With a 26-14 win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday afternoon, the Chicago Bears have officially dug themselves out of an 0-2 hole in convincing fashion, as they’ll head into Week 8 of the NFL season with a four-game winning streak in tact. But before you assume that first-year head coach Ben Johnson is going to be pleased about his team’s progress, you need to remember one thing… we’re talking a competitive psychopath, and I say that with so much love, respect and admiration for the man.
Considering how many penalties, turnovers — and near-turnovers — and chances left on the table there were, I wouldn’t expect that the Bears locker room will be quite as jovial as it has in weeks past, and I certainly wouldn’t expect that this week’s film session and the next couple practices will be too pleasant.
But hey, that’s just my assumption. You can be the judge based on what Ben Johnson had to say in his post-game remarks.
Ben Johnson’s opening statement… “I think this game really started and finished there with our defense. They just did a phenomenal job throughout. When you look at the critical numbers, it was 44 yards rushing, I saw four sacks and four turnovers. Credit to Dennis Allen and his crew. They’re doing a great job of getting us the ball on offense with great field position, and it certainly gives us a ton of momentum in games like that.”
“The 200 yards rushing, I think both ball-carriers ran physical, ran violent, but huge credit to our offensive line and the tight ends in that core blocking unit, because you could feel that line of scrimmage move at times and our backs found the holes.”
As I mentioned here, it was old-school Chicago Bears football that got the job done against the Saints. Forcing turnovers and running the ball is what this franchise was built on, and even though Ben Johnson’s offense may look a whole lot different than the one that George Halas, Bronko Nagurski and Sid Luckman had success with 80 years ago, the mindset is the same.
Johnson on cleaning things up and what his message to the team will be… “I think that’s the benefit of when you win, you can usually coach a little bit harder. We’re always truth-tellers, on Monday in particular. When it’s good, we tell them it’s good. When it’s bad, we’ll tell them what we’ve got to clean up. There are a number of things there today that we can get better at.”
At this point, Ben Johnson must sound like a broken record whenever he tells his players that the penalties — some of which have been admittedly iffy calls — are a serious hinderance, but we can’t just look beyond the fact that Chicago is being penalized nine times per game this season. As Daryl Johnston noted on the broadcast, it was John Madden who once claimed that accumulating 100 yards in penalties is the equivalent of giving up 7 points.
Today, the Bears had 92 yards in penalties. Not quite 7 points, but still a huge problem.
Johnson on his overall assessment of the Bears offense thus far… “(Motions going up and down with his hand) Up and down. That’s what we’ve looked like. We haven’t hit our stride yet. Offensively, we’re capable of a lot more. We have very talented individuals, I feel very strongly in our coaching staff, but we’re not complimenting our defense on a regular basis. With the numbers of turnovers we’ve had over the last four games, we should be able to turn those into more points.”
Wait a second, did Ben Johnson just crack a smile when talking about his offense’s up and down performance? As a matter of fact, he did.
Johnson on establishing the run coming out of Chicago’s Week 5 bye… “We’ve been pretty consistent with that message that it was just gonna take a little bit of time to get our O-Line on the same page and feel good about their fits and their combinations and I think that’s starting to come together. You accumulate the reps over the course of camp and through these first five games, and I think you start to see it come to life here.”
We can’t possible overstate how crucial this has been to Chicago’s success the last two weeks. There wasn’t even a glimmer of hope after the first few weeks of the season that the Bears rushing attack was set to get on track. But the bye week — and potentially making the swap for Theo Benedet in place of Braxton Jones — was what this team needed.
Johnson on D’Andre Swift’s output the last two weeks… “Swift has done a great job here these last two weeks. We’re at the point in the season now where no one feels 100 percent anymore. That’s what it’s gonna be the rest of the way. Their bodies don’t feel good. And yet, you still show up and find a way to be there for your teammate next to you, and Swifty certainly exemplifies that.”
These last two games represent only the third time in D’Andre Swift’s NFL career that he’s had 100 yards in back to back weeks.
Ben Johnson Praises Effort and Output of Bears Defense
Johnson on New Orleans’ two scoring drives in the middle eight… “I put the before half on us offensively as much as giving up that big play on defense. We had that three and out, we had control of possessing of that ball before halftime and we didn’t do a good enough job. I think that’s two weeks in a row there that we’ve had a three and out before halftime. Something that we practice and really stress, and we’re not getting the job done there. So we’re putting the defense in a bad spot.”
Man, practice is going to be absolute hell for the offense this week. The one critique Ben Johnson could have of his defense he threw right back onto the Bears offense. And frankly, he’s not totally off-base here.
Johnson on the Bears defense continuing to force turnovers… “You know, they come in bunches and these guys, we’ve got a method in place of how we want to practice it. Dennis does a great job instilling that confidence in those guys, putting them in the right spot. When the ball touches their hands, they’re coming down with it. We don’t have many drops on that side of the ball. They’re very conscious of it, when it’s a running play trying to punch at that ball and get it out. It’s really working for us, and our team really needs it.”
Amazing but true: Not even the 2006 Chicago Bears team that went to the Super Bowl had a four-game stretch in which the defense forced at least three turnovers in every game.
Johnson on Dennis Allen facing his former team and the defense’s performance… “He certainly led the charge. We don’t win that game if they don’t play that well. They just did an outstanding job, and you kind of felt it over the course of the week, with the two practices we were able to get in that schematically he had some really good thoughts that were gonna put some stress on the offense, and I thought the defense knew where to be, what they were looking for.”
Dennis Allen was in his bag on Sunday afternoon, and if the Bears continue to be able to stop the run like they have each of the last two weeks, this could be a truly dangerous defense, so long as they don’t get bit by that damn injury bug that caused so many problems over the first few weeks of the season.
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