Ben Johnson Has a Rivalry Problem and There's No Clear Answer

This has probably been a rough Monday morning so far for Chicago Bears fans. A disastrous Week 5 loss to the Green Bay Packers sucked all the air out of the room, so to speak, and with it all the momentum the Bears had built up after their 3-1 start to the season. If there's a silver lining to the game's outcome, it's that no one should ever again question how much Caleb Williams means to this offense, and luckily for Bears fans, there's hope that he can return for Week 6 against the Atlanta Falcons.

However, Sunday's loss highlights an uncomfortable question that must be asked regarding head coach Ben Johnson: why does he struggle so much against his division rivals? Since becoming head coach of the Chicago Bears, Johnson is just 2-6 in games against NFC North opponents, and both of those wins came on walk-off scoring plays. On the flip side of that, in Johnson's six losses to his rivals, the Bears are losing by an average of 12.3 points.

Ben Johnson may need to reconsider the trash talk

As much as it fires up Bears fans, Johnson may want to spend some time looking in the mirror to determine whether his trash talk is getting him into trouble. For one thing, his rivals are more motivated to hit him with their absolute best shots, and so far those shots have been devastating haymakers to the kidney.

We saw this play out all last week. Multiple Packers players took shots at Ben Johnson ahead of their Week 5 matchup, and now they've earned the right to strut their stuff as the victors. They walked the walk while Johnson only talked. The Vikings earlier this year held Johnson's offense to just three points. Yes, the weather played a big role in that, but the scoreboard didn't lie. Last year, facing off against his former boss in Detroit for the first time, Johnson took a humiliating 31-point loss to the Lions in just his second game as head coach.

Meanwhile, Johnson doesn't seem to be benefitting from his trash talk. He's not getting in the heads of his opponents. If anything, he appears to be getting inside his own head. In both of Johnson's two losses this year, he appeared stymied, groping in the dark for answers and finding none. We saw neither hide nor hair of the ruthless efficiency we've come to expect from the Bears, nor the jaw-dropping explosives.

I'm not saying that Johnson should completely rework his persona, nor that the trash talk is definitely the cause of yesterday's loss. Outside of rivalry games, he's been exactly who we expected him to be: a gifted savant and a master of his craft. What he's been doing is working and producing results. But for some reason, it's not showing up consistently in rivalry games, and Johnson must leave no stone unturned to figure out why. That includes a long, hard look in the mirror.

The Bottom Line

In the interest of fairness, it must be admitted that at least three of Johnson's NFC North losses come with some context. One came in Johnson's very first game as a head coach. In the Bears' ugly Week 2 loss to the Vikings, Soldier Field was rendered a soggy, sodden swamp by constant rainfall. On Sunday, Johnson was without his starting quarterback. It doesn't excuse those losses, but the context can't be ignored.

Nevertheless, Johnson clearly has a rivalry problem, and neither the cause nor the answer is clear. The Bears don't face another NFC North opponent until Week 12, a road game against the Detroit Lions. That gives Johnson nearly two months to figure out how to notch his first win against his former team and keep the Bears from sliding any further down the division standings.

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