Bears HC Ben Johnson on Caleb Williams’ ‘IT’ factor, coaching style, goals for rest of season | FTF

Bears HC Ben Johnson on Caleb Williams’ ‘IT’ factor, coaching style, goals for rest of season | FTF

And now we welcome back to First Things First. I can’t confirm whether or not that’s my ringtone. Good, better, best. It’s, it’s the absolute greatest. Ben Johnson with us here on FTFOT. Coach, thank you so much for the time. How are you doing today? I’m doing great. It’s good to see you guys. Good to have you with us. So another crazy win. You guys have been wildly exciting, uh, this year, and another 4th quarter comeback, uh, to get to 5 and 3. And I’m curious, your quarterback, I don’t know if you saw this, but he was caught, uh, on the sideline, kind of giving a little smirk right before he went out for the. Final drive and his 4th quarter numbers are by far his best when you, when you break it down. It seems to me to have that it factor. What do you see from Caleb in these clutch moments? Yeah, I, I would agree with that wholeheartedly. I think he, he really appreciates those opportunities because, uh, really gives him a chance to, to write his story, you know, and so. Um, a lot of confidence in him in those waning minutes and, and he just finds a way. Uh, it might not be exactly how you draw it up as a coach, and yet, um, he just has that playmaking ability. Him and really the rest of the crew too. I, I can’t speak enough about how all of our pass catchers, all of our blockers, they just do a phenomenal job when, when the pressure’s on, they just stay steady, and so, uh, yeah, I think it’s been a good thing so far this season. Yeah, so the thing that maybe not everyone saw off that play, you mentioned one of your blockers, Darnell Wright, as he is trailing Colston Loveland, and this is a, this is a large man. He ends up doing a cartwheel. Not a big deal, just 300+ pounds doing a cartwheel, uh, on the touchdown, but that wasn’t his only viral moment from the game. He also had a pancake block where he takes the guy, I don’t know, 15 yards horizontal across the field. Curious, in the, uh, film review with the team, which got the bigger wow, the, the block or the cartwheel? Yeah, definitely the block and a little collateral damage there too with, with DJ getting caught in the wash. So those whiteouts gotta watch their backs there, don’t they? Yeah, uh, no, I mean the guy’s a freak, man. There, there’s not a whole lot he can’t do, you know. It’s him, uh, blocking right now, but I’m, I’m telling you, he does some things in practice. We, we’ve thrown him the ball a couple of times, and he’s just, he looks as good as any of our pass catchers, to be honest with you. So, um. Yeah, he, he’s, it’s pretty impressive. Preview of things to come. Darnell Wright, catcher, but we’ll see, we’ll see. Everything’s on the table, coach. You’ve always alluded to how you envision this offense looking, um, and obviously with Caleb at the helm, how do you view his growth and allowing that offense to look the way that you’ve desired it to look week in and week out? We’re, we’re getting there, we’re making a lot of progress. Um, you know, we talked about it at our byeweek that we wanted the 2nd quarter of the season to see our run game come on, and so, um, I think that’s happened to a large degree. I’m, I’m very pleased with our progress there. Our combinations upfront are, are looking a lot cleaner. I think our backs are trusting what they’re seeing a lot more and they’re running hard. Um, and so with, with that starting to ignite, I, I think the rest of the, the offense is really gonna take off as well. Um, Caleb is starting to get a lot more comfortable with some of these concepts. It’s now his 3rd, 4th, 5th reps to some of these things in, in game settings, and I think you’re starting to see it add up. He’s playing faster. Um, we still, we’re still working through some of these, uh, mechanical issues with our footwork tied in with where our eyes and where everything needs to be, but, uh, that, you know, that’s a young player learning the offense for the first time. So, none of that’s surprising to any of us, but I think we’re right on track. Uh, I, I’m really excited to see where this thing goes second half of the season. Yeah, it’s interesting. I, I know you won’t spike the ball on it, and I know you’re in a coach speak and game week and all of that stuff, but like, we’re 8 games into this thing and I see the smirk there. If I put up some of the offensive stats so far, I’ve been watching the Bears for 40 years. You’re 8 games into the Ben Johnson era. You guys are 6th in the NFL in points. That’s not since the bye, that’s not just against bad. 6th in points, 2nd in explosive plays, top 10 in sacks allowed, 4th in rushing, like. Is it where you want it to be at this point in the season, are you on track, coach? Well, you know, I can’t, I don’t even look at those so much as we’ve had 8 games and we’ve scored enough to, to win 5 of them so far. And so, that’s, that’s the number one thing that we’re looking to do each and every week, whatever it takes to, to win ballgames, whether that’s run. Throw, we gotta score in the RedZone. Uh, we can still play a lot cleaner brand of football. We, we haven’t even gotten there yet. We made some strides in the RedZone and with our penalties, uh, last week, but it’s still not where it’s, where it needs to be for us, uh, especially when you look at some of these really good defenses we’re gonna face here, second half of the season. And so, um, It’s a small sample size. I, I can’t take too much stock in those stats, uh, at this, uh, hour, but, you know, we, we are, I, I’m really pleased with what we’re doing so far, and I, I think we’re gonna continue to improve, you know, it’s a, we’re starting the 3rd quarter of the season and, and, uh, we’ve got goals set out, and that’s what we gotta to achieve. Coach, I’m gonna throw a different type of question at you because I had the luxury of having you in the building with me down in Miami. We were there together and you, you always went to work with a level of detail and intensity in terms of your preparation. Now that intensity is turned into like these facial expressions and just the body language and the intensity on the sideline, how is that evolved and do you, are you aware that you do this? Well, no, I try to be, I just try to be steady, Eddie, you know, um, do you try to be steady, Eddie, with these faces. Yeah, I, I just try to, I try to, you know, I, I learned from Mike Sherman, that was my first, uh, coordinator when I got in the NFL that the head coach needs to be the model of consistency. You know, if he’s, if he’s up and down, the whole team’s gonna be up and down. So, I try to do that throughout the week and then on game day, I just, I try to stay focused and, and help out where I can, which for me in, in my role right now, that’s calling plays on offense, that’s managing the game with the, with the timeouts and Uh, you know, dealing with the officials, all, all those types of things. So I, I gotta stay as level-headed as I can be. I can’t get too emotional with it, and so, um, or else I’m not doing my job and my, my part for, for the players. Um, so, no, I, I don’t, I don’t look at necessarily the facial expressions the whole lot. I just try to stay pretty consistent with it. The wife or kids don’t say, just chill out, just chill out a little bit. No, I think, I think they get into it. It sounds like they get into games just as much as I do, you know, they, I mean, what my, my son broke his foot in the preseason because Cole Kame caught a 30-yard pass. He jumps off the couch and he breaks his foot, you know, and so these guys, they’re, they’re invested just like. The rest of us. It sounds like I should watch a game with your son. The things that I say during Bears games are I cannot broadcast them. You guys are giving me a little bit of a heart attack this year. You mentioned quarters of the season. A lot of football coaches break it down. I saw the clip that you said, you know, went 3 and 1 in the last quarter. That was a goal. What can you share with us about what your goals are, like the short-term goals for this next chunk of the season? Uh, well, really for us, it’s not that much different than the 2nd quarter in terms of, um, we, we need to end this next 13 and 1 as well. If we want to achieve uh what we’re setting out, uh, the goals that we talked about in training camp and, and in the springtime. So, uh, that’s, that’s a big objective for us. We, we know the task at hand. We got 2 home games, 2 away games, we got some conference, uh, Opponents, we’ve got a division opponent mixed in there. And so, uh, like I said, teams will start to separate themselves. There, there’s a big group of really good NFC teams right now and a lot of teams still in the hunt to make the playoffs. And so we need to continue to be that once we get done here with the 3rd quarter. In, in this second half of the season, obviously, we were able to see, uh, Young man get it going and actually just step up and make plays for the first time really all season in uh Colson Loveland. How good of a sign is that for fans and your offense of what’s to come and how this offense is just expanding in terms of the players that you guys have to make plays. Yeah, well, it’s, it’s, I, I appreciate his patience with it, you know, we knew early in the season, there are a couple of games where we needed him a little bit more in the run game and in past pro, uh, just to help us out there, and then he got dinged up and in and out, and now he’s fully healthy and, um, you know, the ball came his way and he made the plays, you know, I mean, I think that’s the biggest thing is we got a number of really talented playmakers and, um, you know, we, we got to capitalize on the opportunity when the ball’s in the air coming our way, catch it and, and make something happen after we get the ball in our hands. And so, He did that. I do think it’s a little bit of, of, uh, I don’t wanna say relief for him, but, you know, it’s, it’s a big game and, uh, you know, he’s the offensive player of the week. Um, and so, I think it’s, it’s just a really good confidence builder that everything he’s doing, he’s, he’s very much a professional, um, as a rookie, as I’ve ever seen. I mean, he, he goes, his approach is really strong. And to see it pay off with the results like that, I think it’s only gonna continue to, to improve and ascend, uh, where, where he’s going. Well, coach, this is now the 2nd time, uh, you’ve joined the show. Greg and I talked to you before the season. Now we are here at the midway point. Was this interview good, better, best? Where are we at on the scale? Oh, this, this is definitely better than the 1st 1, so we’re getting there. We’re making progress. All right, we’re not gonna let it rest. Continued growth. All right. Thank you, coach. Yeah, thank you guys.

Chicago Bears HC Ben Johnson joins First Things First to discuss Caleb Williams’ ‘IT’ factor, his coaching intensity and goals for the rest of the season.

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Bears HC Ben Johnson on Caleb Williams’ ‘IT’ factor, coaching style, goals for rest of season | FTF
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