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Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff WriterOct 13, 2024, 04:20 PM ET
- Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings before switching to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever on ESPN Radio. She also co-hosts The Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News as a multimedia sports journalist.
LONDON — Cole Kmet had no clue that Chicago Bears long-snapper Scott Daly suffered a knee injury on Chicago’s second punt of the game and was quickly ruled out. So when special teams coordinator Richard Hightower came up to the veteran tight end on the sideline and told him to start warming up because ‘Scott’s hurt,’ Kmet wasn’t sure who his coach was referring to.
“I’m like, ‘[wide receiver] Tyler Scott‘s hurt? What?’ And he’s telling me, and I’m like, ‘OK, why does that affect me?'” Kmet recalled. “He’s like, ‘You need to get snaps in.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, s—. I’ve got to go snap right now.'”
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Kmet, who is Chicago’s emergency long-snapper, said that his “biggest nightmare came true” in the Bears’ 35-16 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It’s a scenario that the fifth-year tight end works through briefly each Thursday in practice when he snaps two or three times to keep himself in a rhythm should the third member of Chicago’s kicking battery go down with injury.
“[The Bears] found out I did it in high school,” Kmet said. “I remember my dad, me and my brother would be messing around doing it in the backyard all the time, and it was just kind of a more-you-can-do thing, thinking if you ever needed to make a team, if you’re a guy that’s the 54 or 55 guy and they’re deciding between two guys, having that ability is going to keep you on the roster for those type of things.
“Obviously I’m not in that position right now, but that was kind of the mindset of learning how to do it and I wanted to play in the NFL one day and that was kind of the thing behind it. It paid off today, I guess. I was glad I could just help out where I could.”
Bears kicker Cairo Santos was 5-for-5 on extra points and had a 43-yard field goal blocked late in the fourth quarter.
“Jacksonville, they were rushing really hard as they do when blood’s in the water when you’ve got a different operation,” Santos said. “They were coming at us on the extra point. It’s unfortunate they got it at the end, but Cole did a heck of a job. Special teams player of the week.”
What made Kmet’s day even more eventful was having to go out and snap for those five extra points, particularly the ones that came after he hauled in two touchdowns.
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams threw four touchdown passes against Jacksonville while completing 23 of 29 attempts for 226 yards with a 124.4 passer rating. He also rushed for 56 yards, which included two first downs on Chicago’s longest scoring drive of the game (10 plays, 85 yards).
Cole Kmet had a pair of touchdowns for the Bears in a win over Jacksonville in London on Sunday. Getty Images
His 79% completion percentage was the third highest by a rookie with four passing touchdowns in a game in NFL history, according to ESPN Research.
Williams’ sole low point of the game came on a second-quarter interception when targeting a wide-open DJ Moore. The quarterback said he aimed to put the ball near the back pylon but didn’t “add enough juice behind it,” which led safety Andre Cisco to jump in front of Moore for an “easy” interception.
That play ignited a fire under Williams, and the Bears scored on each of the next four possessions.
“I was a bit pissed off at myself just because that’s a pass that I don’t miss, that you don’t want to miss and do something like that,” Williams said. “I was a bit pissed off after that. I think resetting myself was important, but still, having that in the back of my mind, can’t have that happen again, and let’s go out here and go score.”
Kmet and wide receiver Keenan Allen became the first set of Bears teammates to each have two receiving touchdowns in the same game since Dick Gordon and Jim Seymour in 1970.
Allen, who was sidelined for Chicago’s losses to Houston and Indianapolis due to a heel injury, had his best game since being traded to the Bears during the offseason. The wide receiver was tied for a team high with five targets, which he turned into five catches for 41 yards and two TDs.
“All the hard work and extra work we’ve been putting in, it’s been great,” Williams said. “And to have somebody like Keenan, his patience and things like that, we’re six games in and he’s just getting his first two touchdowns. I think his patience with how he’s such a great player, he’s been great.”
After being held to seven yards in the first quarter, the Bears gained 216 yards in the second period and never trailed again after taking a 7-3 lead. Chicago offense has now scored at least 35 points in back-to-back wins over Carolina and Jacksonville and heads into its Week 7 bye with the momentum it had been searching for after a slow start to the season.
“First couple weeks the defense was playing huge, offense wasn’t really doing a lot,” Allen said. “Now we’re coming out and we’re scoring and scoring and scoring more than we were and scoring a lot of points. It makes it easy for the defense.
“I was just talking to [defensive end] Montez [Sweat], he was like ‘Man, I was getting frustrated. Y’all kept converting on third down, I was ready to go back out there. I’m trying to get a sack.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be like that sometimes.’
“As long as everybody is complementing each other, special teams playing good, we’ve got a chance.”
