The ball floated and fluttered, wobbled and hovered, seemed altogether intent on taking its own sweet time. That, or it had a time share in the airspace above Soldier Field.
There was a lot riding on Paul Edinger’s kick Sunday, so of course the wind was gusting at 30 m.p.h. and changing its mind about what it wanted to be in life, about where it wanted to go.
“It looked like it changed directions about four times,” Bears coach Dick Jauron said.
Imagine how Jauron felt, with the possibility that his future was held aloft with that ball. The game against the Redskins was tied at 24, the life was being squeezed out of the clock in regulation and the football was rising and dipping like a dragonfly.
This was the difference between a record of 7-8 and 6-9, a huge difference for a coach with so much invested in whether the Bears finish well or stagger in. Was that ball going to cooperate? Was it going to fail him? Or was it just going to hang out?
Edinger had woken up Sunday morning, turned on one of his favorite channels, the Weather Channel, and taken a deep breath. Chefs watch the Food Network. Kickers watch the Weather Channel. Edinger decided that, whew, this was going to be a tough day.
And he was right. He made a 19-yard field goal in the first quarter and then saw his next two attempts get blown sideways to the right. The way the wind was shifting so suddenly, it was all guesswork, like jabbing a finger in the Bible and hoping for an inspirational answer. Twice, on attempts of 30 and 33 yards, Edinger had picked wrong, had received a plague of boos for his efforts.
As far as anyone could tell, the best place to be at Soldier Field on Sunday was wherever 6-foot-6-inch, 375-pound Bears tackle Aaron Gibson was. Heck of a windbreaker, Aaron is. Edinger called it the worst wind he had ever experienced as a kicker.
“When you’re in the Windy City, you expect wind,” Redskins kicker John Hall said. True, but you don’t expect Dorothy and Toto to fly by.
If you believe in proper endings, there was only one way for this game to be settled. So when the Bears’ last drive experienced engine trouble, here came Edinger from the sideline, shoulders hunched into that evil wind, to attempt a 45-yard field goal.
This time, he said, he knew where he wanted to aim–at the left goal post to let the wind safely deliver the ball.
How he knew this is anybody’s guess because, although the wind predominantly was coming from the southwest, there were times it seemed as if it was coming from the northeast.
Edinger said the wind came into the stadium “and bounced off things,” creating that swirl effect. There were times the wind stopped, and the flags on the goal posts went slack.
“You had to know how to kick it,” he said. “And I figured it out just in time.”
So there that ball was, floating and fluttering, wobbling and hovering before finally deciding to ease itself over the crossbar. It gave the Bears a 27-24 lead with five seconds left.
Edinger had started celebrating before the officials signaled that the kick was good. For a moment, he had the sinking feeling that his instincts had failed him, that the kick was short and that the replay of him prematurely celebrating would be shown on ESPN that night.
“Thought maybe I was going to be the idiot,” he said.
It has been a tough year for Edinger, who earlier in the season was criticized for deeming a 57-yard kick against the Rams out of his range. He has slumped at times. He has been booed.
“Look at them now,” he said. “They’re not booing now, are they?”
In fact, they looked very much like they were cheering, an interesting phenomenon from a group that seems to want a new head coach. The Bears have won four of their last five games, rookie quarterback Rex Grossman had a good game Sunday and this strange thing called optimism seems to be settling over Chicago.
All these good feelings extend to the McCaskey family, which surely has noted that the Bears are 6-2 at home. And surely the family has seen the way the team has responded since starting 1-5. All of these good things, by the way, come from a team not overly stocked with talent.
One field goal in the 15th game of the season did for the coach what the anti-Jauron crowd wanted least.
It gave him a second wind. It gave him another year.
