It took 60 minutes of ugly, frustrating football, but the Chicago Bears got the job done in a Week 4 matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders, departing Sin City with a 25-24 win thanks to an afternoon of superb special teams play, some timely forced turnovers by the defense, and just enough from Caleb Williams and the offense to avoid a 1-3 hole to begin the year.
Now the Bears find themselves right at .500 heading into a much-needed bye week. There are still plenty of kinks to work out on both sides of the ball and no shortage of players who could use the extra seven days of rest in order to recover before heading to Washington for a primetime showdown in Week 6.
After the dust had settled, Bears head coach Ben Johnson stepped up to the podium to speak about all facets of the victory.
Ben Johnson’s Opening Statement… “I’m proud of our guys, they came through for us. We’re building something special here and I think they’re feeling it. Just the belief they have in each other, the belief they have in this coaching staff, I thought it really shone through. This was a huge win for our team, finding a way in the 4th quarter to come out on top, I just thought that was outstanding for us. Proud of our guys, proud of our locker room.”
One thing that Kevin Byard noted in his locker room speech following the win was how the book for this Bears team is that when things get tough, they’ll fold. This game was one that the Bears would’ve lost at any point in the Matt Eberflus era or the Matt Nagy era. But things just might be different this year, and if not this year, then in the next couple of years to come.
Johnson on Josh Blackwell’s game-clinching blocked field goal… “He came through for us right when we needed it. I’m listening on the headset, and coach Hightower, who does such an incredible job with our special teams unit in all those phases, he’s kind of narrating it in real-time. And he’s like, ‘Blackwell’s gonna get this one for us, he’s gonna come through.’ And sure enough, it came to light just like he thought.”
Boy did it.
Johnson on the message to Caleb Williams and the Bears offense ahead of their final scoring drive of the game… “I remember talking to Caleb before he took the field, and I said ‘this is what you’re built for.’ These are the moments that he thrives in the most, I think that’s really been the story of his life to be honest with you. And I know he came through for us in a big way.”
On the 11 play, 69 yard scoring drive that gave the Bears a 25-24 lead with under two minutes to go, Caleb Williams completed 4 of 5 passers for 42 yards and added 18 yards on the ground as well. Frankly, it was all you could’ve asked for out of him.
Johnson on Chicago’s struggles with Maxx Crosby and the Raiders pass rush… “That was a heck of a pass rush. We knew what 98 was capable of, and the rest of those guys are really hard blocks as well. So for us to look up and we only had one sack, it certainly felt a lot worse than that because Caleb was having to elude a lot and continue to evade that rush.”
Caleb Williams was sacked only one time, but he had more spectacular escapes in Las Vegas than Criss Angel does at any one of his shows at Planet Hollywood on the Strip.
Johnson on pulling Braxton Jones and giving Ozzy Trapilo his first prolonged action… “We knew going into the game that Ozzy was likely to get some snaps for us. He’s a guy that just keeps getting better each and every week. We were just at the point where we weren’t doing a whole lot on offense and we felt like that might give us a little bit of spark and ignite us a little bit on offense.”
I don’t know that inserting Ozzy Trapilo to start the 2nd half was the spark the Bears needed, but I do know that it Trapilo certainly wasn’t as much of a liability as many rookie tackles would be in this spot, and in my eyes, that’s a win.
Ben Johnson Breaks Down the Performance of the Bears Defense
Johnson on the offenses inability to capitalize on the four turnovers caused by Chicago’s defense… “I could see where the defense would get frustrated with the offense, and I could see where the offense would get frustrated with ourselves, and that didn’t happen. Everyone stayed the course, no one panicked whatsoever.”
Chicago had four red zone possessions — three of which came off of Raiders turnovers — and they only scored a touchdown on one of them.
Johnson on Ashton Jeanty’s big day… “He’s so compact that you have to hit him a certain way to bring him down. It’s really hard for one individual to bring him down, and I thought you saw that time and time again. Arm tackles are not gonna do it. It’s gonna take a swarming mentality from the whole defense, and if it is just one man, you have to hit him just right to bring him to the ground. We had a plan to look to contain him, and he got after us pretty good.”
Jeanty finished the game with 155 total yards and 3 touchdowns on 23 touches. There were at least a half dozen times during this game when I wondered, ‘Man, why didn’t Ryan Poles just overwhelm the Raiders with a Godfather offer to move up to the 6th pick to take this kid?’ There’s a chance we get to the end of the season and are already talking about Ashton Jeanty as the best running back in the NFL.
Johnson on turnovers being a necessary ingredient in securing a win on the road… “Golly, we talked about it last night how we were gonna need to get some turnovers on the road here to get our first road win. Those guys came through. (Kevin) Byard came through with two of them. I thought Tyrique (Stevenson) had one of the more athletic plays I’ve seen. The way he bounced up after that, I thought was incredible. We don’t win that game without those turnovers.”
When you’re bottom five in the league in scoring, as the Bears are through four weeks, the only way you can survive is by turning your opponents over, and presently, Chicago ranks 3rd in the league with 9 forced turnovers.
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