The Chicago Bears closed out their preseason schedule on Friday night with a 29-27 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Field. You wouldn't have guessed it based on Ben Johnson's comments following the victory, though.
Instead, after seeing his team complete the exhibition schedule without a loss on their record, the first-year head coach had some choice words for his starters on the offensive side of the ball as Caleb Williams and company did not get off to the start Johnson wanted to see.
As Courtney Cronin of ESPN reported, the new leader on the sidelines in the Windy City is going to demand much more from this roster than his predecessors. This approach to completing the preseason without a loss on the team's record proves just that.
Ben Johnson wasn’t happy with how any Bears unit started off in Kansas City. Despite a come-from-behind win, Caleb Williams and the starters continue to be “plagued” by the same issues that have shown up throughout camp. https://t.co/VlT8K2c9zk
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) August 23, 2025
Ben Johnson Rips Bears' Offensive Starters After Preseason Finale
While the final score told one story, the start of the game had a completely different feel, especially for Chicago's offense, which struggled to get in gear on its first two drives of the game. That is something that stuck with Johnson for the rest of the night and was addressed during his postgame press conference.
"Offensively, the first two possessions were really sloppy football that has plagued us in and out of camp so far, and unfortunately that's what we got here tonight," Johnson said.
Considering the Bears' first two drives of the game went for a total of 22 yards and resulted in a pair of punts to one of the most dangerous offenses in the league, Johnson had every right to be upset with his starters on that side of the ball.
He elaborated on that fact a bit more by pointing out that the execution to start the game was not up to par and is something that must be fixed sooner rather than later if Chicago wants to achieve its goals for the 2025 campaign. This went for both the offensive and defensive starters.
"If the first quarter was really any indication, it's not good enough, so we got to get better in a hurry," Johnson said. "Good news is we will be able to look at this tape and coach it up with our guys and I think it's out of our system hopefully for us going into the regular season. We got to make sure that we start faster on offense and on defense."
At one point early in the second quarter, Kansas City had run off three consecutive scoring drives and owned a 17-0 lead over the Bears. Had this been a regular-season game and now an exhibition, the climb back from that type of deficit against a team as strong as the Chiefs would have been a struggle for any team, let alone the Bears.
With a division showdown against the Minnesota Vikings set for the regular season opener, time is ticking in the Windy City for Johnson and this roster to figure things out.