Ben Johnson uses previous tendencies to once again make Matt Eberflus look like a fool, but this time it helped the Bears
The trick play worked to perfection.
The Chicago Bears massive victory in Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys felt great in more ways than one and exactly the kind of performance this team needed to boost the locker room.
It also served as an example of Ben Johnson’s ability to lead this team as the head coach after the message he sent to his players going into the game.
It’s exactly the win this team needed and it came at the perfect time, and honestly it was against the perfect opponent on the opposite sideline as much as the Bears wanted to downplay it. And one play in particular wrapped this game up before it hardly even got started.
Another Ben Johnson trick play worked to perfection against Matt Eberflus’ defense
The Ben Johnson vs. Matt Eberflus matchup was the headline duel in the Week 3 game between the Bears and Cowboys and it went pretty much as everyone expected.
In the broadcast just before kickoff, Erin Andrews shared that Eberflus told her “”I have a lot of knowledge about this team. I know their strengths, their weaknesses, I know how to cover them” to which Ben Johnson basically replied, hold my clipboard (no, Johnson didn’t actually say this).
But, it only took two offensive plays for the Bears to score two touchdowns with 100 passing yards on two bombs by quarterback Caleb Williams. The second of which came off a trick play in which the Bears offensive staff used Eberflus’ previous tendencies against him.
“We have gadgets up every week,” Johnson explained. “I give the staff a lot of credit. They’re going through, watching the tape and finding out things that may or may not fit, whether it’s Dallas this year, or some of the stuff we’re watching of Chicago’s defense from yesteryear. So that was really a staff find. And we worked it all week and felt comfortable calling it this week.”
The play was a flea flicker in which running back D’Andre Swift took the handoff and ran toward the offensive line. Swift then turned and lateraled the ball back to quarterback Caleb Williams, who uncorked a 60+ yard pass to rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III running open downfield.
“Shoot, it was a great play call by Coach,” Burden said after the game. “Great protection from the O-line. Great ball by Caleb. It was a highly executed play.”
It’s not the first time Johnson used a fake play against Eberflus. Remember last season when the Detroit Lions ran the fake fumble (aka the Stumble Bum) to score an explosive touchdown after fooling the entire defense? Just like with that play, the staff used Eberflus’ tendencies and what he coaches his players to do against him.
“That was our inspiration from it,” Johnson said back in January. “It was from a year ago, Jordan Love stumbled coming out and they pretty much ran the same play but that was by accident. So we said, ‘Hey you think we can pull this off but actually do it on purpose?’ It started with a if we put the ball on the ground to start it, but the players took it, ran with it, I think half the team was yelling fumble when that thing happened, listen, it worked out great.”
I’m sure the Bears were thrilled to be on the other side of a Ben Johnson trick play this time around.
Most teams have a handful of trick plays to get an offense to spark, but few play-callers and coaches go as far as Johnson does when it comes to designing these plays for the exact right look against a specific defense. Plays like that reminded everyone why Johnson is one of the best at what he does, and Eberflus, frankly, is not.
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Ben Johnson’s fiery postgame reaction reflects the energy the Bears need to continue to have following the first win of the season
A moment this team won’t forget anytime soon.
