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.
The stakes in Sunday’s game between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions reached an entirely new level going into Week 2.
Teams who start the season 0-2 roughly have a 12.2% chance of making the playoffs, just ask the Cincinnati Bengals what an 0-2 start did to its season in 2024. To make things worse, the loser of Sunday’s game won’t just be 0-2, that team will also be 0-2 in divisional games to open the season.
The pressure is on and it was already going to be an insane environment. On Sunday, Ben Johnson will be making his return to Ford Field and the way things ended with the former offensive coordinator in Detroit left a sour taste in the mouth of Lions’ fans.
The Lions’ 2024 season ended in abrupt fashion in the playoffs. After getting the first-round bye, Detroit hosted the red-hot Washington Commanders and lost 45-31. Not long after, Johnson jumped ship and accepted the job as the Chicago Bears head coach, remaining in the NFC North.
Needless to say, the Bears should be expecting a hostile and thunderous crowd on Sunday, and it actually could help the offense fix its biggest weakness.
Bears preparing to go with a silent count in Week 2 to fix pre-snap issues
During Week 1’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the Bears offense dealt with a reoccurring issue the team’s head coach thought he could just sweep under the rug.
All offseason the starting offense experienced pre-snap issues, whether it was false starts, illegal shifts, or players not being in proper alignment. Those issues carried over into the preseason, and then carried over to the regular season when the offense totaled five pre-snap penalties in Week 1.
Clearly, it’s something that needed to be addressed properly because those were drive killing mistakes that put the unit behind the sticks. As a result, the Bears are considering making some changes in Week 2 and it would be the perfect time to implement this decision.
“I guess silent cadence, right? Maybe that’ll help here this week,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “We can go on that and we’re going to need to do that and we’re going to need to be really good at that because this is going to be a loud environment that we’re going to. It’s going to be a playoff-like atmosphere. Ford Field has been something else over the last couple of years, so we’re going to have to be at our best. Certainly, we haven’t been good enough over the course of camp. We haven’t been good Week 1, and so this is going to be a huge point of emphasis for us going forward.”
Members of the offensive line expressed confidence in quarterback Caleb Williams’ development using cadence as a weapon. It worked once against the Vikings forcing a defensive penalty, but it hurt the offense more than it helped.
Making this switch is the right move and again, it’ll be necessary anyways playing in front of the Lions’ home crowd. As for the potential boo’s Johnson could receive coming back to Detroit, he already experienced what that feels like from his own fans in Week 1’s loss.
“That’s the beauty of [Chicago]. They love their sports. I embrace it,” Johnson explained. “That’s a big reason why I wanted to come here, these people care… They want a winner.”
The pressure to win will be even higher in Week 2. It’s way too early in the season to consider a game a “must-win” but this certainly feels like one already and this team needs to be at its best on Sunday.
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