Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson was back to wearing a shirt Monday — please see his viral locker-room video — but he still was riding the emotional high of Friday’s 24-15 upset of the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles, at least for one more day.
“Just really proud of how the group came out and competed,” he told reporters via Zoom. “They played hard for 60 minutes. That was evident on the tape in all three phases.
“It was good for the whole city to get that win. That was a big one for us.”
The win staked the Bears to a 9-3 record, a five-game winning streak and first place in the NFC after 13 weeks, and it also changed a lot of outside perspectives of the Bears from “lucky” to “legitimate.”
But the time to celebrate ended Monday.
It’s Green Bay Packers week — the first of two in a three-week span — and there’s no room to lose focus.
“We’ve got some good veteran leadership,” Johnson said. “There’s no question in my mind that they won’t let the fact that we’ve won nine games go to anybody’s head. We have not achieved anything yet.
“The season’s far from over. The job is not done. You can say it any number of ways.”
Here are four things we learned Monday.
1. Kings for a day (or a week) is a hollow crown.
The Bears can claim to be kings of the NFC hill for at least this week, thanks to their upset of the Eagles coupled with the Los Angeles Rams’ 31-28 defeat at the hands of the Carolina Panthers.
At Halas Hall, the reaction amounted to “so what?”
“Doesn’t mean anything,” Johnson said. “There’s five games left. We’ve got a long way to go. We have not been guaranteed a spot in the tournament yet. We have to earn that right.
“And the only way you can earn that right is by finding a way to win the next game. That’s where our sole focus is.”
That was the emphasis during Monday morning meetings. Truth be told, the Bears hold the tiebreaker because their 6-2 conference record is better than the Rams’ 4-3 mark. But the Rams blow the Bears away in strength of schedule (.551 to .378), conference net points (56-11) and overall net points (124-6).
The Rams’ remaining schedule (including the Arizona Cardinals twice and the Atlanta Falcons) looks softer than what lies ahead for the Bears (the Packers twice, the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions).
So the focus is on the Bears securing a playoff spot for the first time since 2020.
“We’re at nine wins,” Johnson said. “I think this year you’re probably going to have to get to 11 to make it in the tournament. That’s what we need to do. We’ve got to get there first.
“We’ve got to find a way to get there, and the only way to do that is to find a way to be 1-0 this week.”
2. Week 14 will be ‘packed’ with drama.
Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards tackles Packers quarterback Malik Willis during the fourth quarter Jan. 5, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Any game against the Packers is high stakes in Chicago, but a loss Sunday at Lambeau Field would cost the Bears the lead in the conference and the NFC North in one fell swoop.
You don’t have to tell tight end Cole Kmet, one of the longest-tenured Bears and a Lake Barrington native, what this rivalry means.
“Growing up here in Chicago, it’s a game that obviously I watched year in and year out,” he said. “Being in the area, you do get a lot of Chicago fans but also a lot of people who ventured down from Wisconsin and are Green Bay fans here in the Chicagoland area. It sparks a lot of family debate and a lot of spirited debate between those people.”
It’s fun for him but it also gets personal. His sister, Frankie Kmet, is the girlfriend of Packers defensive end Lukas Van Ness.
“Look, my best friend, who was in my wedding, is a big Packer fan,” Kmet said with a laugh. “He still won’t wear my damn jersey. Just out of the country. He’ll wear it out of the country.”
Kmet, who’s in his sixth season, has faced the Packers 10 times in his career and has experienced victory only once: a 24-22 win last Jan. 5 at Lambeau Field in which Packers quarterback Jordan Love and running back Josh Jacobs gave way to Malik Willis and Emmanuel Wilson in the second quarter.
Before that the Bears had lost 11 straight to the Packers and the previous eight at Lambeau Field. Their last previous victory at Lambeau had been on Thanksgiving in 2015.
In 210 games dating to 1921 (including one postseason meeting), the Packers lead the series 108-96-6.
“It’s one of those (rivalries) that lives in NFL history,” Johnson said. “It goes back for a long time. Two of the most winning franchises in the NFL. I think that continues to be the case. It’s a big one.”
It’s unlikely everyone will have the same emotional investment, especially with several Bears being rookies or newcomers to the rivalry. Johnson said that’s where Chairman George McCaskey steps in.
“I do know that George is going to talk with our rookies today,” he said. “We do rookie programming every week with those guys, and it just so happened to be on the docket today where he’s going to touch on the rivalry a little bit.
“Our players will be well-informed of what that’s about. The guys that have been here certainly know and they understand, but we have a number of new faces, so they’ll know by the end of the week.”
Johnson planted the seed from the outset — or more like added nuclear fuel to the fire — when he said in January that “I kind of enjoyed beating (Packers coach) Matt LaFleur twice a year” as Lions offensive coordinator.
“We loved that,” defensive end Austin Booker said. “That’s a head coach that we all love playing for. He has a great mindset, just like us. A killer mindset, just like us.”
3. The Eagles defense experienced ‘motion’ sickness.
Bears running back D’Andre Swift runs the ball against the Eagles in the first quarter Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
The Eagles allowed the Bears to rush for 281 yards, the ninth-most they’ve allowed in their history, tied with another game against the Bears on Oct. 13, 1935.
The last time Philadelphia gave up at least 281 yards on the ground was Nov. 22, 2015, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gained 283.
“They were able to run the ball on us,” Eagles safety Reed Blankenship said after the Black Friday game. “They could do what they wanted with it, honestly. I hate to say that.”
Johnson called 47 running plays (to 36 pass attempts), which gained 6 yards a pop. He said players and coaches on the sideline were urging him to run.
“I hear our O-line coach (Dan Roushar) harping a little bit, ‘Run the damn ball,’” Johnson said. “I hear it, I feel it, I see it, so as a play caller you try to adjust.”
Kmet said of the running scheme, “You get a healthy dose of our wide zone stuff and gap-scheme stuff.”
Players watch Johnson get fired up about the running game and it “trickles to everybody in the room,” Kmet said, and gets everyone to buy into their roles.
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“Not only the offensive line and backs but tight ends, receivers — it really makes everyone want to be involved in it and really be on the details about it,” he said. “So it’s a creative, fun run scheme to be part of, but at the end of the day it is predicated off physicality and finish. At the core, that’s what football is.”
The offensive line bullied the Eagles front to open big lanes, and D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai ran through them with power and showed off cutback moves.
All the Bears’ motion and misdirection kept the Eagles guessing and forced defenders to be “good with your eyes,” defensive end Jaelan Phillips said.
“That’s kind of the point of the misdirection is to confuse you, and if your eyes aren’t good, they’re going to catch you a step off and good backs like that are going to capitalize on us,” he said. “They did a good job and we didn’t do good enough.”
Kmet added: “When you’ve got all the moving parts, whether it’s receivers in motion, tight ends in motion, shifts pre-snap, it really confuses the defense as to where to put their eyes and really tests their assignments as to where they need to be. So it makes it really difficult for those guys.
“If you cause just a little bit of hesitation, especially with how we’re coming off the football, it makes it hard for those defenders to engage and really recognize where the run scheme’s going. … If you really dive into our tape, it’s a fun run tape to watch.”
4. Cole Kmet’s touchdown was worth another watch.
Bears tight end Cole Kmet makes a touchdown reception ahead of Eagles safety Reed Blankenship in the fourth quarter Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Caleb Williams’ 28-yard pass to Kmet, who beat Blankenship to the end zone, gave the Bears a 24-9 lead with 6:26 left in the fourth quarter.
“I was about to consider a check-down (to Swift) and I looked up, I had space and time,” Williams said. “There was a defender starting to chase Swift. I ended up looking up, peeked up, saw Cole and gave him a good ball and let him go make a play.”
Williams lofted the ball in just the right spot despite the wind whipping at Lincoln Financial Field.
“In that fourth quarter (Williams) got a good feel for how to throw it in the wind, and, I mean, it was blowing for sure,” Kmet said. “A lot of gusts up there, especially when the ball was hanging up.
“(I) felt myself kind of pop there on the corner. Didn’t know if Caleb would get to me. Most quarterbacks would just probably throw it to the back and take the first down, but Caleb was kind of big-game hunting there and threw it up and spun the ball well enough for it to cut through the wind, even though he put some air underneath it and it was a perfect throw.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/01/chicago-bears-ben-johnson-cole-kmet-nfc-lead/
