“I’ve got the best coach in the world,” said Bears quarterback Caleb Williams about first-year head coach Ben Johnson after Chicago’s remarkable win over Green Bay.
After a mixed rookie campaign for Williams, 2024’s first overall draft pick, his sophomore season has been stellar, filled with comebacks and frantic finishes where he has made the remarkable look like just another day at the office.
With Johnson’s play calling and Williams’ execution, the Bears have won six games when trailing inside the final two minutes – no other team has won as many since the NFL merger in 1970.
After just five wins in total last year Chicago are back in the play-offs for the first time since 2020 – and there is no doubt Johnson, who masterminded Detroit’s all-powerful offence, has been key to the turnaround.
But so has Williams, an interesting character who had seemingly struggled to adapt from college to the NFL – or maybe just needed the right coach?
What makes the Bears so dangerous is their ability to fight back – Williams is in elite company as only the second quarterback under 25 with have six fourth-quarter comebacks in a season after Peyton Manning in 1999.
Against Green Bay, Chicago managed just three points in three quarters before Williams led them to 19 in the fourth and overtime – when the going gets tough the Bears get going.
That could spell trouble for opponents in the play-offs.
