There are certainly worse positions to be in heading into a bye week than the Chicago Bears were in this past week. After starting the season in an 0-2 hole with a heartbreaking loss at home to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1 and a straight-up beatdown at the hands of the Detroit Lions in Week 2, the Bears managed two consecutive wins in Week’s 3 and 4, entering their early bye week with a respectable 2-2 record.
But just because Chicago has some semblance of momentum following two straight victories, it doesn’t mean this is a team that doesn’t have plenty of work left to do if they plan on making a return to the postseason for the first time in five years. And especially with what figures to be an emotionally-charged game in Washington this Monday night, it meant the Bears needed to use their off week to get in the right headspace to approach the remainder of the season.
“The bye week’s coming at a good time and we’re really going to be able to take a good look at ourselves and do a little soul-searching,” head coach Ben Johnson said, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com. According to Johnson, the Week 5 bye would give the Bears the chance to, “get our minds and our bodies back to square one,” which is important for a team that has not only been without multiple starters already this season, but has both won and lost a variety of different kinds of games this year as well.
It’s been an emotional roller coaster for the Chicago Bears organization dating back to last year, when for the first time in franchise history, a Bears head coach was fired in the middle of a season. Not only that, but the first season of Caleb Williams’ career didn’t go as planned, and the Bears lost more heartbreaking games than anyone could rightfully handle in a four-month span… including, perhaps most notably, this one:
If you skipped right over that video, I wouldn’t blame you. Frankly, I embedded it into this column without watching it, because after it happened in real-time last year, I had to do some soul-searching and wonder how healthy it was that I could let the result of a pro football game ruin my entire day. I’m sure many of you reading along are in the same boat. And I’m sure in the Bears locker room, there are a lot of guys who have been thinking about this play quite a bit.
Can Ben Johnson Fix Chicago Bears’ Post-Bye Week Blues?
Dating back to the first year of Marc Trestman’s two-season tenure as the head coach in Chicago, the Bears are an abysmal 2-10 coming off of their bye week. With an extra week of rest and preparation, it’s nearly unthinkable to be that bad and that ill-prepared, but hey, that’s what you get when Trestman, washed John Fox, Matt Nagy and Matt Eberflus are the guys coaching the team.
It’s hard to imagine that someone who is as maniacally competitive and detail-oriented as Ben Johnson will allow the Bears to have an emotional letdown, or be too overcome by emotions, when the Bears take the field this coming Monday night.
“Everything is aggressive with Ben. That’s just the way it is. He’s on every detail all of the time,” a Bears team source told Fowler.
This doesn’t come as a surprise, especially because, again, the Bears have easy-to-identify issues that need to be addressed. What’s the plan at left tackle? Is a trade required to get the rushing attack going? And can this defense find a way to stop the run just enough to ensure they don’t go down as one of the worst rushing defenses in NFL history?
We’ll start to get those answers soon enough.
Ben Johnson Says Bears Spent Bye Week ‘Soul-Searching’ Ahead of Commanders Clash