Bears clinch division but Ben Johnson is focused on what comes next

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 2 hours ago

CHICAGO - In only his first season as the head coach of the Chicago Bears, Ben Johnson has led the Bears to their first NFC North title since 2018.

His relationship with quarterback Caleb Williams has been a paramount piece of this turnaround.

“I think he’s gotten more comfortable in the offense and what we’re asking him to do throughout. I don’t think he lacks for confidence to start with and so, I don’t necessarily think that that’s a confidence builder, but I do think the best thing about that was it looked exactly like that in practice and we’ve had a few plays like that over the course of the season where what we did in practice has transitioned almost identical to the game and that’s a credit to our coaching staff putting in the plays and seeing it through and the players kind of bringing it to life like that,” Johnson said. “I think it’s pretty cool when that happens. Hopefully, we have a little bit more of that go on this week.”

As a rookie last season, Williams was sacked a league-leading 68 times. However, through Chicago’s first 15 games this season, he has only been sacked 23 times. His offensive line has been a massive part of that, including guard Joe Thuney, one of Chicago’s three Pro Bowlers this season.

The other two are fellow offensive linemen, center Drew Dalman, and safety Kevin Byard.

“(Thuney’s) just a winner. He knows what it looks like, gets his work done. I think he’s a positive influence throughout the week of preparation,” Johnson said. “He’s the same guy every single day, the model of consistency in terms of his performance, but also in terms of how he goes about his craft, and then in the game, you know what you’re going to get every single week. He’s been very durable. He’s very smart, and I think he’s been a huge part of our success up front.”

Perhaps the biggest snub from the Pro Bowl was cornerback Nahshon Wright not being included. He has generated nine turnovers this season, including a pivotal forced fumble against the Green Bay Packers that helped set up Chicago’s comeback.

Wright was named NFC Defensive Player of the Month in November after having three interceptions, a forced fumble, and two fumble recoveries in Chicago’s five games that month.

“I can’t put my finger on it, but he has been clutch like that (and) they’ve been in critical moments and our team has needed him to really get the momentum going in our favor as we talk about. So, he just has a knack for that and I don’t know if you can necessarily coach it, but (he is) so conscious of where that ball is and he can’t wait to make a play on it. So, it’s a great trait to have,” Johnson said. “He’s a guy that walks in the building (and) you’re like, ‘Holy cow.’ He’s got such great length that it’s very difficult to get the ball around him and he can play tight coverage and transition really well also. So, I think those traits are really rare at that position and I think what I’ve been most impressed about is for such a long guy that might look skinny off the cuff, he is still a physical football player. He’ll come up and play run support and still hit you, which we really value in our secondary. We need guys, our little guys, got to come up and tackle.”

Even though the Bears have clinched the division, they are still in contention for the No. 1 in the conference, which would give them a first-round bye and allow them to have home-field advantage for the entirety of the playoffs.

They must win out to have a chance at the top seed, which means defeating the red-hot San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Dec. 28 (7:20 p.m. / NBC).

“We got a really tough opponent at hand here this week and we’re going out to Santa Clara across the country and they’re hot right now. That’s all I really care about is finding a way to go 1-0 this week, Johnson said. “They’re hot right now … I think (head coach Kyle) Shanahan, (he is) one of the best in the business at doing this and the playmakers are some of the top of their positions between (tight end George) Kittle and (running back Christian) McCaffrey and (quarterback Brock) Purdy’s coming on. He does a great job throwing with timing and anticipation and if you give him time back there, he can catch you up and so, the only thing that’s a little bit different than the San Francisco offenses of the past is that they probably feature in the past a little bit more than they are the run and they’re hot right now.”

Throughout this season, Chicago’s offensive success has started with the run game led by running back D’Andre Swift. The Bears are undefeated when Swift has at least 80 rushing yards while they are 4-4 when he has under 80 rushing yards. Swift is also only seven yards away from his second career 1,000-yard rushing season and 57 yards away from surprising his career high in rushing yards. While Swift’s performance has been surprising to some, Johnson saw this coming from his previous experience with Swift, because of the hard coaching style from running backs coach Eric Bieniemy and the competition from rookie running back Kyle Monangai.

“This is the player I always thought he could be and really has been in spurts over the course of his career. He’s just being very consistent. He’s very deliberate with what he’s doing. I think Eric Bieniemy has done a fantastic job with them,” Johnson said. “You see EB out there. This is a very demanding coach and he’s always on those guys. I think that’s a good thing, I really do. As much as they might not like it at times, overall, you can’t let up when you have a coach like that and so, I think it’s brought the best out of that entire room. I think the fact that you see (rookie running back) Kyle (Monangai) have a little bit of success, I think that helps the competition in that room as well. You just can’t let your foot off the gas. Swifty’s always had this ability. I’ve seen it. I saw firsthand when he was a rookie all the way until now. So, none of it surprises me … I think he’s doing a great job lowering his pads, playing physical. He’s continuing to make guys miss at the second and third level and we’re getting big plays.”