Ben Johnson was visibly frustrated with Caleb Williams in Vikings collapse and admits mistakes were made

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Sep 10, 2025 - 23:11

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Ben Johnson was visibly frustrated with Caleb Williams in Vikings collapse and admits mistakes were made

Ben Johnson is quickly learning that nothing comes easy with the Chicago Bears.

The first-year head coach suffered a painful defeat in his first game with the Bears as the Minnesota Vikings overturned a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter to win their Week 1 Monday Night Football clash.

Johnson was caught looking frustrated and muttering under his breath as the Bears suffered a late-game collapse to Minnesota

Somehow, the Bears let a 17-6 lead become a ten-point deficit within one quarter.

This is the fourth time in four seasons that the Bears have let a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter slip, and is becoming a worrying trend.

Caleb Williams is under intense scrutiny

Bears quarterback and 2024’s No.1 pick, Caleb Williams, would have hoped that 2025 would be wildly different from last year.

Unfortunately, so far, that hasn’t been the case, as the same mistakes that plagued the 23-year-old last year were present in his team’s season-opening loss to the Vikings.

Criticisms and questions about whether the Bears should have selected him with the number one pick in last year’s draft continue to exist.

Williams started the game pretty hot, completing 13 of his first 16 passes and displaying some flashes of athletic brilliance.

However, he was unable to sustain it, and his accuracy took a dramatic dip.

Williams ended up finishing the game with a 29.4 percent off-target rate, which was the worst in the league in Week 1.

At one point, after the Bears had three straight incompletions in the fourth, Johnson was seen looking visibly frustrated, seemingly towards his quarterback, as he began shaking his head.

Footage of his reaction went viral, with some fans claiming he muttered “God dammit!” under his breath.

Ben Johnson’s players suffered a stunning collapse against the Vikings and he cut a dejected figure on the Bears sideline

Caleb Williams came under intense criticism following the Bears’ defeat as many of last year’s issues around the O-line reared their head again

Ben Johnson admits errors in Vikings loss

While we don’t know what he said for sure, what is certain is that Johnson was not happy.

“I didn’t think I called a particularly great game,” he said.

“I could have adjusted a little bit better to the lack of pressure that Flo was giving us. And so I can do a better job there.”

Johnson also went on to admit that he declined advice from his coaching booth on not challenging a play in which Minnesota tight end T.J. Jockenson lost control of the ball after a catch when linebacker Noah Sewell punched it out.

This was ruled a down by contact on the field as Sewell didn’t touch Hockenson, but Johnson challenged, hoping it would be overturned and ruled a fumble and turnover.

It meant the Bears lost a timeout, something that would have been useful towards the end of the game when the Vikings took the lead.

“A timeout in the second half, those things are very valuable,” Johnson said of the lost timeout.

“Having that at the end of the game would have been huge for us.’

Caleb Williams points to the mentality as reason for the loss

Despite Johnson’s errors, the Bears did have a commanding lead, however, it evaporated as a result of a momentum swing to the Vikings that Chicago had no answers for.

It’s Williams highlighted in his post-game press conference.

“We felt like we were dominating the game, like you said,” Williams said.

“We were in control up to two scores coming out of half. That mentality is something that we have, something that we preach.

“That didn’t happen today. It’s not a playcall thing. It’s not anything like that. It’s just being able to go out there and execute the plays that are called, be able to execute them at a high level. That’s something we take pride in.

“Today, that didn’t happen.”

The Bears take on the Detroit Lions in Week 2, following the Lions’ defeat to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

It will mark a return to Ford Field for Johnson for the first time since joining the Bears.

Johnson joined the Lions in 2019 before becoming the team’s offensive coordinator from 2022-2024.

He was a big reason why Dan Campbell’s team have had one of the league’s most creative offenses over the past few years, and allowed them to capture the NFC’s No. 1 seed in 2024 with a 15-2 record.

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