’t dwell on that. We’ve got to focus on the present moment and keep going. He bounced back from the missed field goal. He hit the long field goal and of course the game-winner. Bounced back great. Didn’t let the missed kick faze him.”
Said tight end Cole Kmet, “He’s been unfazed. He misses that one and he just keeps coming back. His confidence is so high and we have so much faith in him.”
Monday night’s win accomplished what they harped on all week — finishing. Ideally, next time the Bears have this opportunity, to close out a one-score game, they can remember Fields’ throw to Moore, and the big stops on defense, and Santos’ kick.
Like a basketball player in a slump, sometimes they just need to see it go through the net.
One play changed the mood for the Bears heading into their bye. This team still has a long way to go. That one play, though, showed them the importance of big players coming up with big plays in big moments.
Advertisement
“Whatever happens throughout the game, you’ve just got to find ways to win at the end,” Kmet said. “That’s been our issue. We were able to do it tonight.”
(Photo: Jeffrey Becker / USA Today)
“The Football 100,” the definitive ranking of the NFL’s best 100 players of all time, is on sale now. Order it here.
