Ben Johnson banking on his own unpredictability to win the chess match against Brian Flores’ defense in the Bears’ season opener vs. Vikings
Arguably the top head-to-head matchup of the season.
The Chicago Bears are days away from taking on the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football to close out the Week 1 slate and all eyes will be on the key matchups in this game.
No matchup on Monday night is bigger than Bears head coach and offensive play-caller Ben Johnson leading his unit against Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and his unit. In fact, I’m willing to say it’s the biggest head-to-head matchup across the entire league this week.
On Monday, Johnson was ranked as the 3rd-best offensive play-caller in the league and if you were to rank the top defensive play-callers, Flores would be just as high on that list. This will be a phenomenal chess match between these two.
Ben Johnson understands the challenge ahead vs. Brian Flores’ defense
“What doesn’t create a challenge? He’s an outstanding coach, there’s all kinds of issues,” Johnson said of Flores on Tuesday. “There’s not a team that pressures more than Minnesota has over the last two years. I go back to what I admired most about New England when I was a young coach in this business and they had the ability to morph week in and week out. He does that. You don’t really know what you’re going to get.”
That level of unpredictability makes Flores’ defense such a challenge to prepare for. He can throw the entire kitchen sink at the opposing offense schematically using his all-or-nothing pass rush principle of sending everyone or dropping the majority of his players back in coverage.
It’s a frustrating scheme to diagnose as a play-caller or quarterback on the field, which is why so many mistakes are made against the Vikings defense that ranked fifth in sacks and first in interceptions last season.
“Our guys have to be open-minded and willing to understand we’re going to get hit in the teeth a couple times,” Johnson added. “That’s the nature of doing business with this crew. They got some really good players, they’re really well coached, they’re really ball conscious, they’re going after the ball all the time. . . We’re going to have our work cut out for us.”
As Johnson’s learned over the years facing the Vikings defense as the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, the only way to combat Flores’ unpredictable nature is with your own unpredictability.
Take last year’s two matchups for example. In the first matchup between the Lions and Vikings, Johnson’s unit stayed balance rushing for 144 net yards and throwing for 247 net yards while averaging 7.0 yards per play. In the second matchup, the Lions dominated with 178 net rushing yards and 216 net passing yards. Mixing up the run game and pass game worked effectively, but he has a new team now.
“We’re a completely different team, I’ve been saying that all along. It’d be easy just to copy and paste a plan from the past, but that’s just not the case, it’s not who we are,” Johnson explained. “That’s not what we’re going to do. We got some things that we feel really good about, getting our guys in space potentially and letting them go to work. . .
“That’s where this defense, in particular, stresses an offense. They try to create a lot of one-on-ones and all it takes is one guy to lose his one-on-one and a negative play happens. So, we’re going to focus on our details and playing sound football.”
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Kicking the season off with a primetime divisional matchup.
