Block Party!: Karl Brooks’ Blocked Field Saves Packers at Bears

Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia told the team on Saturday that there was no reason why his unit should not block a field goal against the Bears. With the game on the line, they did.

Green Bay Packers defensive end Karl Brooks (94) celebrates after blocking a field goal to clinch the win at the Bears. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CHICAGO – Green Bay Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia had a message on Saturday.

“Rich said to our team last night, ‘I will not understand if we come out of this game without a block, whether field goal or PAT,’” coach Matt LaFleur said after the Packers beat the Chicago Bears 20-19 on Sunday.

The outcome was secured by Karl Brooks blocking a 46-yard field goal on the final play of the game.

“Rich challenged us to get a block, so I took it personally,” Brooks said. “I wanted to go out there and get that block. I wanted to do that for Coach Rich.”

According to Brooks, the team saw a weakness in the Bears’ interior blocking. At the snap, Brooks got inside of Matt Pryor and T.J. Slaton plowed over Larry Borom. Brooks extended his left hand.

“It was just an unbelievable feeling,” Brooks said. “At first when I touched it, I didn’t think I got enough of it, and it fell short and that’s when I really celebrated. It was fun, though, for sure. It was cool. It was a good experience.”

Brooks said the tip of his left middle finger struck the ball to make Bisaccia prophetic and the Packers a winner over the Bears for an 11th consecutive game.

“You know what’s funny, like, the whole week, Coach Bisaccia was telling us, ‘Man, this is the week. We’re going to block one,’” running back Josh Jacobs said. “And he was like, ‘If we don’t block one, like I’m going to be mad that it didn’t happen. We had a lot of faith. I didn’t see nobody on the sideline really panicking for real, so it felt good.”

Lukas Van Ness, who grew up in the Chicago area playing football and hockey, got an assist on the play.

“I was on the same side with Karl, and I knew that he was going to pressure that inside A-gap, so I just got behind him and I pushed him as hard as I could,” Van Ness aid. “Before I knew it, I saw his hand go up and I heard, ‘thunk’ and I heard everybody screaming. Super-exciting. I was happy to be out there and do what I could to help this team win.”

The block saved the day for the Packers. Green Bay’s offense went 1-of-5 on third down and had two red-zone failures. The defense allowed the Bears, who fired their offensive coordinator this week and had gone 23 consecutive possessions without a touchdown, to score two touchdowns and almost drive to the winning points.

“Big-time players making big-time plays in big-time moments. That’s it,” defensive end Rashan Gary said. “I love seeing it because I see his hard work. I see how he comes in Monday to Sunday.

“I just love how he gets challenged. I don’t think he understands how big that is when a Coach challenges you during the beginning of the week and the situation comes down in that type of end of the game situation and he’s able to go home to finish. A coach challenges you do something and you did it, man, props to him. He just has to keep growing and keep doing what he’s supposed to do.”

It was the second block of Brooks’ career; he had one in the home loss to the Vikings last year. This one was infinitely bigger.

With the Bears driving toward what would have been a winning field goal, Brooks visualized himself blocking the kick.

“It was just an unbelievable feeling,” Brooks said. “At first when I touched it, I didn’t think I got enough of it and it fell short and that’s when I really celebrated, so it was fun, though, for sure. It was cool. It was a good experience.”

The win improved LaFleur to 11-0 vs. the Bears. It all seemed to be slipping away, though, when the offense failed on a 2-point play that would have extended the lead to 22-19 and the defense failed to clinch the game after forcing the Bears to third-and-19.

“Whatever’s happened in the past, bad or good, you’ve got to play the next play, and that’s something we talked about, we stressed, and it’s cool to see our guys be able to go out there and show that resiliency,” LaFleur said.

“I think just the effort that we got on that last play, I always hear Coach Bisaccia talk about it, that defines the character of your football team by the effort that we’re giving on our field-goal block unit, and you see great effort from our guys all the time.

With the crowd of reporters that had gathered around having mostly dispersed, Brooks grabbed his phone and looked at it for a moment. It was filled with congratulatory text messages.

“Oh, yeah, it’s crazy. It’s crazy,” Brooks said with a smile. “Oh, yeah, it’s crazy. It’s crazy. I haven’t even looked but it’s crazy, though. I appreciate everybody that reached out to me.”

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