'What do they have to say now,' asks Bears fan Pat the Designer | After the Whistle
Amen Ogbongbimega stood outside his locker, and a quiver grasped his voice.
He's seen plenty in his life. The Nigerian-born athlete starred in Calgary, Alberta, before playing at Oklahoma State. Even with the journey his life has been, this season has been a challenge for him.
"Injuries and stuff, I've never really been here in my career," Ogbongbimega said. "This one meant a lot."
The linebacker had a career day. He came into Sunday with just one tackle on the season. He finished the win over Pittsburgh with 14 combined tackles. Ogbongbimega had 13 total tackles in 2024.
This is because Sunday was the 2025 Bears season in a nutshell.
Whenever the Bears needed a player to step up, they found it. The continuous cycle of belief between players and coach has helped a number of players find success in 2025. That's no accident, either.
This is the rock on how the Ben Johnson era will begin building itself.
"We gave it our all, we prepared like no other. It was countless hours," Ogbongbimega said. "It paid off in a huge way."
Big picture view:
The Bears are a good team. That's not a debate, it's a fact. Just ask one of the best coaches in the National Football League.
"It's tight when it's good on good, particularly when you're in a hostile environment," Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said.
But, the Bears were going to get tested this season. Bears head coach Ben Johnson said.
"It happens to most teams each season too where your depth gets tested," Johnson said Sunday. "It just so happens it was this week for us."
The only thing is, this isn't the first time this has been the case for the Bears.
That was the case in Week 1, when Nahshon Wright was starting in Jaylon Johnson's place. It was the case for Nick McCloud, who was playing opposite Wright when Tyrique Stevenson was unable to play in Week 8 and again when he left with a hip injury on Sunday.
That was the case when Dayo Odeyingbo was lost for the year with a torn Achilles. The Bears traded for Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and looked to Austin Booker to fill the role.
But, on Sunday, it needed to be Ogbongbimega and D'Marco Jackson. The core special teams players who were thrust into playing time. Jackson wore the green dot, meaning he was relaying defensive play calls from the coaches, while Ogbongbimega took over the outside linebacker position after Ruben Hyppolite II left with a shoulder injury.
However, the two were prepared. That was one of the first things both linebackers mentioned after the game.
"There wasn’t no jealousy, anything like that," Jackson said. "Everyone just wanted to get that win, that 1-0 feeling."
If there was a chance either would see significant playing time, they both made sure they'd be ready. Especially with Ongbongbemiga, who was activated from injured reserve on Nov. 6 after missing the first eight games of the season.
"I prepared like I wasn't starting this week," Ongbongbemiga said. "I didn't get no reps. It's just a blessing. Shout out to everyone that stuck by me in the rehab process."
The linebacker room deserves credit, too.
Jackson said TJ Edwards, Tremaine Edmunds and Noah Sewell all helped with film study or whatever the active linebackers might have needed.
"They didn't check out," Jackson said. Instead, they led by a very good example.
That example began with the talent in the first-string players, but the belief permeated with the urgency the coaching staff instilled in this team to win now and to do everything possible to achieve that goal on a weekly basis.
The Bears do what they say they're going to do under Johnson. More often than not, that achieves the weekly goal they set for themselves.
"The goal was to just go 1-0," Jackson said.
What's next:
Jackson and Ogbongbimega didn't keep count. They just kept flying around the field.
"I wasn’t even keeping count," Jackson said. "Right now, my body’s hurting a little bit."
"I was just playing with passion and determination and wasn't really worried about the number or nothing, just trying to help my team win," Ogbongbimega said. "These guys supported me. These guys stuck by me the whole time."
That sense of unity is what brought the Bears together under Johnson. It doesn't matter who is in the game, the expectation is those players will be ready to play and ready to win.
That has to be the expectation. This staff has seen too much NFL football to expect otherwise.
"This is what happens when you play a 17-game season," Johnson said. "It just so happened back half of the season is when it caught up to us a little bit. We'll get some of the reinforcements back at some point, but until then, we've got to hold down the fort."
Those players have done more than just hold down the fort. They've reinforced it themselves. It's a reason why the Bears are experiencing success for the first time in the 2020 decade.
"I've never been 8-3 here," safety Jaquan Brisker said.
He has now.
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