Rather than shed light on the Bears’ communication process prior to field goals, special teams coordinator Chris Tabor tried to move past Eddy Pineiro’s 41-yard miss of Sunday’s game-winning kick.
The rookie — whose boot in a right-to-left wind sailed wide left — said Tuesday that kicking from the left hash mark wasn’t his preference.
Like head coach Matt Nagy the day before, Tabor on Thursday refused to offer much detail about his conversations before the kick. He said he wanted to focus on the Eagles; Thursday, though, was Tabor’s first chance to speak to the media about Sunday’s 17-16 loss to the Chargers.
“First of all, I would prefer that Eddy makes the kick,” Tabor said. “That’s my preference, No. 1. And he will make that kick, I do know that. I also think, [Nagy] has addressed it, there’s nothing to say. We were — trust me — we were well where he needed to be. …
“So really to me, there’s no story. I know what the narrative is, but that’s that.”
Yet there was plenty left unanswered: whether Tabor communicated a hash mark preference to Nagy; whether Nagy simply ignored it; or if quarterback Mitch Trubisky took a knee at the wrong part of the field. Trubisky said Wednesday he knelt down where he was told.
Tabor said the Bears’ communication was “spot-on” — no pun intended, presumably. He said he communicated with Nagy both before the game, at halftime and afterward.
“It was a 41-yard field goal,” Tabor said. “It wasn’t a 54- or 55-yard. But we just need to move it over. I like where he struck it, I really do.”
He said a kicker’s preference “doesn’t matter,” and that the degree of difficulty came from playing the wind, not the hash mark.
“As I have stated here multiple times and I told the kid: ‘You hit your ball, you play your line. If Mother Nature takes it, we will have to talk to Mother Nature,’” Tabor said. “And I’ve also said that sometimes it’s also going to hurt if it’s in that type of situation.”
