As football royalty goes, few rank higher in the kingdom than Peyton Manning. Not only was he the son of an NFL star, but he also became one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game. A huge part of that success comes from a superhuman thirst for knowledge. Nobody studied harder when it came to football than Manning. He was blessed with some great teachers along the way. So he understands what the good coaches tend to look like. The ones who truly know ball. Based on his reactions last night, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson ranks among the best.
One moment from the huge win over the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football stood out. Chicago was in the midst of a 17-play drive that spanned 80 yards. They were looking to punch it in for a score to go up 7-0. Sitting at the 4-yard line, Johnson called a run play to Roschon Johnson, who picked up 3 yards. Almost immediately, everybody starts reacting as if the Bears plan to run the same play via a no-huddle. Johnson signals it from the sideline. Caleb Williams is signaling it. The linemen are signaling it.
Seattle obviously picks up on the cues and are expecting run. Williams then fakes the handoff to Johnson, sprinting out to his right to find Luther Burden for a 1-yard touchdown pass. Manning couldn’t help but marvel at the flawless execution of such an elaborate fakeout.
This is what separates Ben Johnson from most people.
Being a great play caller requires one thing most people don’t talk about. Calling a single great play is something most coaches can do. The true challenge is in something called play sequencing. It’s like in chess. You can’t think about just the move you’re making. You must think 5 or 6 moves ahead, anticipating what the opponent is likely to do. String plays together that feed into each other. That was on full display. Johnson ran the ball on that play, knowing Seattle would likely look for it again, given how close it was to the goal line. So he decided to feed into those assumptions by sending all sorts of signals that it was coming.
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All the while, he always planned to run a play action fake. The vital component to making it work was the sell job. If the Bears had just lined up like normal, Seattle likely would’ve been wary of a fake. They’re too well-coached not to be. However, Ben Johnson used that intelligence against them. He let them think they were keyed into what the Bears had planned with the hurry-up signals. It was a masterful stroke of psychological warfare that Manning had utilized himself on many occasions in his Hall of Fame career.
The Bears are finally where nobody thought they’d be.
For decades, Chicago was considered the purgatory of offensive football in the NFL. It was ugly, unimaginative, and completely stuck in the past. Nobody ever thought this franchise would learn how to become good on that side of the ball. The Bears would be forever doomed trying to find new ways to win championships with defense alone. Johnson changed everything from the moment he arrived. His dedication, discipline, and genius laid the foundation for what is now one of the league’s most feared offenses.
It doesn’t matter what type of defense you play. His system is meticulously designed to have answers for it. Add his incredible feel for the art on top of it? Pure bliss for football nerds like Manning. One can only imagine how he would’ve looked in this offense. It would’ve been unfair. If there is one person who probably isn’t surprised by Williams’ dramatic improvement, it’d be Manning.
