The Patriots reached for a strange late-game card against the Bears on Sunday night, and the move says plenty about how the final minutes unfolded.
With Chicago leading 27-21 and the clock working against New England, Mike Vrabel chose to sacrifice a free five yards and a fresh conversation for something more valuable: time. On a 3rd-and-1 coming out of the two-minute warning, defensive tackle Cory Durden jumped offsides on purpose after being instructed to do so by his coach.
“We told Cory to jump off sides and third-and-six inches or whatever it was,” Mike Vrabel said during his postgame presser after his team’s 30-24 defeat. “We felt like that was going to be the best way to get them stopped. That’s on me.”
The Patriots had already watched a key chance slip away when Caleb Williams hit Rome Odunze for 21 yards on 3rd-and-9 to keep the drive alive. From there, New England understood the margin for error was gone and leaned into the unusual strategy, hoping to burn precious seconds while keeping all three timeouts in their pocket.
The gamble nearly paid off. After the offsides penalty, Christian Barmore got to Williams for a sack, setting up a 58-yard field goal attempt. It was exactly the kind of break New England needed.
But Cairo Santos, who had missed from 53 yards earlier in the game, answered with the kick that mattered most. He drilled the 58-yarder and effectively sealed it with 1:34 left.
“Our guys executed and then Cairo made a huge kick,” said Vrabel about a player he coached back in Tennessee in 2019. “I didn’t want him to make it tonight, but a former guy that we coached.
Caleb’s going to make some plays. I don’t know how you get out-executed when a guy makes a 58-yard field goal.
We executed well at times and didn’t get the drive stopped enough.”
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