Don’t look now, but the Chicago Bears achieved another significant win in a season full of surprises under first-year head coach Ben Johnson. Black Friday featured a road matchup with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, and the Bears came away with a 24-15 victory, extending their win streak to five straight games.
It was an impressive game for Chicago’s two running backs, as Kyle Monangai and D’Andre Swift combined for 225 yards and two touchdowns. Caleb Williams was 17-of-36 on his passing with 154 yards and a touchdown, despite two sacks and an interception.
There were also several big defensive plays, including Nashon Wright recovering a Jalen Hurts fumble on an Eagles’ short-yardage rushing attempt. Kevin Byard III also grabbed another interception, his sixth overall.
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Johnson has clearly been one of the biggest stories of the NFL season. The former offensive coordinator has seemingly worked wonders in Chicago, inspiring the players with a different mindset and calling up plays that help them win games that seem improbable.
Following his team’s massive Black Friday win, Johnson spoke about the mission ahead to continue improving. According to the Bears’ head coach, this team is nowhere near where he’s expecting them to be.
“There’s no secret. There are no shortcuts. We’ve gotta go out next week and put in the same amount of work that we’ve been doing, and we’ve gotta continue to get better. We’re still not at what we’re capable of being yet as an entire team. We’re gonna continue to strive to put that full 60 minutes of three phases of complete football together, but these guys continue to get better each and every week,” Johnson said during his postgame press conference.
As of this writing, the team has easily exceeded expectations, as some may have predicted they’d get only a win or two more than they did last season. However, they’ve now won five in a row and 10 of 11 games. The 9-3 Bears continue to lead a super competitive NFC North, with the Green Bay Packers (8-3-1) on their heels.
They’ll play those Packers twice in their remaining four games. In addition, the Bears will face the Cleveland Browns, led by Shedeur Sanders, and try to avenge an earlier loss to the Detroit Lions. As it stands, they’re amongst the projected NFC Playoff teams, and Bears fans have to be feeling pretty good about their chances of securing a postseason berth with Ben Johnson as coach.
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