‘When it rains it pours’ — Ben Johnson experienced true Chicago football in Week 1 and it’s up to him to galvanize the Bears through the rest of the season
It’s got to get better in a hurry.
The Chicago Bears 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings and the 17-6 blown lead in the fourth quarter was unexpected and unbelievable to fans tuning in to “Monday Night Football” in Week 1.
For Bears’ fans watching the game on Monday, it was actually expected and believable, even with a new head coach in Ben Johnson and all the excitement going into the 2025 season.
It seemed reminiscent of what the team looked like in 2024. Sloppy, out-coached, and not willing to keep the foot on the gas. That’s far from the message Johnson wanted to send in his first game as a head coach in front of the home crowd.
“No one’s going to feel sorry for us. This is going to be a quick turnaround here to get going for Sunday in Detroit, our first road game,” Johnson said after Monday’s loss. “We gotta turn the page here quickly.”
For this Bears team, it’s more than just being able to turn the page quickly and move on from a loss like that to open the season.
Bears need to learn how to be mentally tough
During the 2024 season, the Bears experienced many similar heart-wrenching losses. The biggest of which came in Week 8 against the Washington Commanders, a game in which the Bears allowed quarterback Jayden Daniels complete a walk-off Hail Mary as time expired.
That game turned into an avalanche for the Bears, who before that game started the season 4-2. Chicago went on to lose 9 consecutive games before finally getting back in the win column against the Green Bay Packers to close out a very forgettable season.
There’s a perfect phrase that incapsulates the Bears’ 2024 season: When It Rains It Pours. And the only way to get out of a rut like that is to be mentally tough.
Flashforward to Week 1 of the 2025 season under a new coaching staff, the Bears found themselves in a similar rut. In a span of five plays, the Bears went from first-and-10 inside the 25-yard-line to fourth-and-18 from the 32-yard-line. Kicker Cairo Santos then missed a 50-yard field goal. Six plays later, Minnesota got into the endzone for a touchdown.
It was a deflating moment for Chicago and you can see the team lose complete confidence, despite still holding on to a 17-12 lead. After looking back on the tape, the team’s head coach had the perfect response for what happened and how the team could avoid a similar slump from happening again.
“When it rains it pours sometimes and a lot of times when things are stale, all it takes is one player to make a play and it just shoots a shock of electricity through the entire team,” Johnson added on Tuesday. “And likewise, once one bad thing happens, if you’re not careful, then that also can be contagious as well and catch fire, and that’s what happens.”
What took place on Monday night was true Chicago football, that’s the unfortunate reality, and it was Johnson’s first taste of it. It’s exactly the kind of team this franchise has been the last few years. A team that’s not mentally tough enough to get through difficult times.
Creating some mental toughness in the players and holding them accountable during the moment is the best way to get a team back on track. And like Johnson said, from there it’s just a matter of creating a spark play to jolt some life back into the sidelines.
That’s something the Bears have to improve upon going forward. That could pop up in Week 2 against the Detroit Lions or at a later point in the season. Regardless, the Bears can’t keep sulking into the dark when things don’t go its way. This team needs to learn how to get back up and Johnson needs to be the catalyst for that to happen moving forward.
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Bears could actually use the Lions’ home crowd as an advantage when Ben Johnson makes his return to Ford Field in Week 2
This could work out in the Bears’ favor.
