LANDOVER, Md. — With everything on the line Monday night, with three seconds remaining and one final snap to decide another nerve-fraying game, Jake Moody knew simple would be his best friend.Keep “a nice, neutral thought process,” Moody told himself. Lock in for one last field-goal attempt and let the results take care of themselves.Nothing to it, right?Just a 38-yarder, with the football positioned nicely in the middle of the field.Easy peasy.Now add all the context and ask yourself where your heart rate might have been.The elements? A steady mist all night, combined with some biting October wind.The pressure? Just a kick to decide whether the Chicago Bears would spend the next five days being celebrated for their game-on-the-line grit or criticized for their stumbles in yet another Northwest Stadium nightmare.The fork in the road? That separated the smooth pavement of 3-2 from the jarring rocks of 2-3.Moody’s credibility? With the Bears? Next to none. He had his first practice at Halas Hall only 26 days earlier, had spent four weeks on the practice squad, then got a somewhat surprising activation on Monday after Cairo Santos’ lingering quadriceps injury flared up enough to make him a scratch for this prime-time game.Additionally, Moody landed with the Bears only after his dispiriting Week 2 exit from San Francisco, where a three-season roller coaster ended with his 15th and 16th missed field goals of his career during the season opener.So, yeah. Go figure it was Moody who — during a dizzying period in his life in which he is regrouping professionally while still introducing himself to Bears teammates — was being mobbed and lifted by some of those same strangers after his fourth field goal Monday night split the uprights behind the east end zone as time expired.Bears 25, Commanders 24.“I didn’t necessarily fully know who he was when he got here,” quarterback Caleb Williams said.Added Moody: “I can’t wait to formally meet everybody else at some point.”Monday’s final score was identical to the team’s Week 4 win in Las Vegas and similar in that the Bears needed one last clutch drive and some special teams magic to finish on the road.“I knew once we got that ball back for the final drive, our whole sideline knew we were going to go down and score,” long snapper Scott Daly said. “I was so happy that once our number was called, we were able to get it done. … It just shows for this team how we’re able to persevere.”Added punter and holder Tory Taylor: “Some people might shy away from that opportunity. Our mindset is ‘F—! How good is this?’ An opportunity to go out there and kick a game winner. Especially after what happened to us here 12 months ago.”Snap. Hold. Victory.For a long while on Monday night, it seemed this was becoming an excruciating tale about missed opportunities and iffy penalties for the Bears, a log of moments that included but was not limited to:• A big third-down stop by the defense in the second quarter was wiped away by an odd face-mask call against cornerback Nahshon Wright (that opened the door to the Commanders’ first touchdown).• An early fourth-and-1, from the Washington 31, that ended with a short incompletion by Williams into traffic over the middle.• A Rome Odunze 11-yard touchdown catch that was negated by a questionable illegal-formation penalty.• A fumbled snap on the final play of the third quarter, on third-and-1 from just outside the red zone. Which immediately preceded …Yes, even Monday night’s walk-off hero had a stomach-turning moment, a 48-yard field-goal attempt to open the fourth quarter. That low-trajectory kick quickly found the big right paw of Washington defensive tackle Daron Payne, rejected before it ever took flight.It wasn’t Moody’s fault, per se, that Payne got such pronounced penetration through the “A” gap between Daly and Jonah Jackson. However, the unsuccessful kick went on his ledger nonetheless, the 17th missed kick of his career. It also prevented the Bears from regaining the lead, leaving them to chase this badly needed victory for the rest of the night.Until three seconds remained.Until Moody was needed once more on the final play of the final drive, with three made field goals already in his back pocket.When the Commanders took their final timeout, with 1 minute, 14 seconds remaining and the Bears in field goal range, the stadium video board showed Moody loosening up and kicking into the net on the sideline. A glimpse inside his head might have shown elevated brainwaves.Almost two years ago to the day — on Oct. 15, 2023 — his 41-yard game-deciding field-goal attempt for the San Francisco 49ers at Cleveland Browns Stadium leaked wide right with six seconds remaining, one of many scars he suffered during his time with the 49ers.However, Moody was also a key contributor to the 49ers’ run to the George S. Halas Trophy later that season, a run that ended in Super Bowl LVIII with Moody making the longest field goal in Super Bowl history in the first quarter, getting an extra point blocked in the fourth and hitting a go-ahead field goal in overtime. In a devastating loss.The life of a kicker, right?That’s why the simplicity is always so vital, why finding presence amid pressure matters.Moody was quick Monday night to credit Santos’ sideline guidance as valuable.“He has kicked here a fair amount,” Moody said. “And he was able to help me out with the wind, with the field surface, with all that stuff. I was very glad to have that extra set of hands.”Moody also showed the poise to overcome the, um, hardships of a less-than-ideal stay at the team hotel — a bed that wasn’t to his size preference (yes, we’re being tongue-in-cheek here).“I like a big king bed,” Moody said. “I like to sprawl out.”He also had to persevere through a finicky shower that vacillated only between scalding and frigid. The life of a kicker, indeed.“I took a nice ice shower before the game. That may be the new tradition I start,” he said.Maybe that helped put the coolness into Moody’s approach to that final kick. Or perhaps it was his reliance on repetition to regain his confidence.“I like to think if you’re overprepared for something, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be confident,” he said.Thus, on a field where just a little less than a year earlier, the Bears suffered one of the most painful regular-season losses in team history, Moody became part of an exhilarating late-game rally that helped produce a signature victory that everyone in the locker room hopes can be a part of something bigger.Running back D’Andre Swift’s 175 yards from scrimmage and a key 55-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter mattered a lot. So did key takeaways from safety Jaquan Brisker and Wright.And then some new kid still acclimating to his new team took the stage for the final snap, for that final kick.“I introduced myself to him on the sideline,” Swift said. “First time I had spoken to him.”Added tight end Cole Kmet: “He’s so quiet. I’ve just barely started to get to know him. We knew he was excited to get back out and play tonight with the NFL journey he’s been on. To make that kick in that moment was pretty awesome.”
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