As the Bears stacked up wins with narrow escapes to put themselves atop the NFC North and firmly in the playoff race for the first time in years, coach Ben Johnson never declared an arrival.
The only promise he made was that his team would be ready to compete with anyone by this point in the season, and the Bears proved him right Friday with a 24-15 victory over the Eagles.
It was their most impressive win of the season. And not only did it keep them in front of the Packers in the division and clinch their first winning season since 2018, it sent an emphatic message to the rest of the NFL: The Bears are for real.
No more qualifiers. No more asterisks. They just went on the road and beat the reigning champs.
As he has for most of the season, Johnson had all the answers Friday.
No matter what all else the Bears still need to figure out with their roster, including pushing quarterback Caleb Williams to the next level, they’re in capable hands with Johnson.
He’s unveiled some splashy trick plays this season, but the real secrets to his success have been fine-tuning the Bears’ young talent, consistently staying one step ahead of his opponents and being able to pivot mid-game. Failures in all three of those facets tripped up predecessors Matt Eberflus and Matt Nagy, but Johnson, even as a first-year head coach, walked in the door with those abilities.
The evidence was everywhere against the Eagles.
Running back D’Andre Swift ran for 125 yards and a touchdown, and has looked like a completely different player than he was last season. His partner, rookie seventh-round pick Kyle Monangai, piled up 130 and a touchdown. Monangai was the 22nd running back drafted this year, but ranks third in his class in yardage.
Johnson had a vision for how he wanted the running game to look and reached outside his circle to hire running backs coach Eric Bieniemy to establish it. Swift and Monangai combined to average 6.4 yards per carry.
Rookie tight end Colston Loveland and wide receiver Luther Burden both are expanding their roles in the offense, and that only happens with individual improvement and adherence to how Johnson wants them to play.
Johnson was in lockstep with veteran quarterback Jared Goff when he was the Lions’ offensive coordinator, but has adapted well to working with Williams and struck an ideal balance between providing him margin as he grows and holding him accountable.
Williams struggled for most of the game Friday, but Johnson had no problem relying on the rushing attack. It would’ve been hard to imagine the Bears pulling off a win like that on a day when their quarterback completed 17 of 36 passes for 154 yards with a touchdown and an interception for a season-low 56.9 passer rating, but Johnson found a way to work around that.
Williams was strong at the end, as he often has been, and closed the game with six consecutive completions totaling 64 yards, including the 28-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cole Kmet with 6:19 left to put the Bears ahead 24-9 and bury the Eagles.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen was sharp, too. He’s been making the best of challenging situations all season, mostly because of injuries, and that’s another credit to Johnson.
Eberflus and Nagy couldn’t straighten out their own side of the ball, let alone make the right hire on the opposite side. Johnson went strictly on merit with Allen, whom he’d never met before talking to him about the job opening.
The Bears were here before with Nagy in 2018, his first season. They started 8-3 and finished 12-4 with the North crown. Then they sputtered in the playoffs and went 22-27 the next three seasons.
But this feels different. Johnson isn’t winning with gimmicks or because he was gifted a world-class defense to cover for him. The way he’s running the Bears is sound and straightforward, and it’s going to work regardless of the ups and downs of his personnel.
There’s still a tough road ahead for the Bears, continuing next week against the Packers at Lambeau Field, but doubts are dissipating. It finally feels safe to hope.
If they can beat the Eagles, why can’t they stand nose-to-nose with the Packers, Lions and others? The Eagles are in a slump, true, but they still beat the other three NFC North teams.
The Bears likely need only one more win to secure a playoff spot, and that alone would be a landmark for them. But Johnson never set his sights that low. He came from a team that was in championship-or-bust mode, and that’s how he thinks.
He knows this is progress. He also knows it’s not enough.
