Ben Johnson elaborates more on the offensive struggles shown by the Bears in Week 18 despite having a ‘simpler’ game plan
The offense took some major steps backward right before the playoffs.
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson has made it crystal clear where he stands on the blame game following the team’s, 19-16, loss to the Detroit Lions to close out the regular season.
While everyone pointed fingers at the defensive side of the ball and the scheme put in place by defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, Johnson was more irate with the play of the offense and not being able to close out a game in which the defense allowed just 19 points against a good offense.
“That’s one we’ll have to take a look at the tape and figure out why that was,” Johnson said after the game on Sunday. “I didn’t feel like it was one of our more elaborate [offensive] plans. I felt it was one of our simpler plans. We need to do a better job of executing it and coaching it up.”
Ben Johnson sheds more light on the offensive struggles from the Week 18 loss
After reviewing the tape and talking with the team, Johnson met virtually with reporters on Monday and one of the questions asked was in regards to what make the offensive plan “simpler” compared to other games the team has played this season.
“We ended up going into it wanting to play fast and we knew that their defense created a lot of multiplicity,” Johnson explained. “And so, we wanted to be sound. Because of that, we had a little less shifts and motions going into that gameplan than we what we’ve had probably since the bye week.”
The result? Chicago certainly played fast but not in the way Johnson intended. The Bears offense had a three-and-out on three of the eight offensive possessions and had another possession cut short after an interception by quarterback Caleb Williams.
“We came out a little flat, and I think we’ve got to work on having urgency from the jump and get that going,” Williams told reporters after the game.
The frustrating part is that even with a simpler game plan, it didn’t seem like the Lions were really beating the Bears, more so the Bears were beating themselves with unnecessary mistakes.
“We just got to clean up some of the mental errors that we had,” Johnson said. “I think in the first 11 plays, we counted six mental [errors] as an offense. When you’re facing a good team, you can’t do that. We’ll clean that up and we’ll be a lot sharper here going forward… It’s just not the recipe for good football.”
It’s clear that Johnson is beyond ready to put this performance to rest and move on. The players understand that game was well below the standard and there’s not much more that needs to be said. It’s a short week before facing the Green Bay Packers and it’s time to look forward, not backward.
“We don’t have time to sulk on what happened yesterday, and they understand that,” Johnson added. “We talked about that at the end of the game. I think we’re going to be good turning the page. The things that need to get cleaned up, we’re going to clean up.”
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