Bear Digest

No special Bears insight exists for Matt Eberflus says Ben Johnson

The Caleb Williams-Matt Eberflus connection shouldn't provide any special information for the Cowboys on Sunday claims the Bears coach.
Gene Chamberlain|
Former Bears coach Matt Eberflus shouldn't have an edge says Ben Johnson.
Former Bears coach Matt Eberflus shouldn't have an edge says Ben Johnson. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

This week's Matt Eberflus revenge game for the Bears carries plenty of intrigue, although coach Ben Johnson is approaching it with the same sort of respect he had for his former boss and Detroit last week.

The thought that the Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator knows all about Caleb Williams' strengths and weaknesses based on the 2024 season during his two-plus seasons coaching the Bears doesn't bother Johnson, though.

Eberflus should have no mental edge, argues Johnson.

Mind games are full of fun with this matchup.

"Well, we've got guys in the building that know how his mind works and so we have some information on how, just schematically, how he liked to approach my offense in general and his feelings on Caleb," Johnson said o Eberflus. "So I feel like we know what he knows and we'll be just fine there."

Eberflus' Dallas defense is off to a shaky start, having allowed 34 to the Giants in a win last week following an opening loss to the world champion Eagles. Dallas' defense ranks 30th overall and defending the pass, but it definitely didn't help when they lost Micah Parsons right before the season. Now they have Jadeveon Clowney to replace him and Johnson noted they'll need to do some research on stopping him from the past.

When Johnson first came to Chicago, he talked about how much his offense had struggled against the Bears defense, and it was Eberflus heading up that unit after the first game of the 2023 season.

Before that, Alan Williams was Bears defensive coordinator but even before his resignation for unexplained reasons it was always Eberflus' defense.

"He's a guy that I respected, really, dating back to his time at Indy," Johnson said. "I remember being at Miami and going against his defense for the first time and you could tell that what those players are being coached technique-wise, it shows up on game day in terms of shedding blocks and rallying to the football.

"That carried over here for the three seasons. I mean, make no mistake about it, it was one of the more challenging defenses that we faced when I was in Detroit."

Eberflus' zone-based defense with one-gap principles on the defensive front hit hard at the basis for Detroit's offense. That was the running game.

At least it was that way in 2023 when Andrew Billings was healthy. The Bears beat Detroit in its run to the 2023 NFC North title 28-13 at Soldier Field with Justin Fields as QB, and the defense had held the Lions earlier that year to 14 points until late in the game. Even in the Thanksgiving game when Eberflus retained a timeout and let the clock run out, leading to his firing, the Bears held Johnson's offense to 23 points.

Based on that, Eberflus won't even recognize this Bears defense after 52 points allowed last week.

"We struggled to run the ball at times," Johnson recalled. "Really good red zone defense. And so like I said, we've got to be on our stuff this week to know not only who we have schematically but also we've got to play with good pad level, we've got to play with good finish and we've got to combat their swarm to the football mentality with population to the ball ourselves."

There are ways to beat Eberflus’  defense, as the Bears found out themselves in three years, and it’s been apparent so far in two Cowboys games.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.