Self-deprecation is often a trait for suckas. Lames. Losers. Joes who deep down know their destiny or worked-toward goal will never be met or achieved.
So when Bears coach Ben Johnson said after the “lucky” and/or “undeserved” win over the Bengals last week, “We found a way [to win], and we won’t feel bad for that,” it was the symphony of finesse and delicacy needed for the moment. It was everything that needed to be said in one sentence. Saying anything less — to apologize, to feel sorry for self — would’ve been a straight sucka move. And the Bears have had to deal with enough of that in the past.
There was a win on a blocked field goal with 38 seconds left. There was a win after an opponent’s uncharacteristic fumbled handoff on third-and-one with 3:10 left. There was a win after being down by one with 25 seconds to go and an opponent missing a tackle. In games that shouldn’t have been close to begin with. You actually should feel bad if your team is better on all accounts as those performances don’t reflect who your team is nor what the team can do in any given 60 minutes.
But Johnson knows his words are exactly what one says to the rest of the world when you inherit the history he did.
Be that as it is, there should be some bad feelings living and breathing well throughout the organization. At Halas Hall, at Soldier Field, on the team plane, on the practice field and in the locker room, on every player’s car ride home. We, the public, just don’t need to know about it. At least not yet. It’s too soon. The situation isn’t far enough removed from the self-inflicted disembowelment of last season. And the season before. And . . .
The foundation is still too sensitive.
For Johnson or anyone else associated with the Bears to say anything else besides not feeling bad about what’s beneath their 5-3, right-in-the-mix-for-the-playoffs record would only tap into a universal feeling of honesty that doesn’t need “insider” confirmation just now. “Oh, I’m so sorry your husband or wife just left you, but you were cheating on them.” Could be facts, but that’s neither what needs to be said nor heard only 10 weeks into a new marriage. Too soon.
In this game, teams are what their record says they are. Kinda. There are stories those W-L numbers often refuse to admit. The Weeks 7-10 stretch — Saints, Ravens, Bengals and Giants — going in was set up to be the luckiest run of any team in the NFC.
Set up — by the one-win Saints simply being the Aints, the Ravens playing without Lamar Jackson, the defensively dysfunctional Bengals playing sans Joe Burrow and Trey Hendrickson and the Giants being without Malik Nabers and rookie sensation Cam Skattebo and with backup rookie QB Jaxson Dart starting only his seventh game — so that by the time the Bears play the Vikings next week, they’d be 7-2.
They would be an unflappable “we know who we are” team, totally different than the one the Vikes faced in Week 1.
But the Bears won’t be, which gives “finding a way” perspective, making “finding a way” — while acceptable and situational — no longer enough. Wins now must send messages to every team the Bears defeat and to themselves. Slouch games create slouch results, right? And Caleb Williams, who speaks for the team, doesn’t believe in slouch games.
Slouch games are for suckas.
There’s a subtle winsomeness in Johnson and the Bears reading the room as accurately as they have, knowing they won’t be able to get away with “finding a way” for much longer, especially with the games ahead as they enter the second half of the season.
For them, a win is no longer just a win. Not anymore. The victories ahead have to mean more than their losses, which at this midway point hasn’t been the case. Even as their record is their reality, they’re better than that. The record for the rest of the season should reflect it. Those barely wins over bottom-feeding and injury-depleted teams and those losses to teams who were at the bottom having brunch with the teams the Bears barely beat have to end.
Own the rest of 2025 if you can because we all know after this week — with the Lions and Packers and Vikings (oh, my!), with the Eagles and 49ers all in foresight and the NFC North up for grabs — we’re about to find out if you all are the new Bears everyone has been waiting on or just another set of suckas with VHM patches on your jerseys. A team that eventually Johnson doesn’t have to start apologizing for.
The challenge is awaiting the Bears to discover their best selves. It’s just a matter of: Do they want to continue to inconsistently meet the moments, or do they want to create moments that prove they’re unapologetically here? “We trust in Ben,” is how wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus put it. In Ben, they trust. To transition traits into behavior. To create an atmosphere where “finding a way” is no longer an option.