CHICAGO (670 The Score) — The dawn of a new day for the Bears brought the same darkness in the end. New head coach Ben Johnson's debut in Chicago on Monday was all too familiar.
The Bears squandered a 17-6 lead in the fourth quarter and lost 27-24 to the Vikings as they suffered from a struggling offense, defensive lapses and a lack of discipline in Johnson’s first game leading the team. It was another unraveling from a sloppy group of players who are still a long way from achieving success.
“We said going into Week 1 that the team that made the least number of mistakes would win the game,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of it there.”
Johnson’s debut brought flashbacks to seven years ago, when the Bears blew a 20-0 lead to the Packers in a 24-23 loss in Matt Nagy’s first game as Chicago's head coach. The miscues of Monday also reminded of former head coach Matt Eberflus’ more recent three-year tenure.
The Bears committed 12 penalties for 127 yards as part of a poor effort with discipline on both sides of the football. Cornerback Nahshon Wright – who had a pick-six on Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the third quarter – committed a 42-yard pass interference penalty in the first quarter that led to a Minnesota field goal.
Late in the third quarter, Bears right tackle Darnell Wright was charged with a holding penalty – it was a questionable call – that set back a drive that had reached the Vikings’ 24-yard line. Quarterback Caleb Williams then committed an intentional grounding penalty on second down. With the Bears facing fourth-and-18 from the 32-yard line, kicker Cairo Santos pushed a 50-yard field-goal attempt wide right.
The game swung in the Vikings' favor after that point. As McCarthy found his rhythm, they scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. It was the type of late-game collapse by the Bears that was common under Eberflus' watch.
“We felt like we were dominating the game,” Williams said.
Williams’ first game of his second NFL season resembled many of the inconsistent games from his rookie campaign. He was 21-of-35 for 210 yards and a passing touchdown while also rushing for 58 yards and a score, but he was off target too often after halftime.
Williams was 13-of-16 for 112 yards in the first half. He was 8-of-19 for 98 yards in the second half. He had too many overthrows and misfires as part of a disheartening performance.
“It’s frustrating,” Williams said. “Something that you practice on throughout the week, something that I’ll be better with, something that you have to hit in those moments.”
The Bears’ defense dominated for most of the first half against McCarthy, the LaGrange Park native who was making his first NFL start. When Wright jumped a route in the third quarter and returned it 74 yards for a touchdown to give the Bears a 17-6 lead, it sure seemed like Chicago was on its way to a season-opening victory.
Instead, Johnson got a sense of the challenge he faces in leading the Bears. He certainly carried blame too for the setback.
On the Bears’ third drive of the game, Johnson elected to go for it on fourth-and-3 from the Vikings’ 24-yard line rather than settling for a field goal. Williams overshot receiver DJ Moore over the middle, and Chicago came away empty.
With 7:14 remaining in the third quarter, Johnson sidearmed his red challenge flag onto the field after Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson was ruled down before the ball was knocked out of his hands. Johnson believed it was a fumble recovered by the Bears, but Hockenson's knee was clearly down. That cost Chicago a timeout it would later desperately need.
Then on a kickoff with 2:02 remaining in the game, Santos booted the ball into the end zone rather than attempt an onside kick or kick the football short of the landing area, which could’ve kept the clock frozen and forced the Vikings to run a play before the clock stoppage at the two-minute warning.
Vikings returner Ty Chandler wisely carried the ball out from seven yards deep in the end zone to eat up time as the clock ticked under the two-minute mark. That ended up costing the Bears 40-plus seconds. They forced a three-and-out but only had nine seconds remaining on the clock when they got the ball back.
Johnson's hope was Santos would kick the ball through the back of the end zone to keep the clock frozen, but he came up short.
“We felt that if we had kicked the ball out of the end zone and gotten a three-and-out that we got, we would’ve gotten the ball back with 56 seconds,” Johnson said.
The Bears' prayer wasn't answered in the waning seconds. They committed one more penalty ahead of the final snap, with Moore getting flagged for an illegal shift.
The Bears’ final play reached their own 34-yard line before a failed lateral was recovered by the Vikings. With that, the honeymoon period in Chicago fell to the ground as well. All the hope that came with Johnson’s arrival back in January slipped away.
A game that kicked off with great anticipation ended with a chorus of boos at Soldier Field. Johnson’s debut was just another night of disappointment.
“It’s a growing process,” Williams said. “It’s going to keep growing from here. This is the start, but it’s definitely not the end.”
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.