DETROIT — Ben Johnson’s former boss had just called a pass on fourth-and-goal from the 4 to go ahead by 33 points when the Ford Field faithful grew even more emboldened than Lions fans had been all Sunday afternoon.
They started chanting.
“[Bleep] Ben Johnson!” they said.
It was adding insult to, well, insult. Johnson’s return to Detroit for the first time since leaving his offensive coordinator job to run the Bears had long ago become embarrassing. The Lions outscored the Bears 52-21, outgained them by 172 yards and averaged, before they took their starters out, almost 12 yards per play.
The Bears weren’t in the Lions’ weight class — on the field, the front office or on the sideline. For the second time in as many weeks, the Bears’ offense was sharp on the first drive and then never again, turning the ball over on a punt, fumble downs and interception the next four drives. Their defense crumbled in the second half for the second-straight game, allowed three touchdowns and one field goal before benefiting from a mercy punt with about four minutes to play.
The Lions’ final touchdown, the four-yard throw to St. Brown, must have rankled the first-year head coach. He wasn’t ready to say his old friend had run up the score, though.
“It’s fourth-and-goal, what do you want him to do?” Johnson said. “He could’ve kicked the field goal. They don’t kick field goals.”
They do kick other body parts, though.
“Anytime you lose a game like that – man, it’s a kick in the teeth,” Johnson said. “Nothing about that feels good.”
Nor does going for it on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1, as Johnson did in the second quarter, only to have a quarterback sneak fall short on consecutive plays. Or being ushered back onto the field after being told the first half was over, as the Bears were, only to give up the first of three St. Brown four-touchdown catches.
Johnson claimed he wasn’t demoralized — “We gotta play better,” he said — but Sunday should serve notice of the steep climb the Bears have in front of them.
“Obviously, it’s an ugly, ugly, ugly, loss,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said.
Johnson tried to dismiss the game as just one-of-those-games. The Bears, though, gave up their fourth-most points in the Super Bowl era. That’s not an everyday occurrence.
All week, Johnson tried to frame the game as about anything but his return to Detroit for the first time since leaving the Lions for a rival. It started the same way Johnson’s season opener ended — with the Bears head coach getting booed. Forty-nine minutes before kickoff, Lions fans booed as he took the field, walking around the perimeter of the end zone and to the Bears’ sideline. Johnson focused on the Bears during warmups and didn’t commiserate with his own co-workers. At the end, he had a brief conversation with Lions head coach Dan Campbell.
It was clear, though, the game had symbolic meaning to the Lions, whose culture is built on being the underdog.
“We felt like we’d been betrayed, from the staff to the players,” Lions safety Brian Branch said. “And we love Ben, we still love Ben. He’s a great coach, he’s a great mastermind — but, yeah, it was time to get after him.”
Even if quarterback Jared Goff — who torched Johnson for 334 passing yards and five touchdowns — thought the chant went too far, it was clear the Lions’ intensity level was intentional. The Bears would be wise to try to channel something similar when former head coach Matt Eberflus comes to town Sunday as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator.
“There’s always going to be this, ‘We don’t have the rhythm offensively because we lost Ben or we’re not as good because we lost (former defensive coordinator and current Jets head coach Aaron Glenn), or this player leaves,” Campbell said. “Ultimately it’s, ‘Do you have the coaches?’ Yes. ‘Do you have the players?’ Yes.”
The Bears do not.