We’re seven games into the Ben Johnson experience, and still no closer to knowing whether or not this is going to work. On the one hand it’s early, and judging any tenure this quickly is premature — but at the same time we’ve got enough of a sample size that we should be seeing some kind of improvement that indicates the building blocks in Chicago are there. Instead what we saw on Sunday was a major backslide.
It’s not just that the Bears lost, but how they lost — and more importantly, to whom. In recent weeks the Ravens have lost to the Rams, been blown out by the Texans, and demolished by their peers in Kansas City. If there’s one objective truth about Baltimore it’s this: Without Lamar Jackson this team is trash. And yet, trash dominated the Bears in Week 8, cruising to a 30-16 win without much resistance.
The true tale of the tape in this game was a laughable Bears defense. Sitting in soft zones with no sense of urgency, they dared Tyler Huntley to pick them apart — and he did. Completing 11-of-12 passes in the first half for over 100 yards should have been the canary in the coal mine that something had to change defensively, but Chicago only made minor adjustments. It continued to give the Ravens too much space as the Bears were far more concerned about giving up explosives, rather than stopping drives, and ultimately it came back to bite them.
What really sounds alarm bells about this style of defense is how antithetical it is to what Dennis Allen likes to do with his unit. This is a man whose entire ethos is about aggression, forcing turnovers, and organizing a very boom-or-bust system. That’s why you bring in someone like Dennis Allen. You’re not looking for someone who will bend, not break — but someone who will organize a scheme that will generate turnovers to win the possession battle, with the understanding the offense can put the team over the top.
It’s one thing to say “Allen doesn’t have the personnel,” but the Bears knew this when they hired him — or they should have. The expectation with Tyler Huntley under center was that Chicago would have overload blitzed him into the ground, or run some linebacker stunts to confuse the coverage, hopefully leading to turnovers. That never occurred, and really it’s another symptom of what the Bears have been trying to do all season.
This is a team right now trying to jam a lot of square pegs into round holes. It’s the biggest concern there’s been with Caleb Williams as a Ben Johnson quarterback. Williams comes out on the first drive and looks fantastic when he’s on script. The passes are crisp, the chains are moving, and he’s on target. It’s after this that things begin to fall apart, as Williams is asked to shoulder more of the responsibility for leading the offense. Thus far he’s shown an inability to diagnose the defense, or adapt to defensive adjustments — instead Williams plays the exact same way, regardless of the circumstances around him.
What we’re seeing is a passer who can physically make all the throws up to about the 20 yard range. Deep balls still allude him for the most part, and against the Ravens one of the biggest problems was Williams hitting receivers at their mark, without showing enough touch, or hitting them in stride to open up YAC opportunities. Outside of swing passes to running backs he’s very much a “one-and-done” passer.
When Williams is asked to make plays, not just move the chains to open a game, he falters. There’s no good way to sugar coat this. There are a lot of things you can correct with a quarterback as they evolve: Mechanics can be refined with training, decision making can be tutored with film study — but lacking the instinct to make key plays is a quality that traditionally hasn’t been able to be instructed. It’s either something a quarterback has, or they don’t. This is putting Williams on a path much closer to someone like Trevor Lawrence or Kyler Murray, perennially locked in the “decent” tier, and less like an elite level quarterback.
Deep down I suspect Ben Johnson knows this. It can be coached around. This team can have success without an elite quarterback, but this possibility gets slimmer with every passing week where Williams actively hurts his team, as he did against the Ravens in the fourth quarter when they needed a big performance.
I’m rooting for Caleb Williams. I really hope they find a way to put all this together, but it just doesn’t feel great right now to have faith in the Bears.
Now let’s jump around the NFL to find the other big winners and losers of the week.
Winner: Drake Maye playing beyond his years
There’s just something about Drake Maye. Watching him play is truly like witnessing the ascension of the next great one. That’s not a Tom Brady reference, because they’re not remotely the same player, even though the Patriots quarterbacks will be inexorably linked.
In fact, I’ll tell you who Drake Maye reminds me of: A young Peyton Manning. I’ve been trying to put my finger on it for weeks now. Obviously he’s not there yet in terms of his command at the line of scrimmage and manipulating defenses with his eyes, but the pure mechanics of how Maye plays the game is extremely Mannining-like.
Look at this deep touchdown pass to Kayshon Boutte.
The young QB realizes there’s edge pressure coming, climbs the pocket to buy his receiver another second of separation, and lets rip on a perfect throw where only his guy can get it. From start to finish this looks exactly like the kind of throws Manning would make to Marvin Harrison or Reggie Wayne on Sundays with the Colts.
Maye isn’t afraid to put the ball out there for his receivers. He trusts the guys around him. He believes not just in his teammates, but himself to make the throws needed to stretch the field and break defenses. This is a textbook on how to play the position, and we’re all just going to need to deal with the fact that New England got their guy already.
Winner: James Cook running over everything in sight
The Bills devised the perfect plan to demolish the beaten-up Panthers on Sunday. Understanding the one area where this game could go awry was in a passing shootout, Buffalo instead decided they were going to obliterate Carolina in the run game — beating them at their own game.
It was a genius tactic, all it needed was a running back to execute it — and execute is exactly what James Cook did in Charlotte. Busting big run after big run, Cook attacked the Panthers linebackers and ran them over, finishing with 153 yards in the first half.
This made Carolina totally one dimensional on offense. They had to throw to try and generate explosive plays, and Andy Dalton just doesn’t have that ability at this point in his career. From there it was purely academic. The Bills cruised to a big win, and Cook finished with over 200 rushing yards. What a performance.
Winner: Tua Tagovailoa shutting out the noise
Nobody was more maligned after Week 7 than Tua Tagovailoa. His performance against the Browns was one of the most putrid of the year, as Tua attempted 23 passes for a meager 100 yards and three interceptions. It was indicative of everything wrong with the Dolphins as a team, and he caught all the strays in the week that followed.
Enter Week 8, and Tagovailoa decided to make a statement in Atlanta. We’ll get to the woes of that team, and sure it’s not enough that Dolphins fans should breathe a sign of relief over the ungodly guaranteed contract Miami signed him to — but you still get props around here for stepping up and delivering after being a point of ridicule all week.
If we’re being real there were a lot of times that Tua was bailed out on Sunday. He should have had an interception on a batted ball he attempted to throw with a man in his face, he sailed or missed the majority of difficult throws, and the bulk of his passing yards (as well as touchdowns) were a product of manufactured scenarios that involved pitch-and-catch plays to running backs, instead of having them try to run it in. Nevertheless, you’ve got to take the Ws where you can get them, and there haven’t been many things to be happy about when it comes to the Dolphins in 2025.
Loser: The Falcons … woof
What is this team? I don’t think even the most die-hard Falcons fan who pours over every millisecond of film could tell you. One week they’re beating the Bills or Commanders, the next they’re getting blown out by the Panthers or Dolphins. Nothing makes sense with this team, and when that happens you need to start questioning the coaching and preparation that goes into these games.
I’m not sure what possessed the Falcons to think their best option was to have Kirk Cousins attempt 31 passes without Drake London in the lineup. It was almost as if the team had devised its game plan, found out London couldn’t go, then refused to pivot. It sounds stupid, but I don’t have any other justification for why you only run Bijan Robinson nine times against one of the worst run defenses in the NFL — especially when the pass isn’t working.
Granted, the run game was struggling too — but losing that balance puts the game on easy mode for Miami when you at least have to make them work for it.
Loser: That Giants run defense
Giving up big yards to a back of Saquon Barkley’s caliber isn’t that bad. Getting run over by him and Tank Bigsby is not good. The entire New York defense was bad in their loss to the Eagles, but the way their line got totally manhandled was embarrassing.
This was supposed to be a game that solidified that the Giants were headed in the right direction. They didn’t need to win, but it would have been nice to show they can compete. Losing Cam Skattebo was horrible, the game just went further downhill from there.
In the end New York gave up 427 yards, and a staggering 276 yards on the ground.
Loser: Zac Taylor’s future
Congratulations on achieving what nobody else has this season: Losing to the Jets.
The only thing saving Zac Taylor’s job at this point is the fact the Bengals are too cheap to pay two coaches.
