Bear Digest

Bears' Hash Mark Debate Doused by Special Teams Coordinator

Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower stood up for blame with the blocked field goal and discounted the hash mark controversy but didn't let his blockers off the hook.

Gene Chamberlain

Cairo Santos follows through on his final kick although it was deflected and never got to the crossbar.
Cairo Santos follows through on his final kick although it was deflected and never got to the crossbar. / Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images
In this story:

As expected, Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower played the role of good soldier.

On Thursday, he took one for the team or at least for head coach Matt Eberflus. However, he did answer a few questions about the blocked field goal situation previously unaddressed.

Eberflus had said Wednesday they did not consider moving the football to the right hash mark for Cairo Santos’ game-winning field goal attempt before Green Bay blocked it.

“It doesn’t matter, no,” Hightower said of the decision to ignore Santos’ preference of the right hash mark. “It doesn’t matter because when they call field goal, we’ve got to go out there and perform. That’s what matters, going out there and perform and getting the desired result.

“I can’t allow myself to have excuses. I don’t deal in that world. This is a results-based business and you have to deal in result and fact, correct what happened, move on, use it to your advantage and then let’s go to work. And that’s the mind-state I’m in. All my energy and my focus is on beating Minnesota. That’s what my energy’s on and my focus.”

Even if Eberflus said they didn’t discuss moving it to the right hash, Hightower says it’s done enough.

“It’s something we always talk about,” he said. “We talk about that all the time. Always constant communication of kick lines, monster kick lines, everything. That’s always talked about, not only right before the (final) series starts but that’s talked about at the start of the game, that’s talked about in the offseason, that’s talked about every Wednesday and Thursday when we do two-minute (drill). That’s always talked about.

“What happened in that situation was a team decision. We thought in the best interest of the team, and Flus has spoken to that already, and he talked to you (media) about the risk there. So in the best interest of the team was to kick it and when they call field goal it’s my job as a coach to get that executed, period.”

Hightower did say the blocking needs to be better. It appeared Larry Borom and Darnell Wright on the right side of long snapper Scott Daly had been shoved back.


“We just gotta get to our technique more quickly and more violently than our opponent and that's what needs to happen to firm it up there,” Hightower said. “And I'm looking forward to our guys responding this week and getting that done.”

Hightower pooh-poohed the idea that Grean Bay spotted and exploited a weakness in the Bears field goal blocking scheme. Some Packers said this was the case afterward.


“I will tell you this, on every play and every situation you look at every team's vulnerable on something, because it's about who has the chalk last,” Hightower said. “So every team is vulnerable.

THOMAS BROWN REVEALS SECRET TO WEEK 1 SUCCESS AS COORDINATOR

MONTEZ SWEAT PASS RUSH FRUSTRATION FELT BY BEARS DEFENSE

THE FALSE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT BEARS OFFENSE CORRECTED BY CALEB WILLIAMS

DID MATT EBERFLUS PUT HIS FOOT IN HIS MOUTH WITH FIELD GOAL REMARK?

“In anything we see, we always correct it, just like any other play on the football field. We correct everything, and we didn't get the desired result on that play, and that's disappointing. I'm hurting for our guys and I'm hurting for our fans, but we're going to turn the page and we're looking forward to coming out and fighting vs. Minnesota.”

Nor does Hightower worry the block and the comments could have an impact on Santos or that the Bears kicker is kicking too low on long kicks, as the Packers suggested.

"Yeah, I don't have an issue with Cairo, I don't have an issue with our field goal protection team,” he said. “I feel like the result of the play, of that play was not our desired result.”

Hightower also wouldn’t take the easy out and say the blocking suffered because there have been so many offensive line injuries. Some players normally on the field goal team were pulled from it and then brought back due to injuries to starters.

“The result was not what we wanted,” Hightower said. “It was not what we wanted and that starts with me. And it ends with me. It has to do with nobody else."

Whether true or not, Eberflus still deserves responsibility for the positioning the ball the way he did. The Bears could have moved closer with one more timeout and the ball comes off Santos’ foot at a higher angle.

The Bears still haven’t revealed if the league found anything wrong with the Packers’ block attempt, as Eberflus had charged.

It’s possible this could be revealed on Friday, but it’s also possible they’ll simply sweep it all under the rug.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.