Bear Digest

Bears promise Ben Johnson's message about win is well understood

The 47-42 victory was the third heart-stopper for the Bears and they insist the lesson explained by their coach will not go unheeded in the season's second half.
Gene Chamberlain|
Tanner Hudson gets behind Tremaine Edmunds for a completion in Sunday's 47-42 Bears win.
Tanner Hudson gets behind Tremaine Edmunds for a completion in Sunday's 47-42 Bears win. | Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The aftermath of a ridiculous victory for the Bears over Cincinnati was an opportunity for coach Ben Johnson to do what coaches like to do, and for players it was a chance to hear what they already knew.

It never should have come down to Caleb Williams throwing a dart to Colston Loveland on a 58-yard touchdown with 17 seconds left for the win.

"I think that’s something that we discussed at a team meeting today and I think all three phases had a chance to win the game where it doesn’t even have to come down to a play like Colston’s play at the end," wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus said. "So, there’s definitely room to improve, and when we have a chance to win the game we have to end the game whether that be on special teams or on defense or on offense. So, definitely we keyed in on that today.”

Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds had a more colorful way to put it.

"When we have a team where we want them, not to let our hand off the rope and just to pull tighter and figure out a way to close the game in the way that we want to close it," Edmunds said. "All that being said, I never apologized for winning because at the end of the day that's what it's all about.

"It's about winning. But, definitely learning points as we continue to get later on in the season and we start playing these games and in particular, in my experience, playoff games. You want to make sure that you don't let games slip away from you in the last couple minutes of the game."

Edmunds lost an epic AFC divisional playoff game, 42-36, to Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City while playing with Buffalo.

The defense had Flacco facing fourth-and-10 at the Bears 33 with 3:42 remaining and allowed a short pass to Chase Brown that he ran for a first down and a 21-yard gain.

In the defense's defense, they thought it locked down when Kevin Byard picked off a pass to Ja'Marr Chase but officials hit Nick McCloud with a questionable pass interference penalty. Then they did get the pick when Edmunds got one at the 4 and took it back 96 yards. He was ruled down by contact, another questionable call but one Johnson didn't want to debate on Monday. A TD return there really would have sealed it.

The special teams chance to put it away was, of course, the inability to field an onside kick after Flacco's 23-yard TD pass to Noah Fant and two-point pass to Tee Higgins cut the deficit to 41-35. Edge rusher Daniel Hardy was on the hands team and let the ball hit his foot before it even went 10 yards -- the Bengals couldn't touch the ball unless he did, and he did by accident.

Finally, the offense had its chance with the ball backed up to their own  5 after Edmunds' interception but all of the sudden a running attack that butchered Cincinnati all day could only move the ball 7 yards. A Theo Bendet false start cost them 2 yards on the sequence, their second false start inside their own 10 in two weeks at crunch time. Joe Thuney's was the one a week earlier. They also had a sack of Williams at th Bengals 16 on third-and-8 and a first down followed by a touchdown would have meant four more points at game's end.

"You just want to keep executing, and we had a chance to ice the game, four-minute drive, we get a first down, they have one timeout and the two-minute warning," Zaccheaus said. "We had a chance to ice the game and it doesn’t even come down to it. We end up winning by two possessions. So it shouldn’t have even gotten to that point, to be honest.”

Of course, the defense really could have ended it several times on Cincinnati's final two drives with a stop but couldn't stop Joe Flacco's passing.

"So, however that is, it's about playing complementary ball," Edmunds said. "We can sit right here and go back and forth about a lot, but it's really about having chances to end the game on whatever side it is.”

So Johnson had his message he could deliver to the team about not letting opportunity escape.

"A little bit of that killer mindset, if you will," Johnson said. "We've done a great job  finding a way to win games. We're never out of it.

"I think the next step for our growth as a team is to start closing these things out a little bit earlier in the game.”

The ending might not be as exciting. They wouldn't need blocked field goals like against the Raiders, or the other quarterback fumbling a handoff like Washington's Jayden Daniels did at game’s end.

And they definitely wouldn't need 58-yard TD passes to the tight end with 17 seconds left.

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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.