It was such a familiar setting. The Chicago Bears trailed late in the 4th quarter. They needed a touchdown to take the lead. Even if they did, the odds were they’d have to hold it somehow. The movie was one that fans had watched play out many times last year alone. Every time, the Bears crumbled when it mattered most. Ben Johnson was brought in to change that. It wouldn’t be easy. This locker room was still mentally beaten up from what happened last year. His first goal was instilling an air of mental toughness.
This started all the way back in June. Johnson understood that good teams are defined by how they respond in crisis situations.
“And two, with the mental toughness, something we’ve been preaching to our guys about is ‘How do we respond to adversity? How do we manage our emotions, maintain our focus and bounce back from setbacks?’ which is really the story of any season in the NFL.”
Sure enough, one of those moments arrived on Sunday. The Bears drove down the field with five minutes left and scored the go-ahead touchdown. Then things seemed to go wrong yet again.
They missed the two-point conversion, meaning a field goal for Las Vegas would likely win the game. Then they gave up a big return on the kickoff. It was over. They were going to wilt again. Then it happened. They got a stop with some time left and still had two timeouts. It wouldn’t matter, though. Josh Blackwell blocked the ensuing field goal attempt. Johnson summed up the moment after the game.
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“It’s easy to get frustrated, but we don’t panic. That’s not who we are, that’s not what we do.”
What Ben Johnson did these past two weeks can’t be understated.
The Bears were left for dead in Detroit after getting walloped 52-21. It would’ve been so easy to call it a season at that point. Everyone else was. Ben Johnson had no intention of doing that. He intensified practices that week to remind guys what they would need to do if they wanted to win. The Bears responded with a 31-14 thumping of Dallas. Going into Sunday, they knew the Raiders presented a challenge. It was a well-coached team with some outstanding players. They’d need a full 60 minutes to pull it out.
As has become tradition whenever these two franchises meet, it was tough, physical, and sloppy. The Bears couldn’t run the ball at all or stop the run. Geno Smith threw three interceptions. It would come down to who made the last mistake. Johnson made sure it was the Raiders, and the players followed his lead. These are the kinds of games that inspire belief. The Bears didn’t play their best, but they found a way. That is what winners do.
