This was not the way it was supposed to end. Sure, the Chicago Bears had already made the playoffs and clinched the NFC North. But beating the Detroit Lions was something this fan base desperately wanted to do.
Instead, the Bears step into the playoffs having lost two games straight and finishing the season with a 2-4 record in the division. The vibes aren't nearly as high as they were just a couple of weeks ago, and Johnson knows it.
For that reason, he did what any good head coach would do in a time like this. He sent a pretty clear message after the loss to Detroit:
“I let them know it’s a new season. We’re starting fresh right now. If we want to make the most out of this new season, we got to go on a four-game winning streak, which we’ve done twice already this year.”
That's it. It's a pretty simple message.
Ben Johnson has seen proof that the Bears have what it takes to quickly turn things around
This season, the Bears have gone 7-4 in one-score games. They've had six game-winning drives engineered by Caleb Williams, which is a franchise record. They are no stranger to having their backs up against a wall.
And, as Johnson alluded to, this team has already gone on a four-game winning streak two separate times over the course of the regular season. In fact, their second streak reached five games, with wins over a pair of playoff teams: the Philadelphia Eagles and, guess who... the Green Bay Packers.
If there is a team that can bounce back from a couple of losses in a short amount of time, it's the Bears under Ben Johnson.
Belief is understandably lower than it was just a couple of weeks ago, but again, let's remember who this team is. This is a team that can never be counted out, no matter what. Until that final whistle, Johnson will have this squad believing.
The biggest problem is that Chicago has started slowly, and they've done so consistently throughout the season. It was a message Johnson preached early on: the Bears need to come out and start faster.
Yet, just this past weekend, we saw the team come out extremely flat on both sides of the ball. It's a problem that just hasn't gone away, and Johnson's highest priority this week couldn't be more obvious.
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It's a new season. Will the Bears act accordingly?