Typically, bratwurst and cheese curds are on the menu in Green Bay. Lambeau Field served a plate full of humble pie to Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
We’ve spent the last few days mourning the loss of Mike Ditka, watching old clips, and remembering his best quotes and moments. Ditka once said, “Effort without talent is a depressing situation, but talent without effort is a tragedy.” »
In that regard, Sunday was a tragedy.
For a long time, the Bears were more about effort than talent. Nowadays, they have a lot of talent. On Sunday, this talent put in very little effort, and by Iron Mike standards, that’s as bad as it gets. The Packers completely dominated the Bears from the kickoff and never let up. It feels like Ditka would have had some words for what he watched, and none of them were printable.
A loss like this doesn’t leave much positive, but it leaves a lot to learn. Here are five clear things Sunday at Lambeau.
Five lessons from the loss of the bears at Lambeau
1. Bagent is a substitute, not a starter, and Sunday proved it
Ben Johnson said after the game that Bagent was “up and down,” and I would say he was just down. I didn’t see any improvement for Bagent on Sunday.
Bagent was 12 of 21 for 87 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions and a dismal 27.4 passer rating before being benched for Case Keenum. Bagent’s final throw was his worst throw, which was intercepted by Green Bay safety Xavier McKinney for the second time. The problem was, it seemed Bagent had never seen McKinney. Not seeing McKinney at all is worse than seeing him and forcing the football into triple coverage in the first half on Sunday.
Bagent’s arm strength is below average, but his processing and decision-making are worse, and that was on full display today. Frankly, it showed last week when he refused or didn’t see several open receivers at the second level. This week, Johnson confirmed the misses and let his backup quarterback take some hits. I warned before this game that pushing the football to the second level with a limited passer against a secondary featuring McKinney and Evan Williams as a backfield tandem was not smart. This quickly became apparent on Sunday.
After that, Johnson’s play call seemed to reflect the conclusion many had drawn regarding Bagent, and the offense began finding ways to move the ball past Bagent rather than through Bagent. The formula that beat the Jets and Eagles required a cooperative storyline and a buzzing running game. Lambeau gave Bagent neither, and the ceiling appeared quickly.
2. Caleb Williams can’t return soon enough
Every throw Bagent left on the field Sunday was a reminder of the one thing Johnson’s offense is missing and how different the ceiling is when he’s there.
There should never again be a conversation about how important Williams is to this offense, or what a good quarterback he is. Johnson has papered over the warts that appear when Williams isn’t under center for two weeks at Soldier Field, once with an ambush with Case Keenum and once with a bruising ground game performance.
On the road, in a hostile environment, facing a team out for blood – even if they didn’t admit it – Bagent, and ultimately Keenum, were no match. More to the point, they weren’t Williams.
I don’t know if Williams will be back next week in Atlanta, but I hope so. Atlanta’s offense has been very good in recent weeks, and if there’s going to be a barn burner, Johnson needs Williams at center.
3. We may be watching the ghost of the original Jaylon Johnson
The series of difficult outings is no longer a failure. What happened in Green Bay felt like a turn one step slow and one beat late, and it’s a problem that has no easy solution.
Johnson was targeted four times Sunday, allowed three receptions for 53 yards and had a passer rating of 116.7. If you think that’s high, you should see his season passer rating against: 118.8. Johnson has allowed 18 receptions when targeted this season (23 times) for 301 yards. Opposing quarterbacks have posted triple-digit passer ratings when targeting Johnson in all five games this season. He also allowed 89 yards after the catch. Three times this season, Johnson has given an opposing receiver a reception north of 30 yards.
The defense’s problems don’t end with Johnson. Although Dennis Allen did a very good job of using chaos and a solid home-court advantage at Soldier Field to hold the Vikings, Eagles and Jets under 20 points, Chicago’s defensive shortcomings were painfully evident on the road, where they allowed 68 points in two games. Last season, Chicago’s defense allowed 18.1 points per game at Soldier Field and 29.7 points per game on the road. This season, they have allowed 9.3 points per game at home and 34.0 on the road.
4. Kyle Monangai is as vital to the running game as D’Andre Swift
Swift gets all the headlines and the contract, but the last few weeks and Sunday’s work continue to make the same point about what Monangai means for the Bears rushing attack.
We’ve seen them succeed together, and we’ve seen Monangai succeed when he carries the load. When Monangai started for Swift last season against the Cincinnati Bengals, he totaled 176 yards on 26 carries. When he took over for Swift after he was benched last week against the Jets, Monangai rushed for 146 yards on 30 carries. In fact, every time Monangai got 20 or more rushing attempts, he rushed for over 100 yards (three times in his first 21 games.
With Monangai sidelined this week, Swift ran for 43 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. This isn’t a dig at Swift, who was fine today, but obviously with a limited workload as he was also banged up. It’s an indictment of what a rushing attack can do when Monangai isn’t there to share the workload. Roschon Johnson ran for six yards on five carries Sunday. Johnson wasn’t a factor today, he hasn’t been since Ben Johnson arrived, and it really makes you wonder why Salvon Ahmed didn’t get the RB3 job after dominating Roschon in training camp and preseason.
Either way, a healthy Swift and Monangai keep this offense going. Johnson’s postgame presser mentioned that the offense couldn’t find a rhythm, and Monangai’s absence played a big role in that today.
5. Ben Johnson is mortal after all
For weeks, the story was that Ben Johnson was turning third-string quarterbacks into winners and making a league full of coordinators look a little slower. Sunday reminded everyone that even the best version of this act contains a bad night.
Johnson coached at Lambeau. The script didn’t work, the adjustments weren’t made quickly enough and Jonathan Gannon’s defense took away the elements Chicago’s offense relies on, with little counterattack. It happens. Great coaches have bad games, and one afternoon in Green Bay doesn’t undo what Johnson has built in the first quarter of a season. But it’s a good dose of reality after a month of magic: Johnson is very good, not infallible, and Sunday proved that the league has a say, too.
None of these lessons are fatal. A 3-2 team with its franchise quarterback on the way back and the best running game in the league is in a good position, even after a beating like this. But Lambeau took away the feel-good factor and showed the Bears some things they’ll need to fix. Ditka would have hated to watch it. He also would have told you that a team learns more from a Sunday like this than from either of the previous two.
As Ditka said: “Success is not permanent and failure is not fatal. »
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