Eddy Pineiro’s leg strength is no secret to the Bears. It’s been his accuracy and technique that have required work.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Bears were prepared for Pineiro to attempt a field goal from 60-plus yards on Chicago’s final play against the Broncos, which resulted in Pineiro connecting from 53 yards for the game-winner.
“He has that in him — there’s no doubt about it,” Tabor said, via the Sun-Times. “We’ve done it a lot in practice, I have confidence in him doing that… Weather permitting, in field, with all those things, then we will always do that.”
Trusting Pineiro from beyond 60 yards in the mile-high altitude is a far cry from Week 1, where Matt Nagy opted for his offense to go for it on fourth-and-10 instead of letting Piniero attempt a 51-yard field goal.
But developing trust was always going to be a process with Pineiro and the Bears. Can you blame them? Following the Cody Parkey madness and the lengthy search for stability at kicker, Pineiro was going to always have to earn their trust.
While one 53-yard game-winning field goal isn’t enough trust to last a lifetime, it’s certainly a good start. That, and Pineiro is one of five kickers that are perfect on kicks after two games, with a minimum of four attempts. Pineiro is also the only kicker in the NFL that has made multiple attempts from 50-plus yards.
Not bad for a kicker that was on a short leash just a couple weeks ago.
