It was refreshing to hear that a big reason why Ben Johnson didn't take a head coaching job in 2024 was that he felt that he needed to get a better understanding of how to oversee the defense and special teams. This is a big difference from Matt Eberflus who seemed to hand all of the offensive responsibility to his offensive coordinators with what appeared like very little oversight. The Chicago Bears and Bears fans should be excited about how Johnson won his press conference today.
During his introductory press conference, Ben Johnson made it known that the Chicago Bears were the one team within the NFC North that he feared the most. He called them a sleeping giant and was a little surprised at how the 2024 season ended up. He talked about how the roster Ryan Poles has put together is full of talent and essentially underachieved. During questioning, Adam Hoge of CHGO asked what kept Johnson up at night when game planning against the Bears. He talked about the 2023 run defense and how it was drastically different in 2024 with Andrew Billings out for the season.
Losing Andrew Billings was major issue with the Chicago Bears defense
After his introductory press conference, Johnson appeared on Carmen and Jurko on ESPN Chicago radio. During that interview, he was asked why he thought the defense didn't live up to expectations in 2024. Once again, Johnson brought up the disappearance of Andrew Billings due to injury.
Billings tore his pectoral muscle against the Arizona Cardinals game in Week 9. Prior to that game, the Chicago Bears' defense didn't allow more than 18 points in a game. In that game, they allowed 29. New England rushed for 144 yards the following week and averaged 4.1 yards per carry. The week after that the Packers averaged 4.2 yards per carry. Then the Vikings averaged 4.6 yards per carry and gained another 124 yards on the Bears.
In their two games against the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Lions gained 194 yards and averaged 5.9 yards per carry in the first matchup, followed by 146 yards and 4.6 yards per carry in the second matchup.
It should be noted that the Chicago Bears' defense was not as good against the run even before Billings went down for the season, but it clearly worsened after the loss of the big nose tackle. Looking at the roster, the Bears still need help on the defensive line and in a few other areas on that side of the ball. It will be interesting to see how things shake up now with a new direction in place.