The Bears have a tradition of talking about taking down the Packers. The Packers have a tradition of rolling their eyes at that.
Ben Johnson is here to change that.
The Bears hired him in January to launch them into championship contention, and while that’s the big-picture goal, the steps leading up to it are to level up to the Packers and the rest of the NFC North. The Bears finished last in the division the last three seasons and are 4-20 against the Packers since firing Lovie Smith.
Johnson already has pumped life into the team with an offense that has been clockwork and creative and a boisterous confidence that rippled through the organization.
“I knew they were going to be good,” Packers safety Xavier McKinney said. “Especially whenever they ended up getting Ben Johnson, I was like, ‘OK, they’re going to be a problem this year.’”
This rivalry dimmed amid the Packers’ dominance and the reality that many of these matchups had low or no stakes because the Bears were sputtering. It’ll be a lot different Sunday at Lambeau Field. It’s enormous for the organization in the immediate and long-term future.
The Bears at 9-3 have a narrow lead in the division over the Packers at 8-3-1 heading into a stretch in which they’ll face each other Sunday and Dec. 20 at Soldier Field in a pair of games that could decide the North.
It’s a crucial game for the Bears in the playoff race, too. They go in as the NFC’s No. 1 seed, but could slide all the way to seventh with a loss, and the Lions would be close behind at 8-5. On the flip side, The New York Times’ simulator projected a 91% chance of the Bears making the postseason if they win Sunday.
Those are the monumental, practical consequences at the moment. It’s also huge for the Bears as they try to establish legitimacy in the rivalry, the division and the NFL at large.
And all of that makes this the biggest game of Johnson’s debut season as head coach.
He has been insistent that the Bears haven’t accomplished anything merely by getting to 9-3 and pulling off some impressive wins, including a physical takedown of the defending champion Eagles. He applies that philosophy to his own coaching, too, and whatever he did to the Packers as Lions offensive coordinator — Detroit went 5-1 and averaged 26.5 points per game those three seasons — doesn’t matter anymore.
“Whether you’re a player or a coach, you’re always looking to prove yourself,” Johnson said. “Year in, year out, things are forgotten so quickly. Each year, you’re trying to show that you’ve still got it.
“I don’t compete on game day from a physical standpoint, [but] I live vicariously through them. I see them work so hard, [and] you want nothing more than for it to pay off on gameday for them and they get the respect they deserve.”
Johnson proving himself as a force and guiding quarterback Caleb Williams’ ascent are key to the Bears’ pursuits. They need to know they have the best coach in the division, and Williams must show he can be the best quarterback. Those are lofty goals, but that’s what it takes.
Johnson knows exactly what he’s up against after working for the Lions’ Dan Campbell and facing the Packers’ Matt LaFleur and Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell the last several seasons.
Sunday will be Johnson’s first matchup with LaFleur as a head coach, but he picked a fight with him at his introductory news conference in January when he said part of the appeal of the new job was that he “enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year.”
It was some version of what every coach the Bears have brought in has said. Former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers used to smirk about lines like that as Marc Trestman went 1-3, John Fox went 1-5, Matt Nagy went 1-7 and Matt Eberflus went 0-5.
LaFleur, who is 11-1 against the Bears, took the bait. He said on a podcast a few months later he didn’t know Johnson and found his comments “interesting.” He credited the Bears for strengthening their roster and wryly jabbed his new rival with, “You get a good football coach, as he said himself, in Ben Johnson.”
Johnson said Friday the competition with other coaches such as LaFleur or highly regarded Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores doesn’t motivate him.
“You know your opponent,” he said. “As an offensive play-caller, I always put in my head who the defensive play-caller is and try to figure out some tendencies. [But] we’re not the ones playing. I don’t think you can put it in that kind of box.”
Real rivalries, including in coaching, are formed by hitting each other hard in the standings, not by soundbites. Those just enhance it. For far too long, the Packers have been an insurmountable barrier to the Bears. This is Johnson’s first chance to show that’s not going to be the case going forward.
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