Ben Johnson did so much to get the Chicago Bears to the precipice of the NFC championship game. Sadly, it wasn’t quite enough. Sunday night’s defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams saw plenty of blame to go around. Caleb Williams threw some bad interceptions. Rome Odunze and the receivers had some ugly drops. The team did not play efficiently. That goes for Johnson as well, who made some questionable decisions throughout the evening. Most will pinpoint his decision to pass on some field goal opportunities earlier in the game. However, the one that had the most people shocked came in the final seconds of regulation.
It came right after Caleb Williams delivered that all-time great touchdown pass on 4th down to make it 17-16. The stadium was rocking. Los Angeles was in disbelief. Immediately, the calls began going out: go for two. Get the conversion and win the game. Instead, Johnson took the safer bet by kicking the extra point and forcing overtime. Obviously, we all know the result after that. The Rams prevailed on a game-winning field goal after a Williams interception.
So why did Johnson not go for the win? He explained his reasoning post-game. It came down to the Bears’ struggles in short yardage.
Ben Johnson makes a perfectly reasonable point.
The fact is, he’s correct. Chicago had been bad in short yardage all night against L.A.’s tough defensive line. In the first half alone, they were 0-3 in 3rd or 4th and short situations. By far the worst came in the 4th quarter when the Bears passed up a field goal on the Rams’ 2-yard line to go for it on 4th down. It was stuffed in large part because of poor blocking by Rome Odunze. Johnson had no reason to trust that the offense would suddenly be able to execute a two-point conversion in those conditions. So he opted for the kick.
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In retrospect, that was the right call. The game went to overtime. Chicago then got an immediate stop on defense. All they needed was a field goal to win it. Unfortunately, a miscommunication between Williams and D.J. Moore led to an interception. That proved the difference in the game. Going for two might’ve made sense in a vacuum, but Ben Johnson made the right call. His offense wasn’t executing in short yardage. Gambling your season on that suddenly changing would not have been a wise gamble.
