Ben Johnson: "We have yet to play our best football"

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 3 hours ago

CHICAGO - With Chicago’s Monday night victory against the Washington Commanders, they now have three consecutive wins. They will be looking for their fourth versus the New Orleans Saints this Sunday (Noon / FOX). According to head coach Ben Johnson, the Bears have yet to play their best game.

Perhaps this game against the Saints could be the game where Chicago puts out that performance.

“We have yet to play our best football and what we’re capable of doing, and so, when you turn on that tape from last week, there’s a number of things that we need to clean up,” Johnson said. “(I) do think we’re getting better in certain aspects, but we’re still in a race there to get as good as we can be before December because like I said, we’re going to be playing our best ball in December and January and so, we’re still working our way to get there. We’ve had some ups and some downs as we’ve gone, but that’s the mission. That’s all we have in sight is finding a way to improve this week from what we did last week.”

Through the first four games, Chicago’s run game had struggled mightily. However, they put together their best offensive performance of the season against the Commanders with 145 total rushing yards, including 108 from running back D’Andre Swift.

This is something Johnson wanted to see improve following the bye week and the Bears will hope to see further growth in the run game.

“We took a step forward on Monday night. To me, it starts with the details. I think you have to be a very disciplined unit. You got to drill them. I think we have a good system in place in terms of getting those things repped and the guys learning from those experiences and so, I believe in the way that we’re coaching it and it just takes the guys, particularly some new faces here, (to) get used to it,” Johnson said. “So, I think they’ve done a great job of that, particularly this last week of getting those plays started and once we get those guys in some space, then they can turn it (into) a punt return from there and you can go wherever you want. But, the landmarks that we start with are really important to make sure we’re in sync with our blockers and our pass catchers.”

Chicago’s game against Washington was also its first of the season without kicker Cairo Santos. However, Santos will also be out against the Saints. Therefore, kicker Jake Moody, who kicked the game-winning field goal against the Commanders, will once again get the start for the Bears.

Johnson is confident that special teams coordinator Richard Hightower and the rest of the coaching staff will do everything possible to ensure Moody is prepared for the start.

“We’re doing everything we can think of to get Jake ready. I think Coach Hightower goes a great job making sure we’re turning over every stone to make sure we’re exhausting every avenue so that all of our players are ready,” Johnson said. “I’m pretty confident that Jake will be as prepared as he could possibly be.”

Linebacker Noah Sewell has also been ruled out. Defensive linemen Grady Jarrett and Austin Booker, as well as running backs Travis Homer and D’Andre Swift and linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga are all questionable for the game.

However, Swift is expected to play; wide receiver DJ Moore does not have an injury designation going into the game.