Ben Johnson lands among duds from Bears' miraculous 19-17 Week 11 win

Some puzzling choices from head coach Ben Johnson stymied his offense and nearly sunk the Chicago Bears.

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As head coach of the Chicago Bears, Ben Johnson gets a lot of credit for what looks like a revival season for this long-suffering franchise, and he absolutely deserves it. Week in and week out, we can see the difference between Johnson's team and the hapless Bears of years past, including some talented teams that were wasted by incompetent coaching.

None of that means that Johnson is perfect as a coach, however, and that truth was on display during the Bears' astonishing 19-17 over the Minnesota Vikings in Week 11. This makes the second straight week that Johnson seemed to be off his game, as he turned in a dud that almost sunk the Bears in Week 10.

What exactly went wrong for Chicago in their narrow victory, and who deserves the most blame? Let's take a look.

1. Ben Johnson

There's no reason for Bears fans to panic yet, but we do have to admit when Johnson calls a bad game as he did on Sunday. For a coach who loves establishing a strong run game, Johnson seemed to avoid running the ball at all costs early in the game. Then, later in the second half, he inexplicably shied away from handing the ball off in third-and-short situations.

The passing game was weird, too. Durham Smythe, who most Bears fans probably forgot was even on the team, got three targets, including a critical third-down attempt that he dropped. It may seem like splitting hairs, but those are three targets that could have gone to Colston Loveland, Rome Odunze, or DJ Moore, all of whom could have probably done much more with the ball than Smythe.

In fairness to Johnson, there's arguably no other defensive coordinator who can give an offense as much trouble as Brian Flores does. But his failure to put away a vastly inferior Vikings team is a big reason why skeptics are convinced that the Bears will give their NFC North lead back.

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2. Caleb Williams

Once the experts review the tape from Sunday's game, we may learn that Williams didn't play such a bad game after all. But for now, all we have is the broadcast, which doesn't show enough to make a fair judgment on quarterbacks, and some abysmal stats: 16-of-32 passing for just 193 yards and zero touchdowns.

On the other hand, Williams protected the ball and made some big plays when they were needed most. He did just enough to help get the win, but it felt like he left a lot of meat on the bone, too.

Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

3. Kyle Monangai

The NFL moves pretty fast, and in the space of two weeks, rookie Kyle Monangai has gone from hero to zero. The explosiveness and gritty runs we'd seen against Cincinnati and New York were absent on Sunday as Monangai picked up just 23 total yards on 12 carries. Making matters worse for Monangai and his quest to move up the depth chart, D'Andre Swift, one of the Bears' four biggest winners from Week 11, proved a dynamic force as churned out 90 yards on 21 carries.

Monangai did score Chicago's lone touchdown of the day, but he's going to need to be much better going forward if he wants to increase his workload.

Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

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