Ben Johnson rolls the dice with the Bears’ Super Bowl hopes but it’s far from the reason Chicago fell short in the NFC Divisional Round
The Bears aggressiveness on fourth down isn’t something Ben Johnson will regret tomorrow.
The Chicago Bears’ magical season finally comes to an end with an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Divisional Round, but not without some more late game heroics by quarterback Caleb Williams.
Ultimately, the magic had to strike midnight at some point and Williams’ overtime interception sealed the team’s fate and ended the Super Bowl hopes for Chicago.
It’s a tough way to go out and there’s going to be a lot to breakdown with this kind of game. To get ahead of any rash complaints, head coach Ben Johnson made the right decisions with his aggressive mindset throughout that game.
Ben Johnson’s aggressiveness is not what came back to bite the Bears
In a game like that, every possession matters. And fans might not be happy with the Bears aggressiveness on fourth down on Sunday night starting with the first drive of the game, and it goes back to last week as well.
In the two postseason games under Johnson, the Bears were 5-12 on fourth down attempts with two touchdowns and three interceptions. For Johnson, it’s all about maximizing possessions against a top-caliber offense, something he explained more in depth earlier in the week.
“At the end of the day, it always comes down to what we feel – as a coaching staff – is going to give us the best chance to win and put our guys in the right spot and then you go back and look at it and see if it was the right mindset or not,” Johnson explained. “That’s what happens in this league. I’m never going to apologize for being aggressive or doing things that might be a little unorthodox if it’s what we deem is best for us to win a ball game.”
On Sunday against the Rams, the Bears were 3-6 on third down and, obviously by that rate, had mixed results in those situations. Two of those fourth down plays, though, ended in touchdowns, including the insane play to force overtime.
If you’d ask Johnson right now, he wouldn’t regret any of those decisions. This game wasn’t lost on fourth down and it’s something you just have to live with when you have an aggressive head coach.
What you cannot do is turn the ball over and have brutal drops along with those aggressive calls, and that’s all a collective part that doomed Chicago on Sunday. Not to put it on Williams, but those three interceptions were costly and certainly something he will have to learn from the hard way.
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