The Chicago Bears hung on for a narrow 25-24 victory on the road at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday, handing the Raiders their third loss in the season’s first four games, and dropping their home record to 0-2. The Bears, meanwhile evened things up for themselves at 2-2 with the 800th win franchise history.
That total ranks second the NFL annals, topped only the 812 won by the Green Bay Packers, and makes Chicago only the second team in NFL history to win at least 800 games on the gridiron.
This win was made possible by cornerback Josh Blackwell who executed the most important special teams play of the Bears’ season, when he blocked a 54-yard field goal try by Las Vegas kicker Daniel Carlson with just 38 seconds remaining in the game.
The field goal would have put the Raiders ahead by two points and almost certainly sealed a Las Vegas “W.”
Johnson in Trouble For Contentious Sideline Interview
Bears head coach Ben Johnson called the victory “a huge character win for our team,” but it was Johnson’s own character than was called into question in the game, not due to anything he did to coach the Bears or any decision he made â but by an incident broadcast by CBS between the second and third quarters, when Johnson came out back onto the field after halftime.
As has become standard practice on network broadcasts, coaches stop for quick-hit interviews going into or coming out of halftime, with the broadcast team’s sideline reporter usually throwing a few, mostly very general questions the coach’s way and getting largely perfunctory responses in return.
Johnson Gives Snarky Response to Reporter
Networks have been incorporating the coach interviews into their broadcasts for several years, but originally it was optional for the coaches to cooperate with the stop-and-chat segments. But starting last season, the NFL made halftime head coach interviews mandatory for the coaches, either as they head into the locker room after the second quarter or come back out during the third.
On Sunday, Johnson was stopped as he headed out for the third quarter by veteran sideline reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala, who asked Johnson about the Bears’ offensive struggles in the first half when they put up only nine points and trailed by five at the break.
When Kinkhabwala asked Johnson, “Do you need to change what you’re doing,” he paused and seemed to give her a brief death stare before answering sarcastically, “I donât know, you think so?”
Fans React to Johnson Interview
Fans online were not thrilled, to say the least, with what they saw as Johnson’s testy reply, which appeared as some kid of power play on the female reporter.
“Absolutely immature by him. Aditi deserves better,” wrote one viewer on X (formerly Twitter).
“She is amazing and she can handle this,” wrote another. “I think itâs a d*** move by him.”
“He was completely out of line for that,” another online fan wrote. Yet another added, “That Ben Johnson interview didnât sit right with me.”
Some Viewers Take Johnson’s Side in Controversy
Not all viewers sided with Kinkhabwala, however. John Simmons of the publication Outkick, wrote after the game that though he might normally “say the coach overreacted,” he criticized the CBS reporter for asking “her questions with a high-level of snark that was unbecoming of a sideline reporter. I donât blame Johnson for getting extra frustrated in his second response. Kinkhabwala failed to maintain a strong level of professionalism.”
The Bears have a bye next week, then return on October 13 for an ESPN Monday Night Football game against the Washington Commanders, meaning that Johnson and Kinkhabwala will not be revisiting their on-air confrontation anytime soon.
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