The relationship between Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams will be the biggest franchise storyline this season, but there will plenty more focus points for the first-year head coach, as well.
In the Bears‘ 38-0 preseason win over the Buffalo Bills last Sunday, Williams played two offensive series and completed 6-of-10 passes for 107 yards and one touchdown, not committing a turnover or taking a sack.
This week, Johnson was a guest with Kay Adams of “Up & Adams,” and she asked the Bears coach about what impressed him most about that preseason blowout win, besides the play of his young quarterback. And the head coach had plenty of praise for the rest of his football team in what was a complete showing in their second preseason game.
“I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage,” Johnson said. “Our guys up front, they established themselves, there’s a physicality with which we want to play with on offense. Defensively, DA (Dennis Allen) and the defensive coaching staff has really instilled that mentality, and the guys played that way for 60 minutes. It’s easy to go in at halftime up by a few scores and let off the pedal in the second half, none of the guys did that.”
After making a big impact and being one of the biggest reasons for the Detroit Lions’ turnaround as a top contender in the NFC since 2022, Johnson will now be tasked with bringing the same turnaround to Chicago. With plenty of excitement from the fanbase, Johnson said the team is not listening to outside noise but appreciates the fanbase and their passion.
“We’re not listening to anything outside of this building right now,” Johnson said. “That’s been the message since the start of training camp and that was reiterated again today because, alright, we had a good game the other day and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, but that’s not what we’re going for. It’s noise, there’s positive and negative, we’re just getting in the habit of putting it in one ear and out the other. To me it is the cool thing about this particular place (Chicago), we have fans that really care, they really care about the Bears.”
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears’ Ben Johnson not listening to outside noise after early success