It was on the heels of a 31-point beatdown in Detroit that Ben Johnson predicted the Chicago Bears would be playing their best football in December.
He has a heck of a challenge looming — for the Bears to be better than they were in November — with five games remaining and his team atop the NFC at 9-3 entering Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
A thorough dismantling of the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles on Friday at Lincoln Financial Field capped a 5-0 November, the first time the Bears have won five games in a month since November 1959.
The last time the Bears had a perfect November (4-0) was 2018, and over the previous five seasons, it was a month when hope was usually replaced by a look ahead to free agency and the draft — or worse, a regime change. The Bears were 3-17 in November from 2020 through 2024.
Maybe Johnson was confident the pieces were in place for this team to go on a run after an 0-2 beginning. Maybe he was leaning into the belief that, with new systems on both sides of the ball, it was only natural the Bears would be more formidable in December than they were in the 52-21 loss to the Lions and the 27-24 opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings in which they squandered an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Or it’s possible he was hoping to calm an antsy fan base from developing that here-we-go-again feeling.
“It is early in the season,” Johnson said back on Sept. 16. “There are a number of teams that have started the season not the way that they would like to, and yet they bounce back and they find a way to win.
“We’re going to be playing our best football in December. I know that to be certain. We’re just in a race right now to get better in a hurry, and the faster we get there, the wins will start coming and we’ll be just fine.”
The wins indeed have come rapidly — nine in the last 10 games — and now Johnson looks like some sort of football oracle. His belief, though, can be traced back to Day 1 and his introductory news conference, in which he called the roster of a team that lost 10 consecutive games last season “stocked” and “loaded” and declared he was on a mission to “win and win now.”
Perhaps his belief has been transferred to the locker room, with a group of players now certain anything is possible. Now Johnson’s job is to keep those players grounded, as they have been throughout the team’s rise.
“We haven’t accomplished everything yet,” he said. “We’re at nine wins, and this year I think you’re probably going to have to get to 11 to make it into 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 find a way to be 1-0 this week.”
Here are six reasons the Bears can achieve their best football in December:
1. The rushing attack and offensive line have been dominant.
Running games can travel, and the Bears rank second in the league with 153.8 rushing yards per game. Things have really clicked since the Week 5 bye, with the team averaging 179.6 yards per game and 5.4 yards per carry over the last eight games.
The offensive line will be difficult for any remaining opponents to slow down, and that’s the primary reason — beyond the design of the scheme by Johnson and his staff — that the Bears rank eighth in the league in scoring at 26.1 points per game.
Explosive plays — pass plays gaining 20 or more yards and runs of 10-plus yards — come in all forms and they continue to come in bunches. The Bears lead the NFL with 94 explosives through Week 13. They ranked 29th a year ago.
2. Dennis Allen has done a lot more than juggle the lineup because of injuries.
The defensive coordinator has gotten credit for weeks for patching things together in the secondary and more recently at linebacker. His ability to adjust cannot be overstated, but it shouldn’t take away from what he has done schematically on a weekly basis, mixing coverages to fluster quarterbacks like the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts while preventing Saquon Barkley from being a game changer.
A league-high 26 takeaways has been a big story, but, again, that shouldn’t minimize what Allen is doing weekly with his game plans. He’s finding ways to pressure quarterbacks in key situations with a pass rush that has been greater than the sum of its parts, and that’s reflected in the defense’s dominance on third down (36.2%, seventh in the NFL).
3. Quarterback Caleb Williams — and the team — is fourth-quarter tested.
Five of the nine wins have included fourth-quarter comebacks directed by Williams, and the Bears proved in November that if you leave them with even a little bit of time at the end of the game, they’re poised to capitalize.
Williams seemingly is at his best in these moments with a 139.3 passer rating when trailing with less than four minutes to play. The second-year quarterback doesn’t blink, and the players around him have been locked in. That bodes well with a challenging slate of games ahead.
4. They’re getting healthier.
Cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon returned from long layoffs in Philadelphia. Before the month ends, linebackers T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds could be back — although it’s worth wondering if Edwards, who has been out since the Nov. 2 win in Cincinnati, had a setback with his hamstring injury after surgery to repair a broken hand.
Johnson and Gordon will need more seasoning to get up to speed, but they provide Allen with frontline options as the Bears face two games against Jordan Love and the Packers in a three-week stretch.
At the same time, the Bears will play some teams that have been hit harder by injuries, including the Packers and San Francisco 49ers.
5. There are so many offensive weapons, an opponent can’t take them all away.
Nine offensive players scored touchdowns in November, and defensive coordinators have a ton to prepare for when facing the Bears. If someone can slow the running game, there are a lot of options in the passing game and Johnson seems to have a knack for scheming guys open.
Through the first seven games, the Bears were 47.8% in the red zone, scoring touchdowns on 11 of 23 trips. In November they were 72.2% (13 of 18). They’re finding ways to finish drives, and Williams has been more comfortable playing in condensed spaces, even if his accuracy (58.1%) remains a pressing issue.
“We’re winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it,” Johnson said. “And none of us are pleased with that right now.”
6. The schedule no longer will be a question.
The Bears won’t have to go undefeated in four December games to make a case they’re better than they were in November. Two games against the Packers, a trip to San Francisco and a game against the vaunted Cleveland Browns defense raises the bar substantially.
They emphatically proved they could handle an eight-win Eagles team, the first signature win of the season. The Bears have two wins over teams currently above .500. For comparison, the Los Angeles Rams (9-3) have six. The Packers present the first challenge, and they know a little something about success at this time of year. Green Bay is 20-4 in December since Matt LaFleur took over in 2019.
If the Bears can win three (or four) games in December, they will be better than they were in November.
If that happens, it will be as Johnson forecasted all along.