Everything Ben Johnson Said (Including Blame & Excuses) After Bears’ Tough Loss vs Vikings

Monday night at Soldier Field was supposed to feel like a celebration for Ben Johnson’s first game running the Bears. Instead, fans walked out shaking their heads, wondering, ‘Wait…how did we blow that one?’ Ben Johnson talked positives and negatives post-game, and he had some interesting things to say.

The common denominator for the loss? Mistakes. “Obviously, a disappointing way to start the season there for us. (Took a pause) We just have a 17-6 lead and then see it go the way it did there in the fourth quarter. We said going into week 1 that the team that makes the least number of mistakes would win the game. But unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of that. We made too many there, late in the game. Myself included,” he said.

Yes, when you coughed up 21 points in the fourth quarter after sitting on a comfy two-score lead, mistakes are the only explanation. It was a messy string of self-inflicted wounds. First came the intentional grounding that nuked a key drive, then Cairo Santos pushed a 50-yarder wide, and from there, Minnesota suddenly turned into a late-game machine. And any coach’s worst nightmare played a part in that collapse: penalties.

“When you look down at the stat sheet and see 12 penalties, that’s got to get cleaned up in a hurry,” he added. Yep, 12 penalties for 127 yards for Chicago. That’s insane. It was the same stuff we saw bubbling up back in camp—those pre-snap jitters and delay-of-game flags. And sure enough, they showed up when it mattered most, killing momentum and driving fans nuts in the process.

Hence, a stark reminder. “We’ll find a way to get that done. It’s going to be a collective effort. No one’s pointing fingers,” Johnson noted. However, he couldn’t hide his admiration for Caleb Williams’ poise, even as his frustration with the offense’s overall inconsistency came through loud and clear.

“The offense was stalling out, some good, some bad. I thought Caleb played well for the most part, finding completions. We weren’t good enough on third and fourth downs,” Johnson added. Williams’ line looks solid enough on paper: 21-of-35 for 210 yards through the air, plus 58 on the ground and a 9-yard rushing score. Productive? Definitely. Perfect? Not quite.

Look at the offense, Chicago went just 3-of-12 on third downs. That’s the kind of number that tells the whole story: the offense just couldn’t keep drives alive when it mattered most. It is imperative to fix this imbalance. The running game wasn’t the best either. “The running game…I didn’t feel the rhythm as I was calling it. There was some good and some not-quite-good. It didn’t seem like we were on the same page at all the whole time,” Johnson said.

And when asked why the tight ends didn’t have more receptions, Johnson claimed that it came down to strategy. “Each game’s different, so they knew they were gonna have a workman-like approach. They were gonna be big factors in the run game and in the protection for us,” Johnson added. Cole Kmet hauled in just one catch for 31 yards on four targets, and rookie Colston Loveland barely got involved with 2 receptions for 12 yards. Well, that approach didn’t pan out too well. But amidst all of the letdowns, the defense held up. Up until the fourth quarter, at least.

The only positive from the Bears’ collapse

Yes, if the Bears did end up with a W there, the defense would’ve been the reason why. The almost seemed well-oiled for the most part. Too bad they couldn’t keep it up. But Ben Johnson didn’t waste any chance to give them their due credit. “Statistically I think that the defense did a really good job until the very end. That fourth quarter, things got away from us a little bit. Up until then, they kept us in the ball game,” he remarked.

Johnson’s props for the defense are well-earned. Through three quarters, Minnesota had only managed 6 points, and Nahshon Wright’s 74-yard pick-six was the kind of momentum swing that built that 17–6 cushion. Those are the kind of defensive plays that should’ve sealed the game. But here we are. The meltdown came in the fourth. That’s when J.J. McCarthy caught fire, and Minnesota suddenly dropped 21 points out of nowhere. Look at the quarter-by-quarter scoring and it jumps right off the page: Vikings 0–6–0–21, Bears 7–3–7–7. Insane turn around.

The worst part is that most of these mistakes are very much fixable. It mirrors what went down in the Ravens vs Bills matchup. Ravens bottled it in the fourth quarter because of self-inflicted wounds. Ben Johnson needs to work on this before week 2 against the Lions.