Eagles and Bears compared to your favorite Thanksgiving foods
Joe Rivera and Chris Bumbaca break down Eagles vs. Bears on Black Friday.
- The Chicago Bears, under new head coach Ben Johnson, have improved to an 8-3 record this season.
- Quarterback Caleb Williams credits the team’s newfound success to the belief Johnson has instilled in the players.
- Analysts have drawn comparisons between Johnson’s impact on the Bears and Sean McVay’s transformation of the Los Angeles Rams in 2017.
- Despite the team’s winning record, experts note that Williams still needs to improve his efficiency from the pocket.
A year ago, the Chicago Bears fired their head coach on Black Friday, after Matt Eberflus’ team reached full ineptitude in a Thanksgiving Day loss to the Detroit Lions. Ben Johnson was the Lions’ offensive coordinator, a few months before he once again became one of, if not the, most-desired head coaches in the upcoming cycle.
“Shoot, I don’t remember much about last year, I don’t remember much about last week, to be honest with you,” Johnson told reporters this week. “That was a heck of a game, it came down to the wires. Being on the opposing sideline there, it was a good one for Detroit that week. That’s about all I remember though.”
This Black Friday, the Bears – facing the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles (8-3) – are 8-3 with a chance to remain in first place in the NFC North. They’ve won four in a row and eight of their last 10. Johnson, now the head coach of the Bears, has salvaged Caleb Williams in Year 2 and completely changed the culture on the banks of Lake Michigan.
The Bears are 6-1 in one-score games this season but have a negative point differential (minus-3), making Chicago the third team in the Super Bowl era to start 8-3 or better and still have a negative point differential. Compare that to Eberflus’ tenure, when they went 5-19, the worst record of any coach with at least 20 such games in NFL history. Johnson’s victory speeches from the locker room are worthy of the must-watch tag.
Asked what the biggest difference from 2024 to this season, Williams replied “it’s the belief.”
“When you have a certain amount of belief between all three phases, from the players and special teams, defense and offense, that belief becomes contagious. That’s something that Ben has provided in us and the other coaches have provided in us and instilled in us, is that belief.
“We’re coming out with these wins. Obviously, these recent ones have been a little bit closer than we wanted to be, but that’s what the NFL is. We’re going to keep growing and try and focus on winning games. Like I said, the belief has been probably the main thing that has got us through these games.”
Shades of Sean McVay in Ben Johnson?
To Andrew Whitworth, the 2025 Bears remind him a bit of the 2017 Los Angeles Rams. A second-year quarterback taken No. 1 overall finding comfort in a complex offensive system that can ultimately be uber-friendly to quarterbacks once tamed. Those Rams went 11-5 and won the NFC West.
Whitworth noted the investment made in the offensive line – the Bears signed center Drew Dalman and guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson. Like McVay, who hired Wade Phillips as defensive coordinator, Johnson went with a former head coach for his defensive coordinator in Dennis Allen.
“I thought ‘He’s the real deal,’ seeing he did that, the mentality he had for that, and where they’ve gone, I give a ton of credit to him,” Whitworth said of McVay. “Because I think it’s been his vision that put them in this position to have success.
“Some of those moves he made, told me this guy gets it.”
A solid run game is any developing quarterback’s best friend, and the Bears have the league’s second best in per-game average (142.3, behind the Buffalo Bills). But Williams’ steady improvement has been the most welcoming development – with Johnson’s fingerprints all over it – for Bears fans.
Williams said what he’d heard from friends across the NFL, whether they’d played for him in Detroit or faced him elsewhere, excited him to work with Johnson. He still kept expectations low.
“Now being here with him, he’s been everything that he’s told me he was going to be,” Williams told reporters. “Just going out there and fighting for him, all the coaches and all the players in Chicago. I think he’s provided that belief, that confidence, but also the discipline for us. When you have all those different things and belief in your coach, belief in each other, you start being able to win some games. Even win some maybe unfavorable games.”
Ben Johnson being exactly what Caleb Williams needs
At the same time, Johnson has been consistent in never placing extra or unwarranted praise on Williams. The headlines out of training camp certainly weren’t positive reviews of the Bears’ offense or Williams’ handle on the operation.
“It’s not gonna be a buddy-buddy friendship,” Prime Video analyst Ryan Fitzpatrick said of the Williams-Johnson braintrust. “I think it’s exactly what Caleb Williams needs. He needs a coach that’s gonna be hard on him, that’s gonna demand a lot from him, that’s not gonna sugarcoat things that are mistakes.
“Because of their record (Johnson has) got buy-in from everybody on the team and the organization,”
Williams has the scrambling and playmaking ability and might be the best thrower on the run, Fitzpatrick said. How far he can lead the Bears depends on his ability to pass efficiently from the pocket though.
“He has made some improvements in that, yes, but he still has a long way to go,” Fitzpatrick said.
The good news is that Williams considers himself a process-oriented quarterback. But at the same time, there is the burdening reality of the NFL.
“I do understand that we need to win games,” Williams said. “I do understand that we need to complete the passes.”
There was a time not long ago that felt like a lot to ask of this organization.
