Here’s Why Ben Johnson Will Have The Bears READY After The Chicago Bears Bye Week

Here’s Why Ben Johnson Will Have The Bears READY After The Chicago Bears Bye Week

Could [Music] the Chicago Bears surge after the early byee? We’re going to talk about that here on Bears Now by Chat Sports. My name is Harrison Graham. Uh we’re going to explore Ben Johnson and how his offenses the last three years performed after the Lions by weeks and then we’ll kind of compare heading into Washington off the by-week this year versus last year under Shane Waldron and what happened and hopefully Ben Johnson can do a better job in that regard. But first, we are closing in on 133,000 subscribers. If you want free and daily Bears content, all you got to do is hit the subscribe button. We’re less than 500 subs away from our next milestone. We’ve challenged the Commander Report and a subscriber battle this week. So, if you want to take them down off the field so they can win on the field, let’s make it happen. Hit that subscribe button. All right, Ben after the by-week. So, his first year as the offensive coordinator in Detroit, uh the Lions had an early bye and they lost 24 to6. So, you’re probably saying, “Oh god, that that doesn’t look good.” And yeah, it certainly wasn’t great, but a little misleading. And let’s kind of dive into the data here. Uh 195 yards passing a once you take out sacks. These are team sacks. Jared Goff actually went 21 of 26 uh in that game. So, an efficient performance. The problem is he threw two interceptions and fumbled twice and the team had five turnovers as a whole. Uh rush for over 115 yards. 312 total. So, not a bad performance. I think 300 plus is average to above a little above average. 5.6 yards per play. From a just moving the ball standpoint, it was fine. The problem is they gave the ball away five times. Um and we know in this league if you turn over the ball w it just kills you. You can’t turn the ball over that much and expect to win a game. So yeah, you only scored six points, but uh over 300 yards, it’s a game you should at least be in the high teens, early 20s in terms of points. So um not like it was a complete disaster. Ben Johnson isn’t throwing the interceptions for Jared Kauf. Uh certainly also another important kind of reminder in the context of this, this was Ben’s first year as the play caller. And remember that was the year the Lions started 1-6. At the time they were 1 and5. They finished 9 and eight. So really the rest of the year the offense took off, got cleaner. Goff got a lot more comfortable. Uh they were running the football well with Jamal Williams of all people. This was before they had uh Jir Gibbs and David Montgomery. uh and they surged to a nine and eight record. So, uh even though it wasn’t the best performance, uh it was still there were there were signs there and they cleaned things up and got better the rest of the season. All right, 2023. This is the year they went to the NFC Championship game. Won a shootout over Justin Herbert and the Chargers. Shout out Brandon Staley, who was the head coach at the time. 4138 in Los Angeles. Uh, and the offense just went nuclear out of the bye-week. 333 yards passing, 200 rushing, 533 total, 8.3 yards per play. You’re almost getting a first down on every play, and uh zero turnovers, just a complete clinic off of the bye-week that year. Uh, I mean, you want to talk about an X’s and O’s mismatch game. Ben Johnson versus uh Brandon Staley, that’s a big advantage, Ben Johnson. Uh but that was obviously a very very good game and again by then they’re rolling but you take advantage of the by-week and you exploit a bad defense uh in Los Angeles. All right, 2024 47 to9 win at Dallas. So you the team you lost to 24 to6 off the buy two years prior uh you beat 47-9. You look at the balance here again pass and run almost 500 total yards, seven and a half yards per play. again, year three in the offense, uh, zero turnovers as well. So, so what do you make of all this? I would say in general, Ben Johnson had good game plans. The first year, first year in the offense, turnovers were a killer. The sk the skill talent wasn’t quite as good, but uh, you would trust Ben Johnson with the extra time to put together a good game plan uh, against Washington this week. And also an interesting common theme here. All three of those games on the road just like the Bears game this week. So I don’t know if that’s just a coincidence or what, but they were ready to play in those road games. And I would think that this team will be ready to play. Now you wonder, is this going to be more like the first year of Ben calling plays in Detroit where, you know, maybe you do some good things but mistakes uh hold you back? We’ll see. I I think this offense and this team right now going into week six are in a better place than they were in week six that first year in Detroit. It sounds weird to say because by the end of the year that offense was awesome, but remember it’s a tale of two seasons, one and six start, 8-2 finish, 9-8 overall. The Bears were two and two and the offense really the from week two on has kind of been pretty solid uh overall. So, uh you just never know. New team, different situation. He’s the head coach. It’s hard to compare, but I think in general, you give B Johnson extra time, you feel pretty good about what the game plan’s going to be. Obviously, the players got to go execute it. All right, who you got in this game? Type CHI for the Bears. Type W for the Commanders. Who do you think wins and uh if you want to tell me why that team wins, go ahead and let me know. All right, coming up. So, will the Bears play well out of the by-week? We’ll compare how they played out of their by-week last year and kind of talk about uh how uh they need to play coming out of the by-week this year as they face the same opponent off the by-week, the Washington Commanders. But first, we got to tell you about our awesome sponsor. That of course is Prize Pick. Daily Fantasy Made Easy at prize.com/lns. You and I make decisions every day, but on prize picks, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement this season on Prize Picks, where it’s good to be right. How do you play prize picks, you ask? Well, it’s very simple. You pick uh two to six player lineups, more or less on the stat projections available, and you’re good to go. And if you hit on your lineups, you win money up to 2,000 times your money on certain lineups with Prize Picks. A cool feature on Prize Pix is you can follow other Prize Pix players directly on the app and copy their lineups in one click. 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All right. Can the Bears reverse course? Obviously, at the end of the game, the Bears were in position to win. And in the fourth quarter, the offense played well, but for the most part, the offense really struggled against Washington in that game out of the by-week a year ago. So much so that you were like, “God, this team just feels underprepared despite having the extra time.” 105 yards passing. Again, that factors in sacks. Um 202 rushing. Now, that was skewed a little bit. That’s obviously a huge number. Remember, Swift broke that long one. and Caleb had a couple of nice uh scrambles, but they did run the ball well in that game. Uh 307 total. So, all in all, not horrendous. 5.3 yards per play is, you know, solid. Uh just the one turnover, but skewed uh in the sense that you only had 172 yards for the first three quarters and about 50 of those were on a DeAndre Swift long touchdown run. So, you take that out. A lot of three and outs, a lot of clunkiness, especially passing wise. Caleb Williams really struggled through the first three quarters. Uh, I expect Ben Johnson to have a better game plan than game than Shane Waldron. Now, again, it’s not necessarily Shane Waldron’s fault that Caleb had a very inaccurate game overall. Uh, but how many times last year are you just like, “Oh, three receivers are in the same area. This route concept makes no sense.” It just felt like out of the buy, way too clunky, not a sound plan. Um, and then they came to life in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late. Obviously, Caleb had a very uneven performance. Uh, was great in the fourth. I think six for eight in the fourth quarter after starting four for 16 uh in that game. Uh but overcame took the late lead and that’s kind of when we started to say okay Caleb’s got a little it factor clutch gene to him even if these games are a little up and down overall. Uh obviously that’s carried over this year but it’s been a little more consistent throughout the four quarters obviously. Uh, so not only do I expect Ben to just have a better and more sound game plan and obviously just better designs, play calling, all that stuff, which we’ve seen. Uh, but I also expect Caleb to play better. Like I I think he’s going to do better than 10 for 24. I don’t think he’s going to start four for 16. I mean, that is just abysmal. So, uh, don’t forget too though before the byee last year, like it was alarming that Caleb played that poorly. Caleb, granted the opponent’s not good, Carolina and Jacksonville, but still threw for 530 yards and six touchdowns against just one pick in those two games prior. I remember doing a video like the Bears have a quarterback and then he just came out flat. The offense wasn’t playing in sync um against Washington. So, I I just think Caleb’s a little more dialed in, a little more focused. He said last week he’s only taking one day off during the by-week. He’s going to be locked in and, you know, studying, keep getting his body right, all that stuff. So, uh, I I just think this team feels like a more mature team. Doesn’t mean they’re going to win, but I think overall they’ll come in more focused and with more determination to play better out of the by-week, especially offensively where there were some clear struggles in this game and that carried over to, you know, the next several weeks as they obviously lost a bunch of games there. Okay. What is your confidence level in the Bears this year coming off the bye-week? Because there’s been some poor performances in the past. Scale of 1 to 10, I I feel pretty good. I I’m not saying they’re going to win. And I did predict them to win 26-24, but I do think it will be better. And it’s a huge opportunity, man. It is a huge opportunity for the Bears in this game because if they beat Washington here on Sunday, there’s a lot of winnable games coming up. This is kind of one of those 5050 455 games that like you got to win enough of these games to be a playoff team. Kind of like Minnesota week one. Kind of a coin flip game, right? You got to win those more often than you lose them if you want to be a playoff team. Well, you win this one, you’re three and two. Then look at the next six games. Saints at home. I know they’re feisty, but that’s a team you should beat at the Ravens. Lamar might be back by then, but they have a lot of guys that are banged up right now. I I can’t imagine they’re all going to be back. Still probably going to be a dog in that game if a couple guys come back, but that’s more winnable than it was when the schedule came out. At the Bengals, Joe Burrow’s not playing. They look like a mess. We’ll see how they look in a few weeks, obviously. Giants at home. I mean, is Brian Dable still the coach by then? Who knows? Uh, at the Vikings, I think we all believe that this team can beat the Vikings. Like, they should have beat him in week one. And the Steelers at home, I know they’re three and one, but like I I’m not terrified of the Steelers. Aaron Rogers is just fine at 41 years old. Their defense uh has played better the last couple weeks, but has not been dominant like many expected. So, you know, if you could get to three and two, I think four out of six in that six game stretch is very doable. Then all of a sudden you’re seven and four heading into the final stretch where you have the Eagles, the Packers twice, the Lions, the 49ers, tough stretch, but if you can get to seven and four, you know that the path to the playoffs becomes real. So this is a huge game, man. And how you play, how you prepare out of this bye uh can really uh can really determine uh a lot, not only in this game, but moving forward. So I trust Ben to have the boys ready. Whether or not they execute, we’ll have to find out. But uh yeah, it’s going to be fun. going to be exciting. Be sure to hit that subscribe button. We’re going to be here every step of the way this season getting you ready for this upcoming match up against the Washington Commander. So, don’t miss out. Don’t forget to subscribe. See you guys soon. [Music]

How will Bears head coach Ben Johnson lead the Chicago Bears coming off their NFL Week 5 bye against the Washington Commanders? Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS and use code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Johnson’s three previous years as the Lions OC have been productive with his offenses averaging over 31 points per game. What should Bears fans expect on MNF? Will Caleb Williams continue to improve? Chat Sports host Harrison Graham dives into Johnson’s history coming off bye weeks and how he can bring that success to the Bears this week.

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Caleb Williams’ 2024 stats vs. Commanders:
– COMP/ATT: 10/24
– Passing yards: 131
– TD/INT: 0/0
– QB RTG: 59.5
– Rushing yards: 47

Bears offense vs. Commanders (2024):
– Passing yards: 105
– Rushing yards: 202
– Total yards: 307
– Yards per play: 5.3
– Turnovers: 1

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Bears next 6 games:
– Week 7: vs. Saints
– Week 8: at Ravens
– Week 9: at Bengals
– Week 10: vs. Giants
– Week 11: at Vikings
– Week 12: vs. Steelers

Let your voice be heard by commenting on today’s Bears Now episode:
– Who Ya Got? Type ‘CHI’ for Chicago Bears or Type ‘WAS’ for Washington Commanders
– Confidence-level in the Bears coming off the bye week? Scale of 1-10

Chicago Bears Offensive Starters:
– QB: Caleb Williams
– RB: D’Andre Swift
– WR: DJ Moore
– WR: Rome Odunze
– WR: Olamide Zaccheaus
– TE: Cole Kmet
– TE: Colston Loveland
– LT: Braxton Jones
– LG: Joe Thuney
– C: Drew Dalman
– RG: Jonah Jackson
– RT: Darnell Wright

Watch more Chicago Bears YouTube videos here:
– MAKE IT PERSONAL! Bears vs. Commanders Preview, Score Prediction & Injury News – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoSwZsP5xxA
– Chicago Bears Rumors: Braxton Jones Trade? Start Kyle Monangai? Cut Montez Sweat In 2026? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otc5YjILUHM
– Grading Caleb Williams First 4 Games Under Ben Johnson – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6JiYnnrPIo

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