The most disconcerting loss of Ben Johnson’s Bears career had everything Sunday — an offense that never found its rhythm, a defense that got beat by the deep ball and every turn and a special teams unit that missed its only field goal. There was a way-too-late quarterback switch and a pass rush that popped up for one out of 60 minutes.
The Bears never led, spending more than half the time trailing by two touchdowns in a game they’d lose 31-7. They committed five turnovers for the first time in three years to lose their sixth regular-season NFC North game in eight tries dating to last year. Bears players had their words thrown in their faces by the Packers, whose season was revived — saved? — on a day when their rival could have put them in their rear-view mirror. Even the postgame showers were cold, but just in the visitor’s locker room.
Johnson spent Monday trying to sort through what happened.
“We’ve got to be critical of ourselves, look in the mirror a little bit [Monday] and get that cleaned up and fixed,” Johnson said. “We’ve had some good meetings already. Looking forward to cleaning up our mess and fixing everything we need to fix as we prepare for Atlanta.”
What a mess it was.
“It’s run game, pass game — wasn’t what it was supposed to look like,” Johnson said. “And then cleaning up those explosive plays on defense.”
Fixing it will be the fiercest challenge of Johnson’s season, if not his young coaching career. Johnson’s most personal head-coaching loss was the 31-point shellacking he took in his Ford Field homecoming last year. But that was in his second-ever game as head coach, when no one expected his scheme or style to be fully formed.
Sunday’s blowout at the hands of his rival, by contrast, came with the Bears favored to win at Lambeau Field for the first time in 20 years. Expectations were different. The disappointment was greater.
Being humiliated by the rival Packers is a red flag that his predecessors haven’t had to confront in years. Matt Eberflus never lost by as many as 24 points at Lambeau Field. Neither did Matt Nagy or John Fox. The last time the Bears were so outclassed in Green Bay was a 55-14 loss in 2014 that set Marc Trestman down the road to unemployment. No one is suggesting Johnson is on that path. He won the NFC North last year and deserves credit for leading the Bears to consecutive victories with two different backups under center. It was clear after beating the Eagles and Jets that the star of the offense was the offense itself — and the man calling the plays. By that rationale, the reason the offense sputtered so greatly Sunday was the same man.
The Bears’ quarterback play will improve soon enough, whether Caleb Williams returns for Sunday’s game against the Falcons or the following Thursday against the Patriots. The same can’t be said for a two-faced defense that has given up 68 points over two games this season — and just 28 over the other three.
Johnson took responsibility for the Bears’ offensive play-calling and said coordinator Dennis Allen did the same on defense Monday after allowing Packers quarterback Jordan Love to throw for 367 yards.
“He’ll be the first one to tell you when there’s a bad call,” Johnson said. “But also [there were] a combination of bad rushes mixed in there. And bad coverage mixed in there. So really all three things showed up over the course of the game.”
To paraphrase something Fox said years ago: it was all a problem.
The worst part is who it was against — and how that affects the Bears’ postseason chances. The Bears went 2-4 in the North last season and still somehow found a way to win it. That won’t happen again.
The Bears are 3-2, yet last in the NFC North, the result of losing both their divisional games this season. The Vikings, who many thought were the worst team in the North, are 5-0 this season. The Packers are Lions are each 3-2. The former knew what was at stake, beyond just rivalry bragging rights, on Sunday.
“Against an NFC North opponent, against the Bears,” Love said. “We needed this one.”
The easiest path to the playoffs is to beat up on your division. Since Johnson took over, though, the Vikings lead the NFC North with a 6-2 record. The Packers are 5-3 and the Lions 2-4. The Bears are 2-6.
Johnson has won 25% of his regular-season divisional games, the same as Trestman. He could win his next five NFC North contests and still have a worse divisional winning percentage than Nagy did the day he was fired.
Johnson has been outscored by 66 points in eight games against the Packers, Lions and Vikings in his head coaching career. Outside the division, he’s a whopping 12-2, outscoring opponents by 115 points.
Sunday stung, then, for reasons that go beyond the 214-game rivalry series.
Johnson won’t have a chance to improve his divisional record until Thanksgiving, when he returns to Ford Field. By then, he might have new problems to fix.
“We’re a 3-2 football team,” Johnson said. “The part that stinks is that we’re 0-2 in the division right now. So we dug ourselves in a hole.”