Are the Bears on the verge of something special under Ben Johnson? Their 25-24 victories over the Raiders and Commanders in back-to-back games have referenced some glorious — or at least encouraging — moments in recent Bears history:
• Two of the most exciting back-to-back victories since Mike Brown beat the 49ers and Browns with pick-sixes in overtime in 2001 — sparking a 13-3 season and a playoff berth.
• With 25 points in back-to-back games, the Bears are averaging 25.2 points per game — their highest scoring average through five games since 2018 (27.8), when they went 12-4 under Matt Nagy and won the NFC North.
• It’s the first time the Bears have won back-to-back road games with fans in the stands since 2019, when they beat the Broncos (16-14) at Mile High and Washington (31-15) at Fed Ex Field, improving Nagy’s record as Bears head coach to 14-5 (the best record through a Bears head coach’s first 19 games since George Halas went 16-1-2 in 1920-21).
• It’s the first time the Bears have won back-to-back games despite allowing 23 or more points since beating the Cowboys (45-28) and Browns (38-31) in 2013 to put them on the brink of a playoff berth at 8-6 in Marc Trestman’s first season.
Unfortunately, all those moments were fleeting. After 2001, the Bears went 4-12 and 7-9 and coach Dick Jauron was fired. After 2018, the Bears went 8-8, 8-8 and 6-10, and Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace were fired. In 2013, the Bears lost to the Eagles (54-11!) and Packers (33-28) in their final two games to miss the playoffs and imploded in 2014, and Trestman and general manager Phil Emery were fired.
The bar for the Ben Johnson era is set at sustained success — three consecutive winning/playoff seasons seems like a fair goal. The Bears haven’t done that since the Mike Ditka era (1984-88). But Johnson had a huge hand in the Lions accomplishing that in 2022-24 (9-8, no playoffs; 12-5, 15-2) for the first time since 1993-95, so it’s hardly a pie-in-the-sky ask.
It’s a little early to confirm that the Bears have “learned how to win.” They’ve won three straight, including two games they have lost several times under previous coaches. Then again, it took two plays that rarely happen — a blocked field goal and a weather-related bad handoff — to win the last two.
But Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams continue to bolster the argument that this is real. When Trestman promised to use the bye week to atone for a 51-23 loss to the Patriots in 2014, the Bears responded by trailing the Packers 42-0 at halftime in a 55-14 loss. When Johnson made a point to improve the run game over the bye week (“I take it personally, because I actually spend more time on the run game than I do on the passing game,” he said), the Bears responded by rushing for 145 yards on 27 carries (5.4 yards per carry) in the victory over the Commanders, with improved blocking clearly making the difference.
But after showing off his X’s-and-O’s/teaching chops last week, Johnson faces the challenge of management/leadership this week — avoiding a letdown on a short week against a 1-5 opponent that has lost eight of its last nine road games.
And if he passes that test, there will be another one the next week and the week after that. Nagy was good at the management/leadership part, until he wasn’t. One game, even one season, won’t be defining. There’s a long way to go, but the arrow is definitely pointing up.
2. Kudos to Johnson for acknowledging reality while addressing discontent with ESPN broadcaster Troy Aikman’s sometimes dismissive commentary Monday night — the Bears haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt.
This is a franchise that has had one winning season in the last 12, without a playoff victory and with quarterbacks failing at every turn. If you’re unhappy with Aikman and Joe Buck, direct your complaints to: George McCaskey, 1920 Football Drive, Lake Forest, IL, 60045.
3. The Bears aren’t getting much respect from the officials, but you have to earn that, as well. The Bears had nine penalties for 84 yards against the Commanders — many of them questionable calls that good teams get the benefit of the doubt on. The Commanders had five penalties for 40 yards.
The Bears lead the NFL with a minus-183 differential in penalty yards and are the only team in the NFL with a negative differential in penalty yards in every game this season.
4. Is Caleb Williams primed to take a giant leap? Williams’ improvement under Johnson has been significant if modest — his passer rating is up from 87.8 to 98.0; his sack percentage is down from 10.8% of his drop-backs to 5.9%. His passing yards per game are up from 208.3 to 235.8. And his yards per attempt are up from 6.3 to 7.4 while maintaining a low interception percentage (1.3% after 1.1% last year).
But it’s encouraging that he has accomplished that while his completion percentage has decreased — from 62.5% last year to 61.6% this year (including 58.6 and 59.5 in the victories over the Commanders and Raiders).
That’s likely to improve as Williams gets more acclimated to Johnson’s offense. In Jared Goff’s first season under Johnson in 2022, he completed 59.7% of his passes in his first five games — and 67.6% in his final 12. If Williams makes a similar improvement, his production figures to improve, perhaps dramatically. There’s no underestimating the importance of accuracy in today’s NFL offenses.
5. Bears fill-in field-goal kickers had made 11 consecutive attempts until Jake Moody’s 48-yarder was blocked Monday night. As it is, fill-ins are 11-for-13 since the end of the Robbie Gould era: Cairo Santos (1-for-2 for Connor Barth in 2017), Mike Nugent (4-for-4 for Barth in 2017), Michael Badgley (4-for-4 for Santos in 2022) and Moody (4-for-5 for Santos on Monday night).
6. Opportunity Knocking Dept.: The Bears’ next four opponents are a combined 6-18: the Saints (1-5), Ravens (1-5), Bengals (2-4) and Giants (2-4). The Bears could be 7-2 heading into the rematch against the Vikings on Nov. 16 at U.S. Bank Stadium.
7. Sunday’s game is technically a battle of last-place teams, with the Bears tied with the Vikings for third place but losing the tiebreaker. The NFC North, though, is the best division in football — 10-4-1 in non-division games.
Then again, the NFC North was 16-4 against non-division teams at this point last season and went 0-3 in the playoffs.
8. Quarterbacks from the 2023 and 2024 drafts are now 15-2 in the last three weeks — the Patriots’ Drake Maye (3-0), the Broncos’ Bo Nix (3-0), Williams (2-0), the Texans’ C.J. Stroud (2-0), the Falcons’ Michael Penix Jr. (2-0), the Panthers’ Bryce Young (2-1) and the Commanders’ Jayden Daniels (1-1).
The only two losses are to quarterbacks in those classes (Young to the Patriots; Daniels to the Bears), so the 2023-24 quarterback class is 13-0 against outside competition in the last three weeks.
9. Josh McCown Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Patriots defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga had four tackles, including a tackle for loss, in a 25-19 victory over the Saints. Tonga was Ryan Pace’s last draft pick as Bears GM in 2021 (seventh round).
10. Bear-ometer — 9-8: vs. Saints (W); at Ravens (W); at Bengals (W); vs. Giants (W); at Vikings (L); vs. Steelers (W); at Eagles (L); at Packers (L); vs. Browns (W); vs. Packers (L); at 49ers (L); vs. Lions (L).