Bear Digest

Ben Johnson heard the boos and owns up to his and Bears' gaffes

The new Bears coach on Tuesday candidly admitted to several mistakes in Monday night's game, a few which cost them timeouts or valuable time in a 27-24 loss.
Gene Chamberlain|
Ben Johnson had problems with a lot of things the team did Monday night but also with his own mistakes.
Ben Johnson had problems with a lot of things the team did Monday night but also with his own mistakes. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Ben Johnson acknowledged hearing the boos for the Bears near the end of Monday's 27-24 loss to Minnesota.

"Yeah. I think that’s the beauty of this city," Johnson said. "They love their sports. I embrace it. It’s a big reason I wanted to come here.

"It’s because these people care. They want a good product. They're desperate for a winner. And really we were all frustrated that in a game like that, we didn’t come away with a win. We certainly had a chance there going into the fourth quarter and you walk away with a loss? I think everyone is disappointed."

Johnson was actually booing himself in a way on Tuesday. He made the admission of several mistakes, a bit of transparency sometimes lacking in the NFL and at Halas Hall in the past. The mistakes almost sounded Matt Eberflus-like as far as how they impacted game management.

Johnson admitted to his own mistake on the failed fourth-and-3 gamble with the  Bears up 7-3, the play when quarterback Caleb Williams wildly overthrew wide open DJ Moore over the middle. The error Johnson admitted to wasn't the gamble, though. He blamed himself for wasting a timeout then.

"The timeout itself, I was late getting the call in and that’s my own issue," Johnson said. "But we knew we wanted to go for it. We felt good about that call. Caleb, we talked about it this afternoon; that’s one of the few (throws) he would like to have back."

Another one Johnson was kicking himself about was the timeout he wasted in the second half that would have been huge. He challenged that a play when T.J. Hockenson's knees were ruled down was actually a fumble knocked out by Noah Sewell. A fumble there would have been huge because the Bears already led 17-6 and the ball was at the Vikings 25. The replay seemed to show Hockenson was down, and the play was called that way on the field, anyway.

“I thought I saw knees up and so that’s on me," Johnson said. "I’ve got to do  a better job listening to the guys (coaches) up top. I get influenced a little bit for the first time with the people around me (on the sideline) and I’ve just got to stay true to the process.”

If he kept the timeout and didn't challenge, it would have saved him another poor decision that he owned up to on Tuesday, and that was telling Cairo Santos to kick off deep after the Bears drew within 27-24 with just over two minutes remaining. An onside kick would have yielded field position if the Bears didn't recover it, but by kicking out of bounds they could have kept the clock from running and accepted a penalty that put the ball at the 40.

Instead, Johnson told Santos to kick off deep rather than out of bounds and Santos made the whole thing into a disaster by failing to kick it out of the end zone. It was returned, meaning the Bears couldn’t let the two-minute warning stop the clock after a play from scrimmage because it was used during the play stoppage after the kickoff. 

This meant the Bears would get the ball back with only nine seconds remaining after they forced a punt and were at their own 20. Johnson said afterward that he estimated they'd have 56 seconds to drive for a tying field goal without a timeout if Santos had kicked it through the end zone. And, it would have been the same if he'd kicked it out of bounds.

"And then at the end of the game, I felt like we could kick it out of the back (of the end zone)," Johnson said. "We weren’t able to get that done. In hindsight, I should’ve kicked it out of bounds."

He didn't stop baring his soul there, either.

"I didn’t think I called a particularly great game," Johnson said. "I could’ve adjusted a little bit better to the lack of pressure that Flo (Brian Flores, Vikings defensive coordinator) was giving us. I can do a better job there."

Flores used less blitzing early than he normally uses, but then gradually worked in five-man and six-man rushes.

"He felt like he could get pressure on our quarterback with just four rather than his normal five or six," Johnson said. "He saw the first drive. We were able to make it down the field and score a touchdown and then we kept shooting ourselves in the foot, whether it was penalties, lack of a rushing game.

“We were in a number of second-and-longs that turned into third-and-longs and that’s not a way you want to live particularly against a good play caller like that, and a talented defensive front and secondary like they have.  I don’t know that it changed a whole lot at halftime. I just feel like we didn’t execute very well in the second half.”

And that, more than anything else, explained the boos.

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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.