CHICAGO – Cairo Santos lined up for a first-half field goal, the first opportunity to put one through the uprights after his attempt a game-winner got blocked by Green Bay.

His attempt never made it through. It was blocked, with interior pressure through the same part of the line that got beat by Green Bay.

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The stakes were a little different, but the results were the same.

Back-to-back blocks. You can’t make this stuff up.

The attempt didn’t net any return in a game the Bears lost in overtime by a 30-27 score where the field goal would’ve mattered.

“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.”

That wasn’t the only miscue by a special teams unit that had some big moments in this outcome. DeAndre Carter had a punt hit his leg and was recovered by the Vikings, who scored touchdown on the next drive.

Despite those setbacks, Santos hit a kick he absolutely had to have, with a 48-yard field goal to tie the game and push it to overtime. The Bears also successfully recovered an onside kick, a super low-percentage play with the new kickoff rules. That allowed quarterback Caleb Williams to get the yards required for Santos to tie it up.

The Bears kicking game hasn’t lived up to expectation recently, which bothers Santos to no end.

“I hated that our unit hasn’t been living up to the level that we have been the last three years here, the level of success that we’ve had, but I’m confident that we’ll bounce back,” the veteran kicker said. “Sometimes there’s ebbs and flows throughout the season that you just get got in a stretch of games or play and we’ll go on to make many kicks in a row.  So it’s just kind of a little bit of a summary of the mentality that we’re always going to keep fighting. To make that kick was awesome at the end, recovering the onside kick and it’s a short week so we’re gonna bring that confidence to Thursday (against Detroit).”

Carter took his mistake pretty hard, even with a 55-yard kickoff return that set up a Bears touchdown drive.

“That’s on me. Gotta be better. Tried to call a (clear-out) call, gotta get out of the way of the ball,” Carter said. “That’s on me. I let the team down today. The game shouldn’t have been in the situation that it was in. I feel bad for the guys. I feel bad for (special teams coordinator Richard Hightower). He’s a hell of a coordinator, doing a great job. And for me to put the team in a bad situation like that – I’m very disappointed in myself.”

That was the overall sentiment from core special teams players who know they played a significant role in this loss. While it wasn’t all bad, there were major miscues in the game after the blocked field goal that added another tally to the loss column.

Head coach Matt Eberflus said he’s going to get more involved with special teams play in practice in an attempt to help the unit find the improvement required to fare better than they have in recent weeks.

“When you have issues on any part of the team, you got to get involved,” Eberflus said. “We have to make sure we clean up those things.”