Bears Shouldn't Let Ben Johnson Off the Hook for Baffling Decisions in Week 2 Loss

While Chicago Bears fans around the world hold their collective breath awaiting another Caleb Williams injury update, it's worth digging back into Sunday's devastating Week 2 loss to find out what went wrong. The short answer is 'everything', but a longer and more uncomfortable answer is that head coach Ben Johnson was thoroughly out-coached by Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

Minnesota's defense seemed to have an answer for everything the Bears' offense wanted to do on Sunday, and the sloppy field conditions and the ceaseless downpour of rain worked in Minnesota's favor, too. Whatever Johnson's plan was for Sunday, it did not survive first contact with Flores. Even worse, Johnson didn't seem to make any adjustments along the way to an ugly Week 2 loss.

Too often Johnson left his offensive tackles and even his tight ends on an island in pass protection, and too often the Vikings' defenders won those one-on-one battles. He also seemed to be deliberately scheming targets to rookie tight end Sam Roush over Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland (more on that in a minute).

Worst of all, Johnson made two specific play calls that defied logic and arguably cost the Bears the game.

Ben Johnson called his worst game as head coach of the Bears

On their first drive out of halftime, the Bears offense seemed to have found a spark as Kyle Monangai carried the ball three times for 31 yards. Set up with first-and-goal at the Vikings' one-yard line, it would have made sense for the Bears to give the ball right back to Monangai, who is more of a hard-charging, heavy-hitting running back than D'Andre Swift, and I say that will all due respect to the guy who earned his three-year extension with the Bears.

Instead, Johnson dialed up a play for Swift to run between the tackles, which is not his forte in short-yardage situations, and he promptly fumbled the ball. Instead of a go-ahead score, the Bears came away empty handed and lost all momentum.

Incredibly, the Bears still had a chance for a go-ahead score late in the fourth quarter. Just inside of Minnesota's red zone, Johnson dialed up a passing play that saw Williams deliver a dart over the middle of the field to rookie tight end Sam Roush. The pass would have carried Roush into the endzone for a touchdown had the rookie been able to hang on to the ball after getting hit by a defender.

I don't say that to pile on to Roush, who collapsed in this ugly loss. It was definitely a tough catch, especially for a rookie. But it boggles the mind why Johnson even drew this play up for the ball to go to a rookie in such a critical situation. Would it not have been better to design this play for Colston Loveland, who had an almost identical catch-and-run touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals last year?

After that dropped pass by Roush, the Bears came fully apart. Williams was injured two plays later, and Cairo Santos' field goal attempt was blocked. Tyson Bagent had a chance to pilot the Bears to a comeback victory in the game's final second, but he was sacked before he could even get a pass attempt out.

The Bottom Line

Everyone has bad games. That's just the nature of NFL football. But Sunday's loss was truly a brutal game from Ben Johnson. He's bought himself plenty of good will even though he's only been with the team for one season, however, and so I would caution Bears fans against overreacting. In all likelihood, he's going to put that game behind him as soon as the film review is over today and get right to work for next week.

As Caleb Williams said a week ago, you can't dwell on the past. Instead, the team must focus on the game ahead and how to get to 1-0 next week.

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