CHICAGO (WGN) — A journey of a thousand miles often begins with a single step, and sometimes that first step can be ugly, case and point being the Chicago Bears’ Week 1 performance against the Minnesota Vikings under rookie head coach Ben Johnson.
But as painful as Monday night felt for anyone associated with the navy and orange, it’s still not a reason to jump ship. Not yet anyway. There’s beauty hidden in the madness that unfolded.
What felt like a treasure trove of anticipation exploded with pomp and circumstance at the conclusion of the Bears’ first drive of the season.
Caleb Williams showed command of the offense. He delivered passes on time and in rhythm. Then he showed off all the other aspects of his game that make him the highly-lauded quarterback he is—the off-schedule improvisation, the arm talent and the ability to use his legs to make plays in the run game.
After Williams scampered inside the left pylon for a 9-yard touchdown near the 7-minute mark, a collective sigh of relief could be felt from Bears fandom. It was a “pinch me” moment that left one wondering, “Is this really happening? I can’t believe this is the Bears team I’m watching right now.”
The defense took the baton from the offense and kept the good times flowing. After quickly dispatching the Vikings’ offense on the game-opening drive, Dayo Odeyingbo tripped up JJ McCarthy on third down for the Bears’ second sack of the game, and sent Minnesota to its second consecutive three-and-out.
The magic even carried over into the beginning of Chicago’s next offensive possession. A graphic flashed across the ESPN broadcast as the clock ticked under two minutes to go in the first quarter.
Williams had just completed his tenth pass in a row to start the game. It was the most consecutive completions from a Bears quarterback to start a season opener since 1978, according to ESPN.
Then, as it has so often for Chicago, everything came slowly crashing down.
Williams’ accuracy faded with each passing second. After starting out the game 10-for-10, he completed only 11 of his final 25 passes, which included key misses to DJ Moore on fourth down, and Cole Kmet later that night.
“Missed it right in front of [Kmet]. It’s frustrating because we did everything perfect all the way up to that, then just missed,” Williams said after the game. “Yeah, DJ, same thing. Just missed right in front of him. Wide open. Moved the backer, came back, missed the same spot, same route.
“Like I said, it’s frustrating, something you practice on throughout the whole week, something that I’ll be better with, something you have to hit in those moments.”
Critical mistakes on special teams deflated the Bears faster than a tire running over a pot hole Lake Shore Drive—namely the Cairo Santos missed field goal to start the fourth quarter, and the botched kickoff following the Rome Odunze touchdown with 2:02 in game clock to spare.
“The intent was for the ball to go out of the end zone,” said Johnson, who said they considered going for the onside, but decided against it. “We felt like if we would have kicked it out of the end zone, gotten the three-and-out, we’d have gotten the ball back with about 56 seconds.”
Then there was the inefficiency of D’Andre Swift, who looked like he was trying to run through a brick wall in Timbs for most of the night. Swift tallied 53 yards on 17 carries—a number that equates to only 3.1 yards each time he was handed the ball.
“The running game, I didn’t feel in rhythm as I was calling it,” Johnson said. “There was some good, some not quite so good. Didn’t seem like we were all on the same page the whole time. Like I said, that’s a reflection of me as much as anything else.”
And don’t forget the penalties. Ooooohhhhh, the penalties.
Chicago saw yellow flags rain down on them like mustard on hot dogs at Portillo’s. By the final whistle, the Bears were called for 12 penalties that cost them 127 yards, the biggest being Nahshon Wright’s 42-yard defensive pass interference call on the first play of the second quarter.
“When you look down at the stat sheet and you see 12 penalties, that’s got to get cleaned up in a hurry, yet we’ve been saying that all training camp, as well,” Johnson said. “We’ll find a way to get that done. It’s going to be a collective effort. No one’s pointing fingers.”
While no one’s pointing fingers inside Halas Hall right now, there certainly are plenty who are outside of it, and that number will only continue to grow if struggles continue to transpire.
I’m just here to tell that crowd to pump the brakes and take a deep breath. Good things take time, and there are concrete examples of progress, even if it feels like the bad outweighs the good right now.
The best example of that is what has already been described. The Bears scored a touchdown on their first drive of the evening. That’s something they failed to do all 17 times last year under Matt Eberflus, Shane Waldron and Thomas Brown.
Now, stepping back to look at the landscape from a broader perspective, I’d like to say I’m a bit different from the traditional brood of sports writers and columnists around Chicago.
For starters, I’m not from here. I’m a born and raised Michigander who grew up an hour and ten minutes west of Detroit. It’s an upbringing that has endeared me to similar themes in a different midwestern setting
That, of course, includes dealing with beleaguered professional football franchises.
While Bears fans writhe in pain and claim “woe is me” over the ineptitude of their franchise, I get it, but I also roll my eyes.
Clearly, some people don’t know what it’s like to grow up with a football team that went an entire season without a win, has never appeared in a Super Bowl, and wasted generational talents like Barry Sanders, Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford across three different decades.
Imagine if the 1985 Bears pooped their pants in the divisional round against the New York Giants and Walter Payton never got a ring, or Kyle Orton led the 2008 Bears to a winless record the year before Jay Cutler arrived.
It can be a much more painful existence, folks. Trust me.
Now, given my roots, it should be no surprise I’m inherently drawn toward paying attention to the Lions, and that I’ve spent a healthy amount of time with Johnson under the magnifying glass. It’s a portion of my life that goes back years before Chicago became infatuated with the next wiz kid with a clipboard and a playbook.
Something I’ve noticed from those who root for the Bears is how they’ve been gripped by the tantalizing allure of instant gratification, rife with visions of early-season 40 burgers dancing in their minds like Jim McMahon moving to the beat of the Super Bowl Shuffle.
The thing is, the NFL-best offenses Johnson became so well known for in Detroit didn’t develop overnight.
In fact, they took about a year and a half.
Dan Campbell was hired to take over the Lions ahead of the 2021 season. Johnson was retained from Detroit’s previous regime, and Campbell originally employed him as his tight ends coach.
After the Lions started 0-8 during Campbell’s maiden voyage, then-offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn was stripped of play-calling duties, and Johnson was promoted to pass game coordinator.
The promotion came with keys to a Motor City muscle car, but what were the early returns?
Johnson’s offense scored 29-plus points in four of the Lions’ final nine games that season. After scoring more than 20 points only once in their first eight contests, they went 3-5-1 after a winless crusade.
Jared Goff started six of those nine contests, and threw for 1,250 yards (208.3 yards per game—the same number Williams averaged during his rookie season) with 11 TD passes, two interceptions and two fumbles lost.
A promising start to Johnson’s play-calling career, which also sputtered for the first six weeks of the 2022 NFL season.
Three years ago, Detroit started 1-5. Goff went 132-212 (62.3%) for 1,583 yards with 11 TD passes, six interceptions and three fumbles lost. What little momentum the Lions had seemed lost. Detroit fans saw nothing but the “Same Old Lions,” a franchise doomed to toil in its ineptitude for all eternity.
But instead of hitting the panic button, Lions’ leadership pressed forward with patience and perseverance. They believed in Campbell, and by extension, Johnson at the helm of their offense.
That’s when everything started to click.
Goff ascended and played like a Top-8 quarterback in the NFL. Over Detroit’s final 11 games of the 2022 season, the Lions went 8-3, while Goff completed 250 of 375 passes for 2,855 yards with 18 TD passes and just two turnovers—one interception and one fumble lost.
Detroit finished 9-8 in 2022. They knocked the Green Bay Packers out of the playoffs on the final day of the regular season, and Fighting Illini-alum Kerby Joseph picked off Aaron Rodgers on his final pass as a Packer, all despite being eliminated from playoff contention themselves at halftime.
What happened next for the Lions is history—the highest scoring offense in the NFL from 2022-24, 27 wins over the past two seasons, two playoff wins, and a 2024 Detroit offense that scored the fourth-most points by a team all-time.
So, while Monday wasn’t anything like how Detroit played with Johnson on their staff, proof of concept is still there. It took 12 games for Johnson and Goff to age like a fine wine and strike lightning with the Lions.
Here’s to hoping the thunder now rumbles over Chicago. The city’s been craving a lightning strike they’ve never seen, and I believe it’s still coming—with Williams under center and Johnson calling the plays. It may just take time.
“I think that’s the beauty of this city. They love their sports. I embrace it,” Johnson said Tuesday. “That’s a big reason why I wanted to come here—is because these people care. They want a good product. They’re desperate for a winner. Really, we were all frustrated that a game like that, we didn’t come away with a win. We certainly had a chance there, going into the fourth quarter, and when you walk away with a loss, I think that everyone is disappointed.
“We’ll address it, we’ll clean it up and we’ll keep it moving.”
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