Kyle Long Breaks Down the Bears’ New Identity Under Ben Johnson 🐻

Kyle Long Breaks Down the Bears’ New Identity Under Ben Johnson 🐻

We are putting the spotlight on your Chicago Bears. Your Chicago Bears. That’s longtime Chicago Bear Kyle Long. I’m longtime Chicago Bears fan Chris Hassel. That’s a long time uh Chicago. I wish he was a Chicago Bear. We were together who had some tussles with the Bears over the years as a member of the Saints and the Dolphins. Kyle, I talking to you about this this this comeback win against the Bengals. I mean, that was typical Bears of of years past. You blow that big lead late, you lose the No. didn’t happen this time. Yeah, my dad called me up after the game. He’s like, I’ve never seen the Bears do this. Never have the Bears outscored a team like that. Blown the game and then still come back to win it. Well, I think it’s really important for, you know, the people that do the lowhanging fruit analysis of wins when people try to poke holes in wins in the NFL. I hate that, by the way. You and I both know how hard it is. He gave up 42 points in the National Football League. But when you give up 42 points and you still win, that means that you scored more than 42 points, which the last time I checked is damn good in the National Football League. So for the Chicago Bears, I would say the arrow is trending north um upwards. The defensive side of the ball is really banged up. So you have to take that 42 points given up with a grain of salt and also understand that’s Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, and Joe Flacco, which last time I checked, pretty good triumphvirate there uh in Cincinnati. The thing that impresses me most about this football team is not what I thought was going to impress me most. I thought it was going to be the immediate development and star status of Caleb Williams married with Ben Johnson, right? The best play calls, they’ve got weapons, all that stuff. And while that is happening, and sometimes it feels like a trickle instead of a steady steady flow of progress at the quarterback position, Caleb Williams has done enough to win. But it’s this football team rallying around and leaning on the run game. Okay? It’s developing an identity. It’s having true explosive ability in your offense. The ability to run it for four and a half yards per carry is such a important thing in this league because it sets up so much other stuff in your offense. The Bears have been able to do that. They stay on schedule. I just think it’s really important to have an identity and I feel like they have one now. Terron, I agree. I agree, Kyle. to your to your point, we haven’t seen the Chicago Bears have a consistent and and just identifiable run game since you Charles Leno were on that offensive line creating that push. Shout out to Chucky Len Len. Shout out to my guy Leno. But shout out to Dan Roshar. He’s offensive line coach for the Chicago Bears. He has resurged this unit up front. That right tackle Darnell. He’s a monster. He is on pace to be one of the best regardless of who you he’s going he’s on pace to be one of the best in the league. His his development that we’ve seen so far this year under Dan Roshar who who was my O line coach for eight years in New Orleans, he is amazing. And so adding that element to that Bears offense with all the weapons that they have on the outside is giving Caleb Williams more options. is given the defense they’re they’re un unsure on the way to approach and attack this team. They have to respect everything. They have to respect everything. Those linebackers have to step up and play the run in the play action and all these guys outside that have speed and home run capabilities. Caleb is finding these guys. I I I I do I’m I’m finding some some confidence in the Bears. I was at that joint practice with you. It wasn’t pretty. Yeah, it wasn’t pretty for either for either side, mind you. Credit to Ben Johnson. Credit to Caleb Williams and what he’s doing. Credit to Dan Roshar and that offensive line. They are producing and performing. And and Dennis Allen as well. I mean, Dennis Allen has had to deal with a ton of injuries on the defensive side of the ball. Um, and at the beginning of the year, I looked at that defensive unit and I thought, man, they’ve got a lot of really explosive guys, opportunities to get a lot of turnovers. The back end’s got a lot of stars, but Allp Pro Jaylen Johnson goes down in like week three with a hip flexor for the season. you know, uh, Gordon, all these guys, Brisker, in and out of the lineup, but they continue to step up and make plays. And I see a guy by the name of Austin Booker. And if you’re a Bears fan, you know the defensive end, Austin Booker. But if you’re just a fan of the league, you will get to know him soon because these guys are coming out of the woodwork for the Bears. Guys stepping up, making plays, and that is the sign of a good team. Guys looking to come up for air and make a play for their team. They also just had a sleeper real quick, Chris. They also just had a sleeper signing. Johnson Gardner Johnson. Mhm. That is that’s that’s a player that is so dynamic in his versatility, his energy. He’s familiar with Dennis Allen. They were we were all in New Orleans together. Very successful down there with each other. So Da know how he knows how to use him. He had a sack, I believe, in his first his first game with the Bears. that is a a player that can really start to become the glue to that Chicago Bears offense uh defense moving forward with the defense as banged up as they have them. How do they lead the NFL with 19 takeaways? How are they creating these turnovers for that offense? I think it’s guys who have a real good nose for the football on the back end and I think they’re opportunistic and they are a boomer bust defense. You know, in the games that they have won, they get a bevy of turnovers, but in the games they’ve lost, it’s a desert for turnovers. So, they’re a team that relies on it. And I remember the last team I was on like that was the 2018 Chicago Bears with Khalil Mack and those guys. We thrived off of turnovers. Not just the defense, but when the defense got a turnover, we were going sudden change. We were going for whole shots. We were going down the field. Um, and that’s big. And that’s why I mean you got to create turnovers, but you have to have the right guys in those positions that have a nose for the football. Kyle was saying something off air that I I’d like to get your take on. Kyle said most explosive offense in the NFL. Yeah. Yeah. The Chicago Bears. Yeah, he said that. Was he Do you think he was kidding? At first I I did and then I looked at him again and uh I saw I saw I’m serious. We wanted Hey, look. You hire Ben Johnson because you watched the Detroit Lions and that was the most explosive offense in football. While the Detroit Lions still have the Johnny’s and Joe’s on their team, they’re mixing they’re missing Ben Johnson’s ex X’s and O’s. And when we hired Ben Johnson, I said, can you bring Pane Su? Can you bring, you know, can you bring these guys over? Aman Ross ain’t Brown, can he make the trip, too? Well, no, but he found his own versions of these guys. and DJ Moore, Roma Dunce, now Colston Lovelin, the first round pick, breakout, having a massive game this past week, and Caleb Williams obviously going down the field in the two-minute mode. Uh, I just think it’s week to week, this team scores 21 or more points. They’ve they’ve only not done it one time against the Ravens. It’s it’s hard to argue, uh, Kyle, it’s I almost called you Chris. It’s it’s hard to argue. That happens a lot, by the way. Not just you. It’s not just you, but especially coming off a 40 plus point performance that they they just had. I I hesitate to call them the most explosive offense in the NFL. We’ve seen what the Colts have done all year. They just they did struggle this past weekend, five turnovers. That’s an outlier game at this point. We get the chance to see them face some adversity for the first time this year and see how they respond. Daniel Jones is looking MVP caliber. Yep. Jonathan Taylor is offensive player of the year, you know. So, it’s it’s it’s really hard for me not to go Colts when I’m talking most explosive offense of because consistently the entire season they have done it at the highest level. Bears with the fourth most yards per game this season, 378 a game, six most points per game at 20 terrible game for the Chicago. So, relative to what I’m used to, yeah, I got you. I would say that they are if there was a place that was even further than first place I would relative to what we’ve seen. Look, they’re they’re on a roll. They’ve won five of six, but when you look at the playoff picture right now, if it ended today, and I know it it doesn’t. We’re halfway through the season. They would not be in. And you guys just looked at their schedule. That’s really difficult. In fact, on paper, the third most difficult remaining schedule the rest of the way. They still have to play the Packers twice. It’s not got to go to Minnesota. They got to go to Minnesota. That’ll be really the one. So that’s week 11 um in Minnesota. Why are you circling that game against the Vikings? Well, because they played the Vikings already with JJ McCarthy in prime time week. Disastrous collapse. So that was a disastrous collapse. And I feel like this team that we see every Sunday now would have beat that team week one. This will be a good measuring stick to find out how far we’ve come as a football team. Obviously JJ McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings, they got a big win this past week and there was a lot of deliberation about the quarterback position there, but they seem to have found their guy. Um, you beat them week 11, you’re in the hunt. Um, you know, I expect them to get the job done against the New York Giants at home. Then you got to play Aaron Rogers, which we know historically speaking doesn’t really bode well for the Bears. You got the Philadelphia Eagles on the road, which, you know, is always a nightmare. You can attest to that. Green Bay on the road, that’s tough. Cleveland, you got to beat. And then Green Bay at home, San Francisco on the road, then you come back to host the Detroit Lions. So, a bevy of really tough opponents, but I didn’t expect them to be in the playoffs this year. You didn’t expect them to be in the playoffs this year. You probably didn’t either. They’re in a good spot. And if you’re a Bears fan, you could rest easy knowing that the project is underway and there’s progress being made. Your Chicago Bears, the most explosive team in the National Football League.

Former Bears OL Kyle Long and Terron Armstead join CBS Sports HQ to break down the 2025 season for the Chicago Bears and talk about the team’s new identity under first-year head coach Ben Johnson.

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