Still, ugly or not, the Chicago Bears are 2-2 in the 2025 season after a win over Las Vegas where there was sloppy football all around. Yet, the Bears were the team that made the one play to seal the win as defensive back Josh Blackwell blocked a game-winning field goal attempt.
Here’s what we took away from the Bears’ 25-24 win over the Raiders, giving Ben Johnson his first winning streak as the Bears’ head coach.
The Bears have a coach that’s willing to do anything
The Bears ran their own version of the Stumble Bum play. Remember, the play Ben Johnson ran against the Bears last year when he was the Lions’ offensive coordinator?
That didn’t work.
Johnson also called a fake flea flicker, after a real flea flicker worked to perfection last week in a 65-yard touchdown to Luther Burden. That resulted in a facemask penalty on D’Andre Swift.
That didn’t work, either.
Still, it’s encouraging that Johnson is comfortable enough to open the playbook. He’s trusting his offense to run plays that can spark an offense, which is something the Bears didn’t have last season.
A great play caller can manifest offense when an offense is struggling to find yards. That’s what Johnson tried to do. He also never lost confidence in his offense, especially in quarterback Caleb Williams.
“Ben came over to me right before and said these are times you’re made for,” Williams said. “I went into huddle, looked everyone in the eyes and said this is the moment.”
The offensive line shuffling has begun
With Darnell Wright out, the Bears were struggling to keep Raiders star edge rusher Maxx Crosby contained. That was a point of emphasis for Ben Johnson early this week, too.
“You have to account for him and know where he is at every single snap or else he’ll get you and he wrecks drives,” Johnson said on Wednesday. “That’s what he does.”
Crosby finished the game Sunday with three tackles for loss, three passes defended, a forced fumble and an interception.
At the four-minute mark of the second half, the Bears made some moves. With Wright out, Johnson plugged Theo Benedet in at right tackle.
At the four-minute mark in the first half, the Bears pulled Braxton Jones, slotted Benedet at left tackle and put Ozzy Trapilo at right tackle.
Johnson said this was going to be the case if the offensive line wasn’t playing winning football. That shuffling has already begun. It remains to be seen what the line looks like coming out of the bye week, but the Bears are going to put players in when they need a chance or don’t think they’re playing winning football.
Trapilo and Benedet held their own against Maxx Crosby, especially on a final drive that went 12 plays and scored the go-ahead touchdown. That’s credit to offensive line coach Dan Roushar.
The running game might not be fixable
The Raiders’ run defense is not that good. They were allowing over 110 rushing yards per game through the first three games of the season.
The Bears’ running attack stumbled. They had lead back D’Andre Swift rush the ball 14 times for 38 yards. Kyle Monongai rushed the ball four times for 18 yards. That’s not good enough and puts too much pressure on the Bears’ passing attack.
The Bears finished Sunday with just 69 net rushing yards for an average of 2.7 yard per carry.
With the players they have in place, it might not be in a position to improve this season. Unless Brittain Brown, Roschon Johnson or Monongai can offer a difference that Swift hasn’t show, but that’s not something the Bears can count on.
The offensive line is shuffling, which makes it more difficult to sustain success on the ground. Still, the Bears might be overhauling positions one at a time to fit what Johnson wants. This offseason might be the running back position.
If any players want to stay in the running back room, they have the rest of the season to prove it.
Hightower deserves his flowers
When Bears’ special teams coordinator Richard Hightower spoke to reporters on Thursday, he was asked about the blocked field goals around the league.
There were 12 blocked kicks through three weeks. There wasn’t a trend Hightower noticed when seeing these plays. There wasn’t any difference if they were longer kicks or shorter kicks or with different weather conditions and either indoors or outdoors.
“There’s really no trend on it right now,” Hightower said on Thursday. “What I can tell you is that we’re watching all of that tape, and our players are watching all that tape as well. We went through all of those blocks with them as well so they could learn from it, and they could see it.”
Make that 13 blocks through four weeks.
Josh Blackwell’s block won the game for the Bears. It was also a study in understanding how Hightower has his players prepared.
Blackwell said on Marquee Sports Network that Bears long snapper Scott Daly told him the Raiders long snapper moved the ball before every snap. Blackwell knew how to make the play, and that’s thanks to coaching. Hightower’s coaching ability shined through Sunday.
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