The Chicago Bears are 7-3 and in first place in the NFC North. Yes, you read that right. How is this possible? There’s only one answer: Benjamin David Johnson. The head coach of the Chicago Bears has completely flipped the team and the season around. After a 0-2 start, Chicago has won 7 of their last 8 games, and it seems like they’re finding new ways to win every game. Even if they blow the lead or are losing badly in the 4th quarter, they don’t panic and execute the perfect game plan to come away with the win. In the past few seasons under former head coach Matt Eberflus, the Bears were finding new ways to lose games. While similar situations are still happening with Ben Johnson, he has actually been able to win those games. Quarterback Caleb Williams has also been a huge piece for the Bears, as he has already had five game-winning drives this season, with some people even calling him “Iceman” because he has ice in his veins. However, with several difficult games coming up, the question will be whether or not Chicago can keep finding ways to win. For now, let’s recap the past 4 games since the win against the Saints:

First, the Bears traveled to Baltimore to take on the Lamar Jackson-less Ravens. They were 1-5 heading into this game, but they got the win over the Bears 30-16. It was a close game for the most part until the Ravens pulled away late in the 4th quarter. Chicago had several defensive players out, and even though backup quarterback Tyler Huntley played for Baltimore, he was able to capitalize on this by completing 17 of 22 passes and throwing a touchdown as well. Running back Derrick Henry had 2 touchdowns, including the dagger to go up 14 with 2:16 left in the 4th quarter. The Bears’ offense didn’t play well, and their defense didn’t get any takeaways, but this led to three straight wins.

Next, Chicago headed to Cincinnati to play the Bengals, and this was one of the best NFL games this season so far. Both offenses went crazy, and the game started with a kickoff return touchdown by the Bengals. The Bears answered with a trick-play touchdown catch by Caleb Williams, in which he pitched the ball to Rome Odunze, who pitched it to DJ Moore, and then he threw it to Williams for the touchdown. Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco had 470 passing yards and 4 passing touchdowns, while Caleb Williams had 280 passing yards, 3 passing touchdowns, and the receiving touchdown. Some other players who had great games for the Bears were Colston Loveland with 6 receptions for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Kyle Monangai with 26 carries for 176 rushing yards. After a back-and-forth game with several touchdowns, Chicago thought they had it in the bag as they were up 41-27 and got an interception with 2:46 left in the game. However, the Bengals pulled off a miraculous comeback, as they scored 15 points in less than a minute to take a 42-41 lead with 58 seconds left. They were able to recover an onside kick to get another touchdown after cutting the lead to six. Caleb Williams took the field with 54 seconds left, trying to lead a game-winning drive. And he did just that. With only 25 seconds left in the game, he fired a pass up the middle to Colston Loveland, who made a spin move to get away from two Bengals defenders and went all the way to the endzone for a 58-yard touchdown to take a 47-42 lead. Cincinnati only had 17 seconds to get a touchdown, and they couldn’t. This was one of the wildest games of the year, and even though the Bears blew a 14-point lead late in the 4th quarter, Ben Johnson was able to find a way to win.

After that, the Bears went back home to take on the Giants. Even though Chicago got on the board first with a touchdown, the offense struggled heavily for the first three quarters of the game. This allowed the Giants to get a 10-point lead with around 10 minutes left in the game, and the offense for Chicago just wasn’t getting anything going. Nevertheless, Caleb Williams was locked in for the final 6 minutes of the game, leading two touchdown drives and scoring the game-winning one himself on a 17-yard run with 1:54 left in the game. The defense also stepped up big after quarterback Jaxson Dart left the game with a concussion in the 3rd quarter, putting Russell Wilson in, and they gave him no chance to do anything. Chicago left Soldier Field with a 24-20 victory, and this time they were the ones losing by a lot in the 4th quarter, but Ben Johnson was able to lead the team to a comeback victory.

Finally, the Bears traveled to Minneapolis and beat the Vikings in another close game last Sunday, 19-17. Both offenses didn’t do so well this game, but quarterback J.J. McCarthy of the Vikings threw 2 interceptions and didn’t look good at all in the first half. Chicago led 16-3 at the start of the 4th quarter, but the Vikings stormed back with two touchdown drives to take a 17-16 lead with only 56 seconds left in the game, along with the help of a missed 45-yard field goal by Cairo Santos. It looked like the Bears would need another huge play to win the game, and it came right away on a 56-yard kickoff return by Devin Duvernay, putting the ball on the Vikings’ 40-yard line and near the range of Cairo Santos. With just a few runs by D’Andre Swift to get the ball a little bit closer, it set up a potential game-winning 48-yard field goal. This time, Cairo redeemed himself, making the kick and ending the game in a 19-17 victory. Similar to the game against the Bengals, Chicago blew a big lead in the 4th quarter, but Ben Johnson was able to remain calm and once again figured out a way to win the game.

Up next: The Bears play the Steelers at home tomorrow at noon. The biggest question will be whether or not Aaron Rodgers will play due to his wrist injury. As of late November 21st, he is still questionable to play, and we all know he probably wants to play badly. He beat the Bears several times when he was on the Packers, so he’ll definitely try to do it again. Nonetheless, this is a huge opportunity for Chicago to get to 8-3 heading into some very difficult games to end the season. If they win tomorrow, their playoff chances will increase significantly. We’ll see if Ben Johnson can pull off another incredible win. He has gotten the offense to be 8th in points per game, 2nd in rushing yards per game, and 6th in yards per play. On the defensive side of the ball, Dennis Allen has gotten them to be first in takeaways per game, first in total takeaways so far this year, and first in interceptions so far this year. Da Bears are first in the NFC North and third in the NFC conference, and I can’t wait to see if Ben Johnson can get them to the playoffs for the first time since the 2020 season.