The Chicago Bears looked exactly like the team that had finished last season: good in spurts but always folding under pressure. They coughed up a 17-6 lead in the 4th quarter to Minnesota, then were pounded into submission by Detroit the next week. This team was dead in the water. However, head coach Ben Johnson refused to let that happen. He got his players together and delivered a message that seemed to resonate in advance of the pivotal week three matchup against the Dallas Cowboys.
Albert Breer of the MMQB heard about it from running back D’Andre Swift. The words were simple and straightforward. If nothing else, the Bears were going to operate as the more physical football team moving forward. Everything they did was geared around fulfilling that mission.
“He told us the brand of football we wanted to play,” tailback D’Andre Swift told me. “That’s a physical unit that does everything—the run, pass, play-action. Whatever that particular game day requires us to do to come out with the win, we’ll execute that. Situations, weather, can dictate play calls and things like that, but we want to be very balanced in everything to do as far as our identity. And we’ve picked up the run game the last couple weeks.”
Starting with Dallas, it felt like the Bears took their cue from the head coach and played with more urgency and violence. They dictated the tempo, forcing opponents into mistakes. Four wins later, the season has transformed.
Ben Johnson has already succeeded where Matt Eberflus failed.
Establishing an identity is so crucial for a team. It is something every head coach must ask themselves. Who do we want to be? Eberflus never seemed to understand that. He gave vague answers about the type of team he wanted, content to throw things at the wall until something stuck. Ben Johnson has known from the beginning what he wants. The Bears would be a strong rushing team built through physicality and violence. Old school? Sure, but history shows this is never a bad thing to want. The more physical teams tend to have more success in big games.
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Chicago understood that at one point in time. They lost it somewhere in the past decade. Not anymore. Johnson has given them a direction, and players are forging ahead. They’re embracing the vision, and it’s working. The Bears went from contender for the #1 pick to squarely in the playoff picture in just over a month. That doesn’t happen without strong leadership.
