Ben Johnson admits costly mistakes in Bears’ loss to Vikings

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 4 hours ago

CHICAGO - Chicago’s season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings was filled with miscues. Between the penalties, some missed throws, a missed field goal, and a poorly executed kickoff at the end of the game, the Bears really shot themselves in the foot.

“Effort wasn’t an issue. Those guys did a good job playing hard and competed the whole night, but the execution has to improve, particularly there in the fourth quarter,” Johnson said. “Guys did play hard. They played with great intensity, great effort and I hate to see that they didn’t come out with the W there at the end. But no one’s going to feel sorry for us. It’s going to be a quick turnaround here to get going for next Sunday in Detroit, our first road game and so, we got to turn the page here quickly.”

Johnson also had some miscues. On Chicago’s fourth and three from the Minnesota 24-yard line in the second quarter, the Bears had to call a timeout. Ultimately, they did not execute the play as quarterback Caleb Williams was off with his throw.

However, Johnson admitted that taking the timeout was his fault.

“I was late getting the call in, and that’s my own issue,” Johnson said. “But, we knew we wanted to go for it. We felt good about that call. Caleb, we talked about it (Tuesday) afternoon. That’s one of the few that he would like to have back.”

Near the end of the third quarter, Johnson called his first challenge. However, it did not go the way he would have hoped. It appeared linebacker Noah Sewell might have caused a fumble with Chicago subsequently recovering it.

The replay showed Minnesota’s tight end T.J. Hockenson had his knee down prior to the ball coming out, and the call was upheld.

“I thought I saw knees up and so, that’s on me. I got to do a better job listening to the guys up top,” Johnson said. “I got influenced a little bit for the first time with the people around me and I just, I got to stay true to the process.”

When the Bears scored their touchdown to make the game 27-24 with 2:02 left in the game, the intention on the ensuing kickoff was to sail the ball through the endzone so Minnesota could not return it and would have to run a play before the two-minute warning. However, kicker Cairo Santos did not kick the ball far enough, allowing the Vikings to return it, burn seven seconds off the clock, and send the game to the two-minute warning.

That was another decision Johnson regretted afterwards.

“The intent was for the ball to go out of the endzone,” Johnson said. “We felt like if we had kicked it out of the endzone and gotten the three and out that we got, we would get the ball back with around 56 seconds.”

Johnson has called offensive plays in many games before. However, it is different when you are doing it as the head coach and that did not go as well.

Overall, Johnson was not satisfied with how he called the game and the lack of adjustments he made to Minnesota’s adjustments throughout the game.

“I didn’t think I called a particularly great game,” Johnson said. “I could have adjusted a little bit better to the lack of pressure that (Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores) was giving us, and so, I can do a better job there and then, at the end of the game, felt like we could kick it out of the back. We weren’t able to get that done. In hindsight, I should have kicked it out of bounds.”