CHICAGO (670 The Score) – In the final minutes of a game long decided Sunday, the fans remaining at Soldier Field chanted the name of the winning quarterback.
“Ja-red Goff! Ja-red Goff!” Lions fans yelled.
Soldier Field was overtaken by Honolulu Blue at the end of the Bears’ ninth straight loss. With a 34-17 victory, the Lions reached the 13-win mark in a single season for the first time in franchise history and boast hopes to take the North once again. Meanwhile, the Bears suffered their 11th defeat of what’s been a miserable season.
For all the talent that Detroit has, its turnaround has coincided largely with that of the 30-year-old Goff, who was cast aside after five seasons with the Rams. In a blockbuster trade in 2021, Goff was considered a throw-in piece in a deal that sent quarterback Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles.
And look at him now – Goff is a star quarterback who has inspired the city of Detroit, which was an NFL punchline for so long. Goff has the Lions looking like a legitimate Super Bowl contender, and he was 23-of-32 for 336 yards and three touchdowns in the win Sunday.
On the other side of the field, Bears had their own hope at quarterback in rookie Caleb Williams, who has continued to shine throughout an incredibly disappointing season for his team.
Williams was 26-of-40 for 334 yards and two touchdowns. He has thrown for 3,271 yards in 15 games this season, the sixth-most in a single season in Bears history. If he continues at his current pace, the 23-year-old Williams would finish with 3,707 yards, which would be the third-most in a season in franchise history.
Williams has gone nine straight games without throwing an interception. The Bears are 0-9 in that span.
He’s been a shining light in one of the Bears’ darkest seasons.
“You obviously can see the growth, if we’re talking about myself,” Williams said when asked of his progress. “Even from the last game, some of the routes and some of the stuff like that, just believing in the guys, believing in the concepts that are being called. And then throughout this whole season, the growth that I would say I’ve had, the growth that we’ve had on offense, being able to fight through all of what’s been going down for us – coaches being fired in the middle of the season, different coaches being promoted in different ways.”
After the Bears selected Williams at No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft in April, general manager Ryan Poles promised he would be surrounded with the structure needed to grow. Instead, the Bears’ season has been marked by turmoil. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired just nine games into his Chicago tenure, and head coach Matt Eberflus was dismissed in late November.
As the Bears have embarked on a coaching search, they need to create stability for Williams.
On Sunday, the Bears didn’t need to look too far to find the right man to guide Williams’ career forward. He was on the west sideline of Soldier Field. It was Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, the architect of Goff’s career revival and Detroit’s resurgence on offense.
Johnson, 38, will be a leading candidate for openings across the NFL this offseason. Johnson could be pursued by every team with a coaching vacancy, though the belief is that he’ll only interview for the jobs he truly covets.
Multiple sources close to Johnson believe he has interest in the Bears’ opening. That’s in large part due to Williams, who looks the part of a budding star despite the chaos around him.
Johnson certainly made an impression Sunday in leading the Lions’ offense, which posted 475 yards and averaged 7.3 yards per play. In addition to Goff’s big passing day, running back Jahmyr Gibbs carried for 109 yards and a score.
Johnson showcased his creativity early in the third quarter on Goff’s 21-yard touchdown pass to tight end Sam LaPorta. By design, the play featured Goff and Gibbs each fake-stumbling out of their stance at the snap to throw off Chicago’s defense before Goff regained his footing and hit LaPorta in stride.
The play was called “stumble bum,” pulled from what Johnson saw from the Packers in a win against the Bears in September 2023, when Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love fumbled the football, picked it up and delivered a 37-yard completion to tight end Luke Musgrave.
Those who know Johnson’s style describe him as an ultra-competitive, detail-oriented individual with an intense drive. If he came to Chicago, he’d take over a Bears franchise that lacks the direction and determination to be great.
On their opening series of the game, the Bears went three-and-out. They’ve scored just 10 points on their opening 15 drives of games this season. Chicago fumbled on its next two series – one charged to Williams on a botched handoff to receiver Rome Odunze and the other to Odunze as he lost the football on a 21-yard reception.
The Bears enjoyed a long-overdue breakthrough in the second quarter, when they scored a pair of touchdowns. It marked the first time they’d scored points in a first half since Nov. 24.
“We scored today in the first half,” veteran receiver Keenan Allen said. “It’s been a minute since we did that.”
In fact, it had been 113 minutes and 29 seconds of first-half game action between points for the Bears, who had plenty of lowlights Sunday.
Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson was torched on an 82-yard touchdown by Lions receiver Jameson Williams in the second quarter. The Bears had multiple defenders jump into the neutral zone on a fourth-and-1 play prior to the two-minute warning when it seemed clear Goff was only trying to draw defenders offsides. Later, Chicago’s defense inexplicably lined up with five defenders at the goal line as Detroit star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown took a screen pass easily into the end zone late in the third quarter.
Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown deserves criticism for kicking a field 30-yard field goal with his team down 34-14 in the third quarter. He caused a three-score game to remain a three-score game against a Lions team running all over the Bears.
The Lions are heading to the playoffs with the hope of reaching their first-ever Super Bowl and winning it, while the Bears will be conducting their latest coaching search. What matters most in Chicago is the development of Williams, who has brought hope for the future amid a miserable season.
If Johnson was making a statement to the Bears on Sunday, Williams was proving his case to Johnson. That pairing could be something to cheer about at Soldier Field.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on X @CEmma670.