For most teams, a win as dramatic as the one that the Chicago Bears secured over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon would be enough to send the fanbase into a full-blown frenzy, but in all honesty, this win was about a 4.5 out of 10 on the ‘How the hell did they pull that off’ scale for the 2025 Chicago Bears, a vintage of this storied franchise that is becoming increasingly lovable by the week.
There’s a whole lot I could say about this game — including how I wish that Aaron Rodgers had played (and lost) in this game today, because I’m convinced that this vintage of Rodgers is no better than Mason Rudolph — but you came here to get a taste of what Ben Johnson had to say following the win. As usual, I’ll be sure to include some of my thoughts in italics, but for now, let’s kick it to coach!
Ben Johnson’s opening statement… “Really proud of the guys. Thought they did a phenomenal job just responding. I know we were decimated in certain areas, and the easy thing is to say woe is me, but our guys didn’t do that. They stepped up and kept battling through. Happens to most teams each season, where your depth gets tested. It just so happens it was this week for us.”
This week it certainly came, but there hasn’t been a single game all season where this defense has been totally healthy. Not a one. With Tremaine Edmunds heading to the IR, that means Edmunds, Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon, and TJ Edwards all have missed at least five games. It’s a good thing nobody in the Bears locker room isn’t saying woe is me, because I definitely have.
Johnson on whether he believes Tremaine Edmunds will be back during the 2025 season… “I think so, yeah.”
You hear that sound just now? That was the sound of hundreds of thousands of Bears fans breathing a sigh of relief.
Johnson on the skeleton crew of linebackers in Chicago’s line-up today… “Can’t say enough good things about the linebackers that stepped up in that game. D-Jack (D’Marco Jackson) was our starting Mike. He called that game, he was the green dot. I thought he did a great job. We thought Ruben (Hyppolite) was gonna be our Will linebacker, and he goes down with the injury early in the game, and Amen (Ogbongbemiga) comes in and he doesn’t miss a beat for a guy that hasn’t played a lot of football this year.”
I’ve gotta say, it wasn’t a great performance by the defense, and you could absolutely feel that the Bears were without their top three linebackers on Sunday afternoon, but this group of newcomers played their tails off today. For the game, Jackson and Ogbongbemiga combined for 29 tackles. Well done, fellas.
Johnson on Dennis Allen’s ability to get the most out of a depleted defense… “You can’t understate the importance of these guys. I’m talking about the coaching staff. That’s all three phases. They do a phenomenal job of piecing this thing together. We meet early in the week and kind of forecast how we think it’s gonna go, and then the week of practice dictates who is going to be up and who is going to be down. Each week’s a little bit different story and you’ve got different guys stepping up and answering that bell.”
You know this one meant just a little bit more to Dennis Allen considering his history with Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
Johnson on the performance of Montez Sweat… “He’s been heating up since the bye week. Each week he seems to impact the game a little bit more. I think he had two (sacks), is that right? And had a chance for a third from my count. It’s good to see that come on. I feel him, I feel Grady (Jarrett), I feel Book (Austin Booker). I feel all those guys.”
For the record, Montez Sweat in the seven games since the bye week: 24 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, 9 QB hits
Johnson on playing complementary football, with the offense scoring touchdowns after each of the defense’s takeaways… “It’s something that we love to do. We’ve had so many takeaways this year, our defense, it’s part of their calling card. We’ve done a solid job of capitalizing on that. I think we’re second in the league in points off turnovers. We really needed that today. You certainly felt it, with Shonny’s (NahShon Wright) interception there on the sideline, the whole sideline kind of ignited, gave us a spark, and the offense was able to capitalize on that and give us our first touchdown.”
I love the complementary football aspect of all of this, but can we stop for a second and just appreciate what a sensational interception this was on the sideline?
Johnson on the free-play touchdown pass from Caleb Williams to DJ Moore… “It was something that we thought we might be able to get them to jump offsides. It’s such a good pass rushing group, we were trying to find ways to slow them down a little bit. That was an opportunity to work our cadence and I thought the execution of it was really well done. Something we’ve been working on since the spring time, through training camp, and everybody on offense has slowly but surely gotten better at that.”
Can you imagine Matt Eberflus stepping up to the microphone in a press conference and talk about something like the intricacies of game planning against a pass rush by weaponizing the cadence? My God, we have a real head coach, don’t we!?
Johnson on what the team will focus on with the short week ahead… “It’s something we’ve been mindful of the moment the schedule came out, so I know our defensive coaches were certainly in the office a little bit later towards the end of the week there getting ahead. We’ll have some coaches go into the office after the game here tonight. Then tomorrow it’s going to be full steam ahead.”
What’s great is, no matter what the result is on Black Friday, I’ll have so many Thanksgiving leftovers to choose from to either eat my sadness away or celebrate the victory with a feast fit for a king. Or at least one for a moderately overweight fan of the Chicago Bears.
Johnson on what his message to the team was after finding out Aaron Rodgers wasn’t going to play… “Nothing. We just keep playing. It doesn’t matter who is playing.”
See, what did I tell you? Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph… same guy. Those aren’t just my words. Ben Johnson is saying it too.
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