Ben Johnson leans away from wanting to chase the forbidden fruit when it comes to QB Caleb Williams in Week 18
The Bears aren’t going to bend the game plan to chase individual goals on Sunday.
The Chicago Bears don’t have much incentive to play their starters and play to win in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions. While the No. 2 seed is still worth fighting for, sometimes keeping starters healthy for the playoffs is an advantageous strategy for Week 18.
But, that’s not the mindset head coach Ben Johnson has going into this game on Sunday. He wants to win, and win big, against his former team to close out the regular season, utilizing all available players to do so.
That includes quarterback Caleb Williams, who is closing in on the single-season franchise passing yard record in hopes of also becoming the team’s first 4,000-yard passer. It’s a big deal in Chicago, but it’s not a big deal to the team’s head coach, at least that’s the stance he took speaking with the media before practice on Wednesday.
Ben Johnson downplays the desire to get Caleb Williams to 4,000 passing yards in Week 18
“If it were to happen, that would be great, but he would agree with me when I say our number one objective is to win this ball game,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. “Whatever that takes, that’s our goal and, you know, we’ll see where it is at at the end of the year. That’s a tertiary role if you will.
“I think it’s an arbitrary number. I don’t know what that would mean. There are probably some that don’t have a 5,000-yard passer, either. It’s just a number.”
Winning, of course, is paramount. And the winning formula for this team has been on offense, but not the passing game. It’s built on the run game first, but that does help open up big shots in the passing game that can help Williams reach that number. So, I think the goals go hand-in-hand here.
After Johnson’s comments, reporters made sure to remind Johnson that he’s new here. It’s not just a number to Bears fans, it’s something other teams and fanbases use to mock the Chicago Bears and the fanbase. And it’s something Williams has admitted going into the season he wants to accomplish for this team, even if he sang a different tune on Wednesday.
“I think, for me, it’ll be cool just in the sense of there’s never been one here,” Williams told reporters. “I think I was brought here for those type of things and those type of moments that haven’t been done here to try and be able to accomplish. The self goals and all of that always get swept under when you go for the team goals. And that’s winning ball games. That’s first and foremost on my mind, and first and foremost for this team. The most important thing is winning ball games and heading into the playoffs with some momentum.”
The thing is, Sunday’s matchup actually matches up well for the deep passing game against a depleted Lions’ secondary and the deep passing game has been hitting lately for this offense. So, there’s a strong shot the Bears can accomplish their team goal while getting a little icing on the top, in terms of this big personal goal, before closing out the regular season.
And if it comes down to a few yards and the Bears have a commanding lead, I’m sure Johnson will dial up something special for Williams to hit that goal, regardless of what he said to the media.
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