Ben Johnson’s new expectations have put the rest of the NFC on notice after executing the first step of his plan
The Bears are coming for it all in the NFC.
Over the last few weeks, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson avoided all playoff talk and simply said he can dive into the conversation further when the team earned the right to talk about it.
The message was clear and the magic number being thrown around Halas Hall was 11 wins. On Saturday, the Bears won their 11th game of the season with a thrilling finish against the Green Bay Packers and on Sunday clinched their spot in the postseason.
“Our step #1 was to get to 11 (wins),” Johnson told reporters on Monday. “The whole reason why that was the number, there’s only really been one 10-win team not to make it and that was last year with Seattle. There’s never been an 11-win team to not make it. We felt pretty good about that being the number going into the season. That was step one.”
Bears can now turn their attention to Steps 2 and 3 with much still left to fight for
With a spot in the playoffs officially secured, the Bears can now turn the attention toward clinching the NFC North title and ensuring at least one home playoff game. Chicago currently holds a 1.5 game lead over Green Bay after Week 16 and can clinch the division with just one win, or one loss by the Packers, over the final two weeks.
“We want to win this division,” Johnson added. “We want to have at least one home playoff game.”
Step three involves securing the No. 1 seed in the entire conference, which would make all roads to the Super Bowl go through Chicago while giving the Bears a first-round bye. To do so, Chicago just needs to win out and have the Seattle Seahawks lose just one of their final two games.
“There’s a lot of things still out there to play for,” Johnson explained. “Our guys know that. We talked about it a few weeks ago, just big picture view of where we stood in relation to the last five games of the season and what we need to accomplish to achieve those goals. They get it. Not a whole lot needs to be said about it. Those goals are still out there and we continue pressing forward.”
Next up, the Bears will travel to take on the San Francisco 49ers on “Sunday Night Football” in Week 17. Another team that clinched a playoff spot on Sunday with eyes now on securing a division title and the top seed in the NFC. After that, Chicago will close the season at home against the Detroit Lions.
With everything still in front of them, the Bears are sitting in a really nice spot. But, Johnson isn’t letting his team get comfortable yet with so much still at stake and so much left to improve upon.
“We’re still not necessarily playing at the level that we’re capable of yet,” Johnson said. “That’s the beautiful thing about this season. We’re all still getting better at what we’re doing. There’s a number of things that I could have done better in the last game and a number of our players would feel the same way. That’s the fun part of what we do.”
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