The offensive line Monday night featured versatile first-year pro Theo Benedet making his first start at left tackle and the return of right tackle Darnell Wright from injury.

“Both of them played really well from start to finish,” Johnson said. “Theo, he doesn’t bat an eye. Nothing’s too big for him. And I think that about a lot of guys on this team. They’re very clutch where the pressure, for a lot of players it can get to you, [but] it doesn’t get to them and they’re kind of built for these types of moments. [Benedet] is in that mold.

“Darnell, it was good to have him back. He didn’t really miss a beat. You feel his presence. Not only can he displace people in the running game, but you see what he’s capable of out in space as well, whether it’s a screen or whether it’s one of the of toss crack series plays that we had up. Very, very grateful to have him back.”

(3) Johnson was also grateful that the Bears run defense rose to the occasion against the NFL’s No. 1 rushing attack.

After allowing the Raiders to run for 240 yards in their previous game Sept. 28, the Bears limited the Commanders to 124 yards on the ground—32 yards below their average.

“I think it started with a little self-reflection there at the bye week of what we can improve on,” Johnson said. “We talk all the time about our fundamentals, being able to shed blocks, being able to tackle in space. And I think we had a good commitment to that early in the week there with our padded practice. I think the guys embraced that and I think that was a good first step.”

Johnson lauded defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and his staff for creating a masterful game plan against an offense led by dangerous dual threat quarterback Jayden Daniels.

“That’s a really difficult offense to defend,” Johnson said. “I can’t stress that enough. This offense creates all kinds of issues to many defenses, ours included. For us to kind of find what we felt like was the best way to defend that and then see the players bring it to life, it was really encouraging to see.

“I thought we were a lot more stout. I thought we did a good job coming off our blocks up front, and I can’t say enough good things about [linebackers] T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds and their ability to fill those gaps in a hurry. I thought those two played a really, really strong game last night as well.”

Edmunds led the Bears with 13 tackles, while Edwards added nine stops in his return to action after missing the previous two games with a hamstring injury.

(4) Johnson was impressed with how Williams dealt with adversity.

The second-year quarterback had a solid game in his return to his hometown, completing 17 of 29 passes for 252 yards with one TD, no turnovers and a 98.6 passer rating.

“There were a lot of things that were going into it, with the hostile environment, with him being back at home, with the weather,” Johnson said. “I mean, you threw a number of things at us and yet he was still able to stay composed.”

Johnson sees Williams’ situational awareness continuing to improve. One example came on the Bears’ game-winning drive when he lost two yards on a run but slid down inbounds to keep the clock running.

“What was really encouraging to me was in that four-minute situation there in the end, we had a field goal pretty much wrapped up and I called one of our keepers there,” Johnson said. “Rather than going out of bounds or throwing the ball, he slid and took a little bit of a loss but understood that running clock was the most important thing. He knows. He’s been playing football his entire life. He understands that and we continue to work all those situations each week anyway and it continues to compile up for us.”