CHICAGO – Here are a handful of people who might be feeling okay—maybe great — about the Chicago Bears’ recent 52-21 butt-whipping in Detroit: Last year’s head coach Matt Eberflus, last year’s offensive coordinator, Shane Waldron (who survived nine games before getting dumped in November 2024), former defensive coordinator, Eric Washington, and—last, but certainly not least—former first round quarterback picks Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields.
Rookie supernova head coach Ben Johnson is winless as a Bear. Quarterback Caleb Williams is also winless in 2025 and has a season passer rating of 89.1, barely above his career rating of 87.9. The Bears defense? God help us. The 52 points they gave up ties for second-most scored by the Lions in their 97-year history.
And then those former Bears, Trubisky and Fields. One is a backup for the Buffalo Bills, while the other is the Jets starting quarterback who left Sunday’s game against the Bills with a concussion and a terrible stat line: 3-for-11 passing for 27 yards. Those two are not great quarterbacks, but they had their moments as Bears, just as Williams has had his moments.
But we’re talking moments. Williams has yet to put together that magical game that lets fans know he’s different from the rest. And more important, a string of those games. Reading the field and having surgical accuracy with passes—that is, the ball goes where it should go, where the quarterback meant it to go—is the gift of the greats. Why Williams flung up a 2nd-and-32, mid-field prayer in the second quarter against the Lions, intercepted by Detroit safety Kirby Joseph, we just don’t know.
That he was yanked in the fourth quarter so we could watch free agent, D-III Shepherd University product Tyson Bagent lead the Bears was a sign of how sad the team has become. A key division rival game and the towel is thrown in like we’re watching Peter McNeeley versus Mike Tyson?
Yes, the game was out of reach and Williams could have gotten hurt, and so on. But the visuals of it all were just, somehow, pathetic. Surrender usually is.
Former Lions offensive coordinator Johnson is the quarterback whisperer, the talent developer, the skill miner, so recent legend has it. No doubt he is good and smart and has a brain for schemes, attacks, numbers. But the story that he was the one who made Detroit’s offense into a powerhouse and turned quarterback Jared Goff into a star seemed a trifle misguided while watching Goff rack up an incredible passing stat line against the Bears of 334 net yards, five touchdowns, 156.0 rating, with a completion streak of 5-for-15 thrown in. Without Ben Johnson.
Maybe Johnson’s teachings carry Goff onward. But it’s worthwhile noting that before he got to the Lions Goff twice threw for over 4,000 yards and racked up 102 passing TDs in his four years as a starter for the Raiders, while making two Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl.
Johnson didn’t return to Detroit and his old team to gloat. He’s a dignified man. But the crowd let him have it with boos. And we’re left to wonder: can he possibly turn Caleb Williams into the savior the Bears franchise has craved for decades? And, on a very different note, is the defense really this bad?
Lockdown cornerback Jalen Johnson is out indefinitely, and if the defense is as porous and confused as it was against Goff, this season is beyond toast. It’s cinders.
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson looks on during the first half of an NFL football game between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions in Detroit, Michigan USA, on Sunday, September 14, 2025. (Jorge Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
You even have to worry about first-year head coach Johnson having control of basic game management. What happens that the start of games looks so great for the Bears, then there’s a collapse? Going for it on fourth down and missing twice is just wrong. All the high hopes fans had with the off-season additions—new coach, fired-up QB, offensive line improvement—are merely duds.
Could it be the Bears are close to the worst team in the NFL? The worst? They lost to the Vikings with their quarterback J.J. McCarthy looking superior. Then the Vikings get whacked Sunday by the Falcons and McCarthy looked terrible. The Bears were destroyed by the Lions, who were clubbed by the Packers the week before. Who can the Bears beat in their division? Anybody?
There’s about an 88% chance the 0-2 Bears won’t make the playoffs now. That’s unfortunate. But it makes sense. You’re supposed to be good to play in the postseason.
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The Source: This article was written by Rick Telander, a contributing sports columnist for FOX 32 Chicago.
