Bear & Balanced: Ben Johnson notches first Bears win

Here’s a “fun fact.” In all the years we’ve been doing Bear & Balanced, we’ve had to talk about a Chicago Bears loss 49 times and about a win just 21 times.

But today, for the 22nd time, on our cooled-down post-game show, we not only get to talk about a win, but we get to talk about Ben Johnson’s first win as Bears’ head coach, and we get to talk about a pretty good game from Caleb Williams.

The Bears won 31 to 14, but it wasn’t just the offense that showed up; Dennis Allen’s much-maligned defense settled in and made some big plays, too.

As much as we try to keep a balanced perspective on things, I have a feeling we’ll be skewed a bit more towards the positive this week!

Check out JB and Lester on their latest Bear & Balanced right here (or on YouTube) live at 6:00 p.m. CT, or anytime after.

Podcast version right here asap…

Here’s our usual bullet point outline of Bear & Balanced.

• Intro: We’ll both share some general thoughts about the game.
• Trench Tribute: This is our weekly pick for the best Bears lineman.
• Caught up in a numbers game: This segment features one number or statistic from the game that we found interesting.
• Sweet Tweets: We’re both active on social media — so be sure you’re all following us at @gridironborn & @wiltfongjr — and we highlight one Twitter interaction/Tweet each week. We’re both also on the Bluesky here and here.
• The Caleb Corner: We talk about quarterback Caleb Williams before we take our commercial break.
• The 3 Bears: You all know the story of the Three Bears, don’t you? In this porridge-themed portion of the show, we give our picks for the Bear that was hot, the Bear that was cold, and the Bear that was just right in the game against the Cowboys.

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