The Chicago Bears were one of the biggest winners of the NFL offseason when they hired Ben Johnson as their new head coach. Unfortunately, the first-year bench boss left plenty to be desired in his debut on Monday, as the Bears fell 27-24 to the Minnesota Vikings. He may have some regrets about his personnel, and he would certainly want a redo of that second half vs. the Vikings.
Of all the things that went wrong, though, the former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator has two major regrets, according to Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic.
Ben Johnson Admits Two Crucial Mistakes in Bears Opener
"Bears head coach Ben Johnson regrets the challenge flag he threw, saying it was not the recommendation he got from the booth," Fishbain wrote on X. "Another one he wants back is the kickoff decision at the end of the game — the call should've been to kick it out of bounds."
The first one is pretty self-explanatory. It was on a play in which Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson lost possession of the ball after a catch when Bears linebacker Noah Sewell punched it out. Hockenson was clearly down before the ball came out, and it was ruled an incomplete pass. Johnson still chose to challenge the ruling on the field, but to no avail.
Losing that timeout proved to be extremely costly for the Bears. They could've used it in the final drive to try to tie the game with a field goal, which leads to the second miscue.
The Bears scored a touchdown to get back to within three points. Then, instead of going for a touchback or kicking the ball out of bounds, they allowed a return that cost them valuable seconds down the stretch. The defense forced a three-and-out on the next drive, but they didn't have enough time left on the clock to get within field goal range to even things up. Once again, it was a glaring mismanagement by the first-year Bears coach.
Even with those struggles, it wasn't all negative in the debut. For starters, quarterback Caleb Williams looked much more comfortable in the offense. The offensive line still needs to tweak things up a little, but it was just one game, and the unit will look more comfortable with each passing outing under Johnson.
Johnson, like many other successful coordinators, is learning the hard way that it takes much more to be the main guy calling the shots. Hopefully, much like his mentor Dan Campbell, the Bears HC will learn from his mistakes and come back stronger in Week 2.