Windy City Gridiron
The Bears entered the 2025 NFL season with varying degrees of expectations. Some just wanted them to compete. Others wanted them to simply make the playoffs. A select few had very high aspirations.
Here we are, 13 weeks into the season, and I think it’s time for us all to raise our sights a little higher.
The Bears are 9-3, and after the Rams loss to the Panthers (thank you Carolina gold), Chicago finds themselves at the top of the NFC playoff picture. With all that has happened since the 2024 Thanksgiving game and subsequent firing of Matt Eberflus, it is hard to overstate what an achievement this is on its own.
The narrative regarding the Chicago Bears’ 2025 season has mostly focused on their weak schedule, narrow margins of victory, and inconsistent play. But those three things don’t get you to 9-3. You have to be good at something. So what is it? What distinguishes the Bears from every other team in the NFC? I’ll give you three.
I think there are three things that make the Bears as good as any other team in the league:
You can look at some teams in the league and very easily deduce what they are good at.
The Texans? An elite defense – next.
Why are the Cowboys still in it? A league leading passing offense.
What makes the Broncos so good? They sack the quarterback at a historic rate.
The Bears, however, aren’t a team that jumps off the page. They haven’t shut a lot of teams down on defense, as their opponents have scored at least 14 points in every game this season. Their offense, while good, has only scored more than 31 points once this season, so they aren’t blowing anyone out either.
In fact, every single game this season except for three, has been decided by less than 10 points. They’re winning close games, over and over again. And before others dismiss it as luck — I’d like to chalk it up to something else first — coaching.
Ben Johnson is a helluva football coach that started off the season roughly. A mismanaged game to the Vikings to start the season, that saw his Bears squandera 17-6 lead, was a gut punch. It was then followed up by a game where the Bears were ill-prepared against a Detroit team eager to prove Johnson’s move wrong.
Since then, Ben Johnson has been fantastic in all aspects as a Head Coach.
Johnson has motivated his team to rally in big moments (Blackwell’s block, Moody’s GW FG, Loveland’s TD, etc.). He has been a plus playcaller, as evidenced by their top 10 offense which was floundering at the bottom of the league a year ago. He has been a good game manager, with the Bears scoring in the final 2 minutes of the half and 4th quarter twelve different times. The Bears are...
