Everything about Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals reeked of a classic Chicago Bears Special. They get a stupendous performance out of one of their phases, only to see the other two completely implode. This results in them blowing what looks like a comfortable lead in the final minutes. Fans had already seen it too many times. Chicago was up 41-27 with less than four minutes to go. Tremaine Edmunds intercepted Joe Flacco in the red zone on what felt like the decisive play of the game. A few moments later, the Bengals had scored 15 unanswered points to go ahead 42-41.
It was over. Fans knew it. Every time this had happened in years past, the team failed to respond. Not this time. Caleb Williams got the ball with 54 seconds left and drove to midfield. Staring down a long field goal from the erratic Cairo Santos, he decided to take a chance at a chunk play. Lucky for him, head coach Ben Johnson had the perfect play dialed up. Williams found rookie tight end Colston Loveland over the middle, who broke two tackles and rumbled 58 yards for the improbable score.
For the third time in five games, the Bears rallied in the final second to pull off a victory.
Ben Johnson has proven he has a tight grip on this team.
It hasn’t been perfect. There are still so many issues to clean up from an execution standpoint. However, the first-year coach has already solved one of the core problems with this team: their sense of resilience. Every time they faced adversity under Matt Eberflus, they crumbled. Ben Johnson understood the first order of business when he arrived was instilling the locker room with a renewed sense of self-confidence and belief. That big victory against Las Vegas in September was the first step. Then they exacted some revenge against Washington the next week. You could see the players responding to him.
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Better still, his offense was starting to click. They had 145 rushing yards in Washington, 222 against New Orleans, and just trampled Cincinnati for 283. Williams has also shown flashes of improved efficiency, now with 12 touchdown passes and four interceptions on the season. Keep in mind, they’re doing this despite a litany of injuries on both sides of the ball.
This is what good head coaches do. They motivate, adjust, and push their players to perform when it matters most. It’s been a long time since the Bears had somebody like that.