Chicago Bears HC Ben Johnson points the finger after losing to Vikings

Visions of Matt Nagy’s debut with the Chicago Bears danced in my head during Monday night’s second-half collapse against the Minnesota Vikings. The Bears surrendered 21 points in the fourth quarter to lose 27-24 in front of 58,742 fans at Soldier Field.

Chicago, leading 20-3 to begin the fourth quarter of Week 1 in 2018, surrendered 21 points in the fourth quarter in a Green Bay Packers 24-23 win on “Sunday Night Football.”

Those Bears went on to make the playoffs, but Chicago has notable improvements to make on offense before this team thinks about the postseason. Quarterback Caleb Williams was the team’s lead rusher. Sans Williams, the Bears rushed 20 times for 61 yards, just a hair over three yards per rush.

Ben Johnson blamed himself for the running attack

Following the game, Johnson told the media he blamed himself for being unable to get the running game going against the Vikings.

“The running game just didn’t feel… I didn’t feel the rhythm as I was calling it,” Johnson said. “It was some good and some not quite so good, and it didn’t seem like we were all quite on the same page the whole time. Like I said, that’s a reflection of me as much as anything else.”

The one-dimensional, or maybe nondimensional offense, wasn’t helped by a lack of threat from the backfield. Following the Bears touchdown on the opening drive, the offense had two drives end in a field goal opportunity and seven drives finish in punts or downs.

The Chicago Bears don’t know what went wrong with Caleb Williams

Johnson was unsure why Williams was unable to carry momentum from the first drive to the rest of the game.

“He started off really well and then I don’t know,” Johnson said. “I’ll have to go back and look at exactly where those incompletions came in, but it certainly felt like it dried up a little bit.”

Johnson had a Matt Eberflus-like moment

Visions of Matt Eberflus bungling the clock against the Detroit Lions at Thanksgiving also came to me on the Bears final touchdown drive. Instead of taking an easy field goal with plenty of time to execute a kickoff and save a timeout before the two-minute warning, Johnson took a risk and pushed the offense to score a touchdown with 2:02 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Instead of kicking the ball out of bounds or attempting an onside kick (taking the risk of letting time tick off but gaining a chance at an extra possession), team captain Cario Santos, who missed a field goal earlier in the game, was unable to kick the ball out of the end zone. Returner Ty Chandler returned the ball, taking the clock from 2:02 down to 1:55, meaning the Bears lost a chance for the two-minute warning to stop the clock on the Vikings first offensive play.

Johnson confirmed he wanted Santos to kick the ball out of the end zone. It was still a mistake from the rookie head coach. Kicking the ball out of bounds would have put the ball at the Chicago 40-yard line instead of the 35 via a successful touchback. The five yards weren’t nearly as important as the time, which was proved when the Bears got the ball back with :09 seconds remaining.

Whatever special teams coordinator Richard Hightower is telling Johnson, the new head coach needs to think the opposite.

It wasn’t Johnson’s only stupid moment of the time. The first-year head coach made another Eberflus-like move by challenging a fumble when Noah Sewell knocked the football out of tight end T.J. Hockenson’s hand with 7:14 remaining in the third quarter. The challenge had no chance, as Hockenson’s knee was clearly on the ground. The lost timeout hurt Chicago at the end of the game.

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