They say Rome wasn't built in a day. I'm no city planner, but I imagine that even with the benefit of more than 2,500 years of architectural advancement, Chicago wasn't either. Bears fans would do well to keep that in mind, because while many expected new head coach Ben Johnson to come in and immediately turn around decades of ineptitude, what took place in Week 1 looked like the same old Bears with a slightly different coat of paint.
Johnson was the hottest coach on the market because of the offense he engineered with the Lions, one that was perennially near the top of the league in both yards gained and points scored. It can be argued that the Bears haven't had a great offense since Sid Luckman was slinging the ball before and after piloting a boat on D-Day, as even the great Walter Payton was never fully supported by an elite passing game.
The pairing of Johnson and former No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams had Bears fans dreaming big, and who can blame them? Williams won a Heisman Trophy while making jaw-dropping plays at USC, and though he didn't light the world on fire in his rookie season, he played pretty competently considering the subpar coaching situation he was saddled with. The idea of wedding his ability to Johnson's playcalling genius was too enticing to resist.
Maybe the worst thing that could have happened to Bears fans was watching Caleb lead the team down the field on the team's first possession and cashing in the score with a mad dash for the pylon. Caleb was a perfect 6-6 on that drive, with completions to five different receivers. There's no doubt that after Cairo Santos kicked home the extra point, some of those people at Soldier Field began researching the cost of Super Bowl tickets on their phones.
There's a reason that movies don't put their best scenes 10 minutes in, and Bears fans found out why last night. The rest of the game was a comedy of errors as Caleb missed a bunch of throws, the offensive line jumped four times for false starts and Johnson badly mismanaged the fourth quarter.
Even Ben Johnson can't come in and immediately wipe away decades of trauma
The '85 Bears were honored before the game last night. It's a show Bears fans have seen before, because frankly, not much good has happened since then. Bears fans cling to the '85 team like a mother clings to her newborn baby, only they've continued to do it even after that baby turns into a 40-year-old man.
Ben Johnson may very well change the culture that Matt Eberflus and so many ineffective coaches before him have poisoned, but it'll take time to overcome years of the fanbase expecting the worst and being proven right time and again. It will also take time for him to find his way now that he's running the whole show, as his costly fourth-quarter challenge and inexplicable decision to kick the ball away with just over two minutes left ultimately doomed the Bears to a loss.
For a brief moment, it looked like Johnson had done the impossible, vaulting the Bears to relevance just a few minutes into Week 1. The strain of all those past failures, though not his own, still weighed him down in the end though, as Soldier Field turned from a party into a live therapy session.
I do think I will give Ben Johnson more than a game to heal a city’s 40-year football trauma.
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) September 9, 2025
Caleb may face even more pressure than his coach, because for all of the misfits that have worn a headset on the sidelines, at least the Bears' semi-recent coaching fraternity still includes Mike Ditka and Lovie Smith. Being the quarterback of the Bears has truly been a black hole from which there is no escape, though, as evidenced by the incomprehensible fact that no Bear has ever thrown for 4,000 yards in a season.
The rock band Oasis played a sold-out show at Soldier Field 12 days ago, and Bears fans would be wise to heed the sage advice that the Gallagher brothers dispensed in "Don't Look Back in Anger."
"Please don't put your life in the hands / Of a rock and roll band / Who'll throw it all away," Noel sang, except in this case we can easily substitute "the Chicago Bears" for "rock and roll band" for the way the franchise has continued to torture its fanbase.
"Stand up beside the fireplace / Take that look from off your face / 'Cause you ain't ever gonna burn my heart out," the song continues. Johnson can't despair over not making the Bears a contender overnight, because it rarely works like that in the NFL, let alone when there's so much history to overcome.
Don't look back in anger at how bad the Bears have been in the past. Embrace the challenge of being the one to finally overcome it. Johnson signed a five-year contract in January that's worth $65 million. He has plenty of time to make his mark, it's just going to take more than a week to make it happen.