What a difference two weeks can make.
Prior to Sunday’s Week 5 loss to the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson was being hailed as a Coach of the Year candidate after guiding his team to three wins with three different quarterbacks through the first four weeks.
His confidence, creativity, and swagger were being celebrated, and deservedly so, following a dominant primetime victory over the Philadelphia Eagles with 38-year-old Case Keenum making his first start in 1,009 days.
Now, apparently, Johnson talks too much trash. He’s lost his swagger. His confidence has supposedly become arrogance, and his struggles against NFC North opponents are being used as evidence that he can’t get the job done against Chicago’s biggest rivals.
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There’s certainly reason to criticize Johnson’s record within the division. But are we really questioning a head coach who won the NFC North and a playoff game in his first season, just five games into Year 2, despite being without his starting quarterback for three of those five games?
The Two Sides of Ben Johnson’s Bears
His 2-6 record and minus-66 point differential against NFC North opponents are far from ideal, but it’s also worth noting how well he’s performed outside the division.
Against non-NFC North teams, Johnson has led the Bears to a 12-2 record, averaging 30.5 points and 410 yards per game with a +24 turnover differential.
Those numbers plummet to 16.6 points, 313 yards, and a minus-6 turnover differential against divisional opponents.
However, two blowout losses – a 52-21 defeat in Detroit last season and Sunday’s 31-7 loss in Green Bay – account for 55 points of that minus-66 differential. Four of Chicago’s other six divisional games were decided by seven points or fewer.
It’s an alarming disparity, and one that deserves serious scrutiny if it continues. But let’s not lose sight of how quickly Johnson has turned around an organization that spent years struggling to get out of its own way.
And while critics are quick to point out Johnson’s regular-season struggles against Green Bay, they seem awfully willing to forget that he knocked the Packers out of the playoffs in his first season.
Apparently, that victory doesn’t count when discussing his ability to beat division rivals.
None of this excuses Sunday’s performance. The Bears were thoroughly outplayed, and Johnson deserves criticism for it. But he’s also working with a defense short on talent and an offense that’s already navigated multiple quarterback changes.
And then there’s the sudden outrage over his personality.
Johnson talked trash when the Bears were winning. He talked trash when they weren’t. That confidence was part of what made him such a refreshing change for a franchise that had spent years searching for an identity.
Now, after one embarrassing loss, some want him to tone it down?
If Johnson suddenly changes the attitude and approach that helped lead Chicago to the playoffs last season, what message does that send to his locker room? Players should want a coach who believes in them, stands behind his convictions and doesn’t abandon his identity after a bad loss.
Embarrassing losses are going to happen. That doesn’t mean Johnson needs to reinvent himself every time the Bears get punched in the mouth.
And don’t mistake this for dismissing the importance of divisional games. Winning the NFC North and securing a favorable playoff seeding are imperative, and Johnson needs to figure out why his team has struggled against division opponents.
But if the choice is between winning the division’s bragging rights and playing meaningful football in January, I’ll take the postseason every time.
Johnson has already delivered that once. Five games into his second season, I’m not ready to forget it because of one ugly Sunday in Green Bay.
