Let’s Discuss Ben Johnson’s Costly Coaching Mistakes From Week 1 ...Middle East

I didn’t expect Ben Johnson to show up in Chicago and be Bill Walsh 2.0 in his regular-season debut as the Bears’ head coach. But I was holding out hope that there wouldn’t be as many head-scratching moments as there were during the team’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football.

MORE BEARS FROM WEEK 1: The Grades | The Postgame | The Nightcap

To be clear, I am still happy about Ben Johnson being the Bears’ head coach. It was the right hire. And while there are things that I have liked about how he has handled things to this point, there were some things that popped up last night that are worth quibbling about after his first regular-season loss as a head coach.

Ben Johnson mishandles the Cairo Santos late-game kickoff

The most glaring mistake Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson and his staff made was allowing Cairo Santos to kick it out of the back of the end zone after the team’s touchdown drive cut the deficit to 27-24. Johnson said he considered an onside kick, but ultimately decided to let Santos kick it with the intent to boot it through the end zone, get a three-and-out, and get the ball with 56 seconds remaining. Unfortunately, Santos’ kick fell short of the mark. Ty Chandler, who ran it out to take the clock past the two-minute warning, took the returnable kickoff out of the end zone, essentially icing the game for the Vikings.

More from Johnson here:

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DO THE CHICAGO BEARS HAVE A CAIRO SANTOS PROBLEM?

I had so many questions about how that situation unfolded. Did Ben Johnson not know his kicker’s limitations? If not, that is a problem because that is among the worst-kept secrets around town. If so, why didn’t Special Teams Coordinator Richard Hightower step in and give him a heads-up? And if the Bears did know about Santos’ leg strength limitations, why wasn’t the plan simply to kick the ball out of bounds?

There is no difference between giving the Vikings the ball at the 35-yard line via a touchback or the 40-yard line by intentionally kicking the ball out of bounds. So if there were any questions about Santos’ ability to get it through the end zone, the plan should have been to kick it out of bounds intentionally. The two seconds were far more valuable than five yards of field position. This is a teachable moment for Johnson, but one that shouldn’t have happened in the first place, based on previously existing information I feel everyone had at their disposal.

Losing a timeout on a wasted challenge wasn’t ideal

The first challenge of the Ben Johnson era blew up in his face.

Johnson challenged this completion from Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy to tight end T.J. Hockenson, which the Bears were hoping would be overruled and changed into a fumble:

Hockenson gets the ball punched out as he is down on the ground. Ben Johnson and the Bears have challenged the call saying this should be a fumble. pic.twitter.com/ZDFLf7Mu7m

On the one hand, I understand why Ben Johnson challenged it. But on the other hand, it proved so costly that I hope Johnson and his staff learn from this miscalculation.

Hockenson’s knee was down, but it wasn’t clear and convincing that the punch came after he was touched down. That the review staff went with a “call stands” ruling as opposed to “call confirmed” tells us that this wasn’t as cut-and-dry as some might lead you to believe. Nevertheless, losing the challenge and burning a timeout on a play that wasn’t going to result in a clear overturn felt like a waste of a challenge. Johnson and the Bears sure could have used that timeout late in the fourth quarter.

Did Ben Johnson make the right call to go for it on 4th down in the second quarter?

With about 9 minutes left in the second quarter, a D’Andre Swift 7-yard run turned a 3rd-and-10 situation into a 4th-and-3. The gain put the ball in Ben Johnson’s court and forced the coach to decide whether to kick a field goal and attempt to extend the lead to 10-3 or continue the drive with a successful conversion on fourth down. Johnson decided to go for it, but quarterback Caleb Williams misfired (a common theme throughout the night) and Chicago turned it over on downs. The Vikings didn’t do anything after getting the ball back. But in a game that the Bears lost by three points, leaving three on the field with the decision to go for it haunts me.

I appreciate the aggressiveness of Ben Johnson. But that felt like a moment to get points for an offense still finding its legs. Admittedly, in hindsight, this is much easier to think about when you realize the offense wasn’t ready for primetime. And with questions surrounding Cairo Santos right now, it is fair to expect that Johnson will keep going for it until further notice — for better or worse.

In the end…

While the players didn’t execute to the best of their ability, Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson should wear this loss because better was expected of him. The failures in not knowing your personnel and their limitations, wasting a challenge, and burning a timeout are among the coaching missteps that will gnaw at me until the team’s Week 2 matchup against the Detroit Lions.

Matt’s 24-hour rule post points out that the Bears’ growing pains were on full display throughout the team’s performance on Monday Night Football. And while players are an obvious focal point of the post, I feel the same sentiment applies to the coaching staff — particularly the head coach. I know better than to write Ben Johnson off after just one game. So I won’t do that. Besides, I still liked what I saw from the play designs and his overall aggressiveness with going for it on fourth down.

Essentially, I’m highlighting the coach’s Week 1 missteps so I can compare them later. I look forward to seeing how Ben Johnson bounces back from his debut mishaps. After all, we tend to learn more about folks by how they pick themselves up than we do after we see them fall.

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