Ben Johnson ready for first test against Dolphins

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 2 hours ago

CHICAGO - On Sun., Aug. 10 (Noon / FOX), Ben Johnson will experience his first NFL game as a head coach when the Chicago Bears play their first preseason game. There are a lot of aspects that will be new to Johnson regarding game management.

However, he is preparing as much as possible to ensure he is as close to perfect as possible.

“We’ve done a lot behind the scenes so far in our walkthrough settings in terms of very specific situations that both educate the players and allow the coaching staff to get on the same page with what’s going on and what some of the words mean because once you get into crunch time and the guns are going off, then we just want to make sure that one word tells everybody exactly what’s going on and so, it’s been a learning process because it’s our first year doing it all together,” Johnson said. “I think the guys have handled it really well so far, but we’re going to put ourselves in those situations as much as we can whether it’s in walkthrough or full-speed practice and that’s really why I’m excited about these preseason games is that that’s naturally going to occur organically.”

Perhaps one of the most critical decisions a head coach must make during the preseason is whether or not to play the starters, and if the starters are played, how often they will play.

This is a decision Johnson will balance with the quality of joint practices.

“We’ve been very strategic with trying to maximize our reps,” Johnson said. “We felt like offensively, defensively, the amount of reps that we’re getting is really what we need right now as a team so that we’re learning, we’re growing and maybe those are out on the grass under the lights. Maybe those are in a practice setting.”

Choosing to play against the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills in the preseason was a strategic decision by Johnson and general manager Ryan Poles. They have some of the best offenses in the league. Particularly with the Dolphins, they will provide the Chicago defense with a unique challenge given their speed with receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.

The Bills have been a Super Bowl contender for numerous years, making them a good challenge for Chicago’s offense and defense.

“It was something Ryan and I talked about. We were wanting to have joint practices during training camp and the two best for us this year were both Miami and Buffalo,” Johnson said. “(The Dolphins) wanted to get out of South Florida and I think they’re kind of taking training camp on the road a little bit between coming to us and they’re going to Detroit after us and so, they’re bouncing around. It’ll be good for us to see that speed and just a little bit different style of offense and defense and same thing with Buffalo. You talk about a team that’s a perennial Super Bowl contender right now with Buffalo and so, really good (and) talented and I think it’ll be a good measure for where we’re at as a unit.”

Even though it is already August, the Bears have a lot to clean up and improve on—their offensive performance during Family Fest back on Sun. Aug. 6 was sloppy with numerous miscues.

Johnson ultimately chalked these miscues up to communication errors that will be corrected.

“Offensively, it was the sloppiest that I referred to. Obviously, the delay of games were obvious to everybody. But, there were at least a couple plays where linemen were going the wrong direction,” Johnson said. “We already talked about (running back Kyle) Monangai going the wrong direction on the pitch play. It was communication errors that resulted in guys not aligning correctly or not going the right direction and so, that to me is what we got to clean up right now. When we went back, we looked at it. Everyone acknowledged what their mistakes were and we put that to bed and we’re on to today.”