<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-bears-fans-confused-about-cairo-santos-after-jake-moody-signing');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears fans confused about Cairo Santos after Jake Moody signing');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Cairo-Santos-will-have-to-fight-to-hold-on-to-his-position.jpg"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears fans confused about Cairo Santos after Jake Moody signing</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-12T16:21:25-07:00">September 12th, 4:21pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-12T16:21:25-07:00">September 12th, 4:21pm</time><address><a>Steve Silverman</a>Steve Silverman has been covering the NFL for more than 35 years, and his writing has appeared in ESPN Magazine, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Pro Football Weekly, and Forbes.com. He has written 10 books, including "Who's Better, Who's Best in the NFL." He has won multiple awards from the Pro Football Writers of America.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Chicago Bears have decided that placekicker Cairo Santos needs some competition. Santos missed a field goal attempt Monday night in the season opener against the Minnesota Vikings and nearly missed another, so the the Bears have signed Jake Moody to the team’s practice squad to see what he is capable of doing. Moody struggled last week while kicking for the San Francisco 49ers and that team cut him this week.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">This is not what Bears fans meant by replacing Cairo Santos. <a href="https://t.co/ZvlbgrNjCq">https://t.co/ZvlbgrNjCq</a></p><p>— Daniel Coltun (@danielcoltun) <a href="https://twitter.com/danielcoltun/status/1966537633535840312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2025</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p><a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-greedy-admission-following-week-1-loss-vikings">The Bears</a> suffered a 27-24 defeat in the season opener against the Minnesota Vikings even though they outplayed their NFC North rivals for the first three quarters of the game. The Vikings came back to score three consecutive fourth quarter touchdowns as the Bears looked hopeless to stop Minnesota when the game was on the line.</p><p>The Bears were clearly disappointed with their Week 1 results and it appears that Santos is having to bear at least a portion of the blame. Bears fans don’t seem to understand the team’s reaction in putting some portion of the loss on the shoulders of Santos.</p><p>The decision to <a href="https://x.com/BillTZimmerman/status/1966539563439972536">bring Moody in</a> to take a spot on the Bears practice squad came shortly after he was named one of the team’s co-captains.</p><p>While some of the reactions to bringing in competition for Santos questioned the Bears, one observer said that <a href="https://twitter.com/bearssznn/status/1966540058850419197">bringing in competition</a> for the kicker sent an important message to the team. That message is that production must be consistent from every player.</p><h2><b>Bears have gotten consistent production from Santos</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Jake-Moody-may-be-getting-an-opportunity-with-the-Bears.jpg"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Santos is in his 12th year in the NFL and his seventh season with <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-jaylon-johnson-gives-3-word-injury-update">the Bears</a>. He had his best season in 2023 when he made 35 of 38 field goal attempts and scored 136 points.</p><p>He had another solid season last year as he connected on 21 of 25 three-point attempts. Santos has been sensational on his long-distance FG attempts. He made 7 of 8 attempts from 50 yards or more in 2023 and 8 of 9 last season.</p><p>He missed a 50-yard attempt against the Vikings Monday night.</p><p>In addition to kicking for the Bears, Santos has also kicked for the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Tennessee Titans and the Los Angeles Rams.</p><p>Moody was selected by the 49ers in the third round of the 2023 draft after successfully kicking for Michigan. He had an excellent rookie season as he made 21 of 25 field goal attempts as well as 60 of 61 extra points.</p><p>Moody was not as good last year, making 24 of 34 three-pointers. He had a disastrous opening game of the season, missing all three of his FG attempts against the Seattle Seahawks and the Niners decided to part company with him.</p><p> </p><p> </p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears fans confused about Cairo Santos after Jake Moody signing

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-jaylon-johnson-injury-status-lions-game-revealed');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears’ Jaylon Johnson injury status for Lions game revealed');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Chicago-Bears-cornerback-Jaylon-Johnson.jpg"><figcaption>Peter van den Berg-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears’ Jaylon Johnson injury status for Lions game revealed</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-12T12:59:02-07:00">September 12th, 12:59pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-12T12:59:02-07:00">September 12th, 12:59pm</time><address><a>Zachary Howell</a>Zachary Howell is an Associate Editor at ClutchPoints focusing on creating premier MLB content. He is a big fan of the Yankees, Oklahoma City Thunder and the Syracuse Orange. In his free time, he likes to be outside or read.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Chicago Bears got their 2025-26 NFL season off to a rough start. <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-greedy-admission-following-week-1-loss-vikings">Ben Johnson lost his head coaching debut</a> as the Bears let the Minnesota Vikings come back for a dramatic win. However, the team does not have time to wast reflecting on the loss with the Detroit Lions looming. Heading into the weekend, the team got updates on cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon.</p><p><a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-jaylon-johnson-ruled-out-vs-vikings-amid-jj-mccarthy-debut">Johnson did not play in Week 1</a>, leaving Chicago without its top cornerback against Justin Jefferson and Co.. The veteran was dealing with calf and groin injuries that he could not overcome before the Bears’ season opener. For a player who unlocks what could be a talented defense, Chicago missed Johnson dearly. However, they won’t have to be without him for another game.</p><p>According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Johnson is <a href="https://x.com/TomPelissero/status/1966575339699614037" rel="noopener">ready to hit the field</a> for his first game of the regular season. However, Gordon is going to miss his second straight game with a hamstring issue.</p><p>“Bears CB Jaylon Johnson (calf/groin) is off the injury report and will make his season debut Sunday at Detroit, while CB Kyler Gordon (hamstring) is out again,” Pelissero said.</p><p>Having Johnson back in the mix is a big boost for Chicago. <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-bears-jaylon-johnson-brutally-honest-giving-up-hail-mary-td-commanders">Bears fans remember him for a costly blunder last season</a>, but the corner is a Pro Bowl talent. Johnson is an offensive-minded head coach, putting more pressure on the defensive players to produce and compliment second-year quarterback Caleb Williams.</p><p>The Lions are looking for a bounce back after a lackluster effort against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1. The NFC North figures to be one of the NFL’s most competitive divisions once again this season. Neither the Lions nor Bears can afford to start 0-2 in divisional games. With Johnson back from injury, Chicago stands a better chance. However, taking Detroit down is a tall task.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears’ Jaylon Johnson injury status for Lions game revealed

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-greedy-admission-following-week-1-loss-vikings');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears HC Ben Johnson makes ‘greedy’ admission following Week 1 loss to Vikings');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Ben-Johnson-on-August-17-2025.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears HC Ben Johnson makes ‘greedy’ admission following Week 1 loss to Vikings</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-12T12:44:17-07:00">September 12th, 12:44pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-12T12:44:17-07:00">September 12th, 12:44pm</time><address><a>Jaren Kawada</a>Jaren Kawada is a former full-time sports bettor and is now a NFL, College Football and Betting Associate Editor at ClutchPoints. Kawada was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, but now resides in Indianapolis, Indiana, after graduating from Butler University with a B.A. in sports media. Aside from football, Kawada is an avid combat sports and basketball bettor.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Ben Johnson just wants to move on to Week 2 after the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-fans-rip-chicago-over-late-game-decision-vs-vikings">Chicago Bears’ stunning season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings</a>. While a lot contributed to the result, Johnson knows he made a miscalculation at the end of the game that likely affected the outcome.</p><p>Although visibly upset with reporters continuing to ask him about the loss, Johnson explained the Bears’ final kickoff that allowed the Vikings to run out the clock. Johnson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBtFuvWRrDc" rel="noopener">admitted that he “got greedy”</a> and tried to have kicker Cairo Santos force a touchback instead of kicking the ball short and stopping the clock.</p><p>“Listen, last time I’m gonna bring up last game,” Johnson told reporters on Friday. “I got greedy, and I wanted the extra five yards. That’s why we tried to kick it out of the back of the end zone. Simple as that.”</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bears?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bears</a> HC Ben Johnson is still getting asked about Monday night’s game and the decision to keep it deep before the two-minute warning:</p><p>“I got greedy, and I wanted the extra 5 yards. That’s why we tried to kick it out of the end zone. Simple as that.”<a href="https://t.co/oSshtn4URp">pic.twitter.com/oSshtn4URp</a></p><p>— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) <a href="https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1966577550492156215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2025</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p> </p><p>Under the new dynamic kickoff rules, any kick that lands short of the “landing zone” — in between the goal line and the 20-yard line — is treated as a kickoff out of bounds and immediately placed at the 40-yard line. A kickoff that sails out of the back of the end zone is an immediate touchback and placed at the 35-yard line, hence the five-yard difference Johnson referenced.</p><p>Santos attempted to boot the ball out of the end zone, but his kick allowed Vikings’ returner Ty Chandler to run it back. In doing so, Chandler’s run took the clock past the two-minute mark, preventing the Bears from gaining an additional clock-stopping timeout.</p><h2><b>Ben Johnson, Bears look to rebound in Week 2 against Lions</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-HC-Ben-Johnson-before-game-vs-Vikings.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Despite looking good for most of the game, the Bears left Week 1 with a 0-1 record. Johnson will seek his first win in Week 2, where he faces his former team, the Detroit Lions.</p><p>The game forces Johnson to return to Soldier Field, where he worked on the sidelines as a member of Dan Campbell’s staff from 2019 to 2024. Johnson ended his decorated tenure as the Lions’ offensive coordinator by winning the 2024 AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year award.</p><p>The Lions have dominated the Bears recently, winning five of the last six meetings. However, with Johnson now switching sidelines, expectations have shaken up. Although <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-was-supposed-to-be-different-bears-look-like-same-old-bears">Chicago’s Johnson era began with yet another disappointing defeat</a>, fans remain hopeful that the team will show more consistency throughout the season.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears HC Ben Johnson makes ‘greedy’ admission following Week 1 loss to Vikings

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-chicago-adding-jake-moody-to-practice-squad-after-49ers-release');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears adding Jake Moody to practice squad after 49ers release');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-K-Jake-Moody-with-49ers.jpg?w=1024"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears adding Jake Moody to practice squad after 49ers release</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-12T10:08:19-07:00">September 12th, 10:08am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-12T10:08:19-07:00">September 12th, 10:08am</time><address><a href="https://linktr.ee/jordan.llanes">Jordan Llanes</a>Jordan Llanes is a sports writer and reporter based in Florida. In addition to ClutchPoints, he writes for a few other publications covering the NFL, college sports and Tottenham Hotspur. When he's not writing, Jordan enjoys spending time with his fiancée, cats, family and friends, as well as catching the latest TV shows and movies, and traveling.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>After opening the season with a 27-24 divisional loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the Chicago <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-jaylon-johnson-gives-3-word-injury-update">Bears will look to turn</a> things around this coming Sunday. With a trip to Detroit to play the Lions upcoming, head coach Ben Johnson will look to win his first game as the Bears’ head honcho against his former team. Veteran kicker Cairo Santos nailed all three of his extra points in the loss but missed a 50-yard field goal that would have given Chicago a 20-12 lead early in the fourth quarter. After the mishap, NFL insider Jordan Schultz reported via X (formerly Twitter) that the Bears are bringing in former San Francisco 49ers kicker Jake Moody <a href="https://x.com/Schultz_Report/status/1966536164392734966" rel="noopener">via their practice squad.</a></p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Sources: Former <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/49ers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#49ers</a> K Jake Moody is signing with the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bears?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bears</a> practice squad. </p><p>Added competition for Cairo Santos. <a href="https://t.co/tDVZgLh2Wd">pic.twitter.com/tDVZgLh2Wd</a></p><p>— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) <a href="https://twitter.com/Schultz_Report/status/1966536164392734966?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2025</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>“Sources: Former #49ers K Jake Moody is signing with the #Bears practice squad,” reported Schultz. “Added competition for Cairo Santos.”</p><p><a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/49ers-news-san-francisco-waiving-jake-moody-amid-struggles">Moody went 1-for-3</a> in the 49ers’ season-opening 17-13 win over the Seattle Seahawks. Although he made both of his extra points, it was clear that Sunday’s performance was the last straw. After a strong rookie season in 2023, the former third-round pick backslid in 2024. Moody only made 70.6 percent of his kicks, missing multiple critical chances throughout the season. Now, Moody will look to claim Santos’ starting role. Will he be able to beat out the tenured veteran?</p><h2><b>Could Jake Moody wrestle Bears’ kicking job away from Cairo Santos?</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-K-Cairo-Santos.jpg"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Currently in his 12th season, <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-cairo-santos-brutally-honest-on-stink-field-goal-unit">the 33-year-old Santos has spent</a> the majority of his career with the Bears. His first stint with the team was two games in 2017. Then the former Kansas City Chief resigned with Chicago before the 2020 season. He’s been their primary kicker ever since, scoring the lowest number of points in his tenure last season with 88.</p><p>With Johnson now at the helm, the hope is that the Bears’ offense finally reaches a new level. GM Ryan Poles has given his new head coach almost all the tools needed. Could replacing Santos with Moody be the last piece? If the veteran continues to miss longer kicks, would going <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/49ers-news-jake-moody-sends-fans-into-frenzy-with-walk-off-fg-vs-raiders">with Moody’s more powerful leg</a> be the solution? Or would lose the accuracy of Santos come back to potentially bite Chicago in the future?</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears adding Jake Moody to practice squad after 49ers release

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-jaylon-johnson-gives-3-word-injury-update');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears’ Jaylon Johnson gives 3-word injury update that fans will love');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Jaylon-Johnson-gives-3-word-injury-update-that-fans-will-love.jpg"><figcaption>© Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears’ Jaylon Johnson gives 3-word injury update that fans will love</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-11T20:28:56-07:00">September 11th, 8:28pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-11T20:28:56-07:00">September 11th, 8:28pm</time><address><a>Guillermo Guajardo</a>Guillermo Guajardo is a dynamic sports presenter with experience on various television channels and digital platforms, most recently with A Tiempo.TV. He is also a multidisciplinary artist with 10 years of experience in acting, directing, writing, and hosting. His work in film has been recognized at international festivals, earning awards for both his performances and directorial projects.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>After missing the start of the season, cornerback Jaylon Johnson said he expects to make his 2025 debut this Sunday <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/bears-lions-bold-predictions-week-2-2025-nfl-season">when the Chicago Bears face the Detroit Lions at Ford Field.</a></p><p>“I’ll be good,” Johnson said about his status.</p><p>Johnson was sidelined during Chicago’s Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings while <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46226980/bears-cb-jaylon-johnson-anticipates-making-season-debut-sunday" rel="noopener">recovering from a groin injury sustained during offseason training.</a> The 26-year-old was placed on the non-football injury list in July and missed all of training camp. When he returned to practice last week, he also appeared on the injury report with calf tightness, which he attributed to the rehab process.</p><p>“That was just a little overcompensation from just trying to get my groin back right, just get my body collectively together, and I just had some calf tightness,” Johnson explained.</p><p>Although he was listed as questionable for the opener, Johnson said there were never plans for him to play against Minnesota. He went through an extensive workout at Soldier Field before the game, focusing on position drills, and noted he felt strong during the session.</p><p>“It was just a workout,” Johnson said, according to ESPN. “For me, just going through the position drills, I felt good doing it.”</p><p>This week, Johnson <a href="https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/jaylon-johnson-ready-to-make-a-difference-this-week-for-bears" rel="noopener">has been a full participant</a> in consecutive practices, an important step after weeks of limited work.</p><p>“A lot better,” Johnson said about his progress. “I feel pretty good just getting that extra week of reps, extra week of conditioning, going through things really, just getting up to speed in the playbook, being able to do walk-throughs, things like that, is really beneficial for me,” he added, according to Sports Illustrated.</p><p>Johnson also emphasized the importance of urgency for the Bears as they head <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-hopeful-dj-moore-jaylon-johnson-injuries">into a divisional matchup</a> after a narrow Week 1 loss.</p><p>“Yeah, for sure, I’m sure everybody feels that same urgency,” he said. “I mean, you never want to go 0-2, you want to try to win as many games as possible.”</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears’ Jaylon Johnson gives 3-word injury update that fans will love

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/2-bears-defensive-starters-earn-another-dnp-ahead-of-lions-game');   ga('set', 'title', '2 Bears defensive starters earn another DNP ahead of Lions game');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Kyler-Gordon-did-not-practice-with-the-Bears-due-to-a-hamstring-injury.jpg"><figcaption>Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>2 Bears defensive starters earn another DNP ahead of Lions game</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-11T16:25:38-07:00">September 11th, 4:25pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-11T16:25:38-07:00">September 11th, 4:25pm</time><address><a>Steve Silverman</a>Steve Silverman has been covering the NFL for more than 35 years, and his writing has appeared in ESPN Magazine, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Pro Football Weekly, and Forbes.com. He has written 10 books, including "Who's Better, Who's Best in the NFL." He has won multiple awards from the Pro Football Writers of America.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Chicago Bears had a chance to start their season with a Week 1 victory over the Minnesota Vikings, but a fourth-quarter collapse led to a 27-24 defeat Monday night. New Bears head coach Ben Johnson will try to get the Bears on track in Week 2 when they go to Detroit to take on the powerful and motivated Lions.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bears?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bears</a> Thursday Injury Report <a href="https://t.co/yEUpJErYrd">pic.twitter.com/yEUpJErYrd</a></p><p>— Bears Communications (@BearsPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/BearsPR/status/1966230948762267884?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2025</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Beating the defending NFC North division champions on their homefield is a difficult task to begin with, and combined with the Lions’ motivation after losing the season opener to the Green Bay Packers, it will take a sensational effort. <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-hopeful-dj-moore-jaylon-johnson-injuries">Bears defensive coordinator</a> Dennis Allen may not have his full unit available because defensive back Kyler Gordon and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett did not participate in the team’s Thursday practice session due to injuries.</p><p>Gordon has a hamstring issue while Jarrett has a knee problem. The Lions have a pair of sensational receivers in Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, and if Gordon is not at his best, the receivers may be able to take advantage of the deficit. The Lions also want to unleash their running game with Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, and Jarrett is a proven run stuffer over the course of his career. His absence could allow the Detroit offensive line to assert itself and open key holes for the running backs.</p><h2><b>Bears defense needs to change its focus when opponents start to gain an advantage</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Grady-Jarretts-knee-injury-kept-him-off-the-practice-field-Thursday.jpg"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/bears-lions-bold-predictions-week-2-2025-nfl-season">The Bears</a> had done an excellent job on defense through the first three quarters against the Vikings, but quarterback J.J. McCarthy got hot in the fourth quarter and turned the game in Minnesota’s favor. McCarthy threw two TD passes and ran for another score that allowed the Vikings to put the game in the win column.</p><p>Allen said the Bears defense had a problem in the fourth quarter because defensive players tried to do “too much” while the Vikings were rallying.</p><p>“We try to make this game more complicated than it really is.”<a href="https://x.com/search?q=Bears%20defense&amp;src=typed_query&amp;f=top"> Allen said</a>. “When momentum tries to swing in the opposite direction, narrow your focus. Make sure your eyes are in the right spot. Trust your teammates to do their job as well. If we do that, we will have success.”</p><p>As the Bears prepare to compete against the Lions, much of the focus will be on second-year quarterback Caleb Williams. He has to step up with his accuracy, but the defense has to prevent the Lions from dominating against a unit that may not be fully healthy on Game Day.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

2 Bears defensive starters earn another DNP ahead of Lions game

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-hopeful-dj-moore-jaylon-johnson-injuries');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears’ Ben Johnson ‘hopeful’ on DJ Moore, Jaylon Johnson injuries');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Johnson-coaches.jpg"><figcaption>Denny Medley-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears’ Ben Johnson ‘hopeful’ on DJ Moore, Jaylon Johnson injuries</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-10T19:58:54-07:00">September 10th, 7:58pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-10T19:58:54-07:00">September 10th, 7:58pm</time><address><a>Jackson Stone</a>Jackson Stone is a Mercer University alum from Atlanta who graduated with a BA in communications. A lifelong sports lover, Jackson is a die-hard fan of all Atlanta teams. He joined ClutchPoints in 2023.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>It was a rough opening to the 2025 NFL season <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/bears-lions-bold-predictions-week-2-2025-nfl-season">for the Chicago Bears</a>, who lost on Monday night at home to the divisional rival Minnesota Vikings despite being the better team for the majority of the game. The loss marked the beginning of the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-peyton-manning-jokes-ben-johnson-analytics-guy-error">Ben Johnson era</a>, which didn’t get off to the great start that so many had been hoping for all offseason.</p><p>Adding insult to injury, the Bears didn’t make it through the game unscathed from a health perspective either, as wide receiver DJ Moore suffered an injury late in the game, and cornerback Jaylon Johnson didn’t play due to his own ailment.</p><p>However, on Wednesday, the team got a <a href="https://x.com/CourtneyRCronin/status/1965872701572292951" rel="noopener">relatively optimistic update</a> on those two players.</p><p>“Ben Johnson used the word ‘hopeful’ to describe the injury statues of T.J. Edwards and Jaylon Johnson and whether they’ll be able to play vs. DET. He said ‘that’s the hope’ when asked whether DJ Moore would be good to go after he took a pretty big hit late vs. MIN,” reported Courtney Cronin on X, formerly Twitter.</p><p>The Bears certainly could have used Jaylon Johnson in the secondary on Monday night when Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy overcame a brutal pick six and began dicing up the Chicago defensive backfield, allowing his team to score three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.</p><p>Meanwhile, Moore is a crucial piece of a Bears wide receiving core that is looking to give Caleb Williams as much help as possible as he begins his second season in the NFL.</p><p>Next up for the Bears is another tough divisional matchup (as every NFC North game figures to be) against the Detroit Lions, who also had a disappointing showing in their first game of the year. That contest will mark the return of Johnson to face his former team, and is set to get underway on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET from the Motor City.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears’ Ben Johnson ‘hopeful’ on DJ Moore, Jaylon Johnson injuries

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/bears-lions-bold-predictions-week-2-2025-nfl-season');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears vs. Lions bold predictions for Week 2 of 2025 NFL season');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Caleb-Williams_644949.jpg"><figcaption> Matt Marton-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears vs. Lions bold predictions for Week 2 of 2025 NFL season</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T19:45:34-07:00">September 9th, 7:45pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T19:45:34-07:00">September 9th, 7:45pm</time><address><a>Dan Fappiano</a>Dan Fappiano is a Connecticut based sports journalist and a graduate of both Tunxis Community College and Central Connecticut State University. Dan has spent time covering high school and professional sports in both the print and online medium. He hopes to see his beloved Chicago Bears win a Super Bowl someday.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/detroit-lions/lions-news-dan-campbell-drops-bottom-line-facing-ben-johnson-bears-week-2">Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions will be looking to get back on track</a> when they face off in Week 2 of the regular season. The winner will silence all detractors, at least for a week, while the loser will be falling behind in <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/nfl-stories/nfl-news-how-espn-projects-packers-bears-chances-beat-lions">what should be a heated NFC North race</a>. The Week 2 matchup’s atmosphere brings the perfect opportunity for Bears vs. Lions bold predictions.</p><p>Chicago head coach Ben Johnson will have his first opportunity to face his old team. But with the game being played at Ford Field, Detroit will be looking to show him why he made the wrong decision leaving in the first place. Both sides know each other extremely well.</p><p>Falling to 0-2, with both loses coming to a division foe, could be devastating. The NFL season is long, but the NFC North will be one of the toughest divisions to win in football. As the Bears and Lions look to prove they have what it takes, it’s time for our Week 2 bold predictions.</p><h2><b>Caleb Williams throws for 300 yards</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-QB-Caleb-Williams-running-from-a-Vikings-defender.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Caleb Williams looked like a former No. 1 overall pick on his first drive of the game. He led the Bears 61 yards down the field, ending the opportunity with a nine-yard rushing touchdown. But from there, his play was shaky at best. Overall, Williams completed 21-of-35 passes for 210 yards and a touchdown. Still, Johnson will certainly look to make adjustments before Week 2.</p><p>The Lions offer the perfect opportunity for Williams to find his footing through the air. In Week 1, Green Bay Packers quarterback completed 16-of-22 passes for 188 yards. And that was with the Packers not having to throw the ball, holding a 27-6 lead with less than five minutes to play.</p><p>The Bears won’t be in that situation. Williams will have to thrown all night. Detroit just saw cornerback Terrion Arnold<a href="https://x.com/JFowlerESPN/status/1965079137779159511" rel="noopener"> suffer a groin injury</a>. While it isn’t considered long-term, there’s still a chance he doesn’t suit up. If Arnold is on the sidelines, Williams’ chances of surpassing 300 yards increases.</p><p>Chicago’s quarterback managed to hit the 300+ yard mark four times as a rookie. One of those games was in Week 15 against the Lions. He’ll repeat that feat in Week 2.</p><h2><b>Rome Odunze will receive 150+ of those yards </b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Rome-Odunze.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>There is a clear growing connection between Williams and Odunze. Both being former top 10 picks, they will shape the core of Chicago’s offense for the foreseeable future. The Bears came up short against the Minnesota Vikings, but Odunze looked impressive.</p><p>He led the team with six receptions and nine targets, catching Williams’ lone touchdown pass. DJ Moore led the team with 62 yards, and Olamide Zaccheaus (42 yards) outgained Odunze’s 37. But it’s clear that when Williams looks downfield to pass, Odunze is already one of his favorite targets.</p><p>The sophomore could be pushed into a heavier workload in Week 2 based on DJ Moore’s injury status. He was <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/article/dj-moore-injury-updates-latest-031846776.html" rel="noopener">forced to leave the field</a> after taking a big hit and grimacing in pain. Moore did eventually return, but the Bears will certainly be weary of his status throughout the week of practice.</p><p>But even if Moore plays, Odunze is poised to put on a show against the Lions. If Williams is hitting 300 yards passing, at least one Chicago receiver is set to pop off. Based on the quarterback’s growing trust in him, Odunze seems like the most likely candidate.</p><h2><b>Lions defeat Bears by less than a touchdown </b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Jared-Goff.jpg"><figcaption>Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>For all the questions surrounding Detroit’s defense, there is no questioning their offensive firepower. The Lions may have only scored 13 points in Week 1, but that seems poised to change. While quarterback Jared Goff and company will ultimately need to earn that win, the atmosphere around the matchup is favoring Detroit’s side.</p><p>In Week 1, the Bears held a 17-6 lead over the Vikings entering the fourth quarter. But when Chicago’s offense stalled out, Minnesota was able to take advantage, scoring back-to-back touchdowns. The Bears were deflated as the Vikings’ sidelines were erupting. And that game was played at Soldier Field.</p><p>The Lions understand the lofty expectations placed on their shoulders after winning the NFC North. Falling to an immediate 0-2 would send shockwaves through the organization. If nothing else, head coach Dan Campbell will make sure his franchise understands the situation completely.</p><p>If Williams and the Bears can handle that pressure, perhaps they have a stronger chance of knocking off the Lions. But Chicago wasn’t able to finish cohesively in Week 1. There are sure to be changes, but the Bears self sabotaged throughout the loss. Chicago will keep things close and the final score will look similar to how it did against Minnesota. But entering a high pressure environment, against a team hungry for a win, it’ll be too much for Williams and company to handle.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears vs. Lions bold predictions for Week 2 of 2025 NFL season

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-caleb-williams-gets-pretty-darn-good-week-1-review-kurt-warner');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears’ Caleb Williams gets ‘pretty darn good’ Week 1 review from Kurt Warner');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Williams-runs.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears’ Caleb Williams gets ‘pretty darn good’ Week 1 review from Kurt Warner</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T14:57:00-07:00">September 9th, 2:57pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T15:55:12-07:00">September 9th, 3:55pm</time><address><a>Jackson Stone</a>Jackson Stone is a Mercer University alum from Atlanta who graduated with a BA in communications. A lifelong sports lover, Jackson is a die-hard fan of all Atlanta teams. He joined ClutchPoints in 2023.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>On Monday evening, the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-fans-livid-phantom-holding-call-swung-game-vs-vikings">Chicago Bears dropped</a> to 0-1 on the young NFL season with a brutal home loss to the Minnesota Vikings in front of a nationally televised audience. The Bears dominated this game early on despite playing without multiple defensive starters but ultimately fell off a cliff in the fourth quarter with quarterback <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-caleb-williams-overthrow-stat-destroy-hope-chicago">Caleb Williams and the offense</a> going stagnant at the worst possible time.</p><p>It wasn’t a great start to Williams’ second season in the NFL, one that Bears fans are hoping will look a lot different under new head coach and former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, but that still didn’t stop former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner from singing Williams’ <a href="https://x.com/kurt13warner/status/1965505732976984226" rel="noopener">praises on Tuesday.</a></p><p>“Just finished the #CalebWilliams film &amp; thought it was pretty darn good! Here’s how I would grade him: 1st Half: 2 ++: making a play that not everyone makes 12 +: Right play for QB 1 +-: Missed something but made up for it with positive 1 O: play out to his hands 4 -: Bad plays in some form,” wrote Warner on X, formerly Twitter.</p><p>Warner then went on to describe how he would grade Williams’ second half.</p><p>“2nd Half: 2 ++, 13 +, 5 O, 6 – Total for 46 plays: 4++, 25 +, 1 +-, 6 O, 10 – Don’t have time to do for every QB but overall that’s a really solid game… one caveat is a couple of the minuses were big play misses, but it happens to every QB!” he wrote.</p><h2>A tough start for the Bears</h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-HC-Ben-Johnson-before-game-vs-Vikings-2.jpg"><figcaption>Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption></figure><p>Things went from great to awful for the Bears in a matter of minutes on Monday as the offense went completely silent in the second half and the dam finally broke on defense once Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy started to figure some things out.</p><p>While the Bears’ offensive line looked improved from a year ago, and Williams did appear to cut down on some of the backyard football-like plays that he relied upon a year ago, it still resulted in a result that has become a familiar one for Bears fans over the last decade plus.</p><p>The Bears will now turn their attention to Week 2, where they will hit the road to take on the Detroit Lions in Ben Johnson’s return to face his old team.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears’ Caleb Williams gets ‘pretty darn good’ Week 1 review from Kurt Warner

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-fans-livid-phantom-holding-call-swung-game-vs-vikings');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears fans livid over phantom holding call that ‘swung’ game vs. Vikings');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-OL-Darnell-Wright.jpg"><figcaption>Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears fans livid over phantom holding call that ‘swung’ game vs. Vikings</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T10:13:56-07:00">September 9th, 10:13am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T10:58:16-07:00">September 9th, 10:58am</time><address><a>Jaren Kawada</a>Jaren Kawada is a former full-time sports bettor and is now a NFL, College Football and Betting Associate Editor at ClutchPoints. Kawada was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, but now resides in Indianapolis, Indiana, after graduating from Butler University with a B.A. in sports media. Aside from football, Kawada is an avid combat sports and basketball bettor.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Many factors contributed to the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-most-to-blame-for-disastrous-week-1-choke-vs-vikings">Chicago Bears’ Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings</a>, but several fans are quick to point toward a controversial holding penalty on right tackle Darnell Wright as a turning point that led to the comeback.</p><p>The Bears were deep in Vikings’ territory with a 17-6 lead early in the fourth quarter when the penalty occurred and knocked them out of the red zone. An ensuing intentional grounding call on Caleb Williams led to a missed 50-yard field goal, after which Chicago got outscored 21-7 and lost the game.</p><p>The penalty drew ire from fans, particularly after FOX Sports analyst Geoff Schwartz <a href="https://x.com/geoffschwartz/status/1965384267892171223" rel="noopener">called attention to it</a> following the game.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Yo NFL. We have to do better on this snatch trap/splash “holding” calls. It’s just not holding. This is one of the cleaner splash technique executions. If you don’t see the entire block you shouldn’t flag the end result. It’s bad. Please stop. <a href="https://t.co/GuhihTgH3f">pic.twitter.com/GuhihTgH3f</a></p><p>— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) <a href="https://twitter.com/geoffschwartz/status/1965384267892171223?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2025</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Many Bears fans, who were already upset with the result, were irate after watching Schwartz’s video. Most recognized that Chicago still blew several opportunities that led to the loss, but could not fathom how Wright’s “penalty” was called and forced the team to attempt a longer field goal.</p><p>“The ref needs to be disciplined!” one fan <a href="https://x.com/Adam_Dowling1/status/1965402466415247410" rel="noopener">commented</a>. “Bears were about to go up 20 or 24 to 6. The biggest play of the game.”</p><p>“They need to add replay assist to more (sigh, all…) calls,” another fan <a href="https://x.com/Adam_Dowling1/status/1965402466415247410" rel="noopener">wrote</a>. “The game is so fast, the crew has so much to look at, they just cannot be expected to see everything properly.”</p><p>Another analyst reacted to <a href="https://x.com/AdamHoge/status/1965397053087060268" rel="noopener">how impactful the penalty</a> truly was. The holding call was a part of the sequence that “swung” the game, according to Bears analyst Adam Hoge.</p><p>“Bears would have been deep in the red zone with a 17-6 lead if this wasn’t called,” Hoge tweeted. “Instead, they miss a 50-yard field goal. Gotta make the FG (and can’t have the intentional grounding) but the game swung on this sequence.”</p><h2><b>Bears fall apart late in loss to Vikings</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-HC-Ben-Johnson-before-game-vs-Vikings-2.jpg"><figcaption>Denny Medley-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Had the penalty not been called, the Bears would have likely taken a commanding three-score lead. However, they still missed several opportunities to put it away.</p><p>After executing a near-flawless opening drive, Chicago only scored a touchdown on one of its ensuing 12 drives the rest of the game. Of the Bears’ 317 yards of total offense in the game, nearly half of them came on their two touchdown drives.</p><p>Meanwhile, the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings/vikings-news-moment-jj-mccarthy-knew-things-about-pop-vs-bears">Vikings scored three consecutive touchdowns</a> in the fourth quarter, during which the Bears amassed just eight plays for -1 total yards. The game ended with frustrated fans booing the team off the field.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears fans livid over phantom holding call that ‘swung’ game vs. Vikings

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-caleb-williams-overthrow-stat-destroy-hope-chicago');   ga('set', 'title', 'Mind-blowing Bears’ Caleb Williams ‘overthrow’ stat will destroy all hope in Chicago');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-QB-Caleb-Williams-running-from-a-Vikings-defender.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Mind-blowing Bears’ Caleb Williams ‘overthrow’ stat will destroy all hope in Chicago</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T09:49:48-07:00">September 9th, 9:49am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T09:49:48-07:00">September 9th, 9:49am</time><address><a>Gerard Angelo Samillano</a>Gerard Angelo Samillano is an Associate Editor for ClutchPoints, with his focus primarily on the NBA, NFL, MLB and NCAA Football. When he's not writing for CP, Gerard can often be seen playing VALORANT or playing pick-up basketball.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>This was not how Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season was supposed to go for the Chicago Bears. Many fans were hoping to see something different out of Caleb Williams now that Ben Johnson was the head coach. The architect of the vaunted Detroit Lions offense, Johnson, was supposed to bring out the best in Williams. The hope was that the 2024 first-overall pick would look better in Year 2 with a better coach.</p><p>Unfortunately, <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-most-to-blame-for-disastrous-week-1-choke-vs-vikings">Bears fans saw many of the same problems Williams had</a> in his rookie season. The sophomore quarterback’s accuracy was a huge question mark after last year, and it remains a problem this year. It felt like every other throw Williams made was a bad miss, whether the wide receiver was covered or not.</p><p>If you don’t believe the eye test, perhaps stats will convince you of Williams’ struggles. Over the last year or so, TruMedia tracked the passes of all quarterbacks in the NFL. The Bears quarterback was <a href="https://x.com/NoFlagsFilm/status/1965359081348366755" rel="noopener">the league-leader last season in “overthrown” balls</a>, and he bumped up that total to 52 after Week 1 with five overthrows this game. The next closest player during that same time period? Bo Nix, who had 37, 17 less than Williams.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Over the last year &amp; 1 week, Caleb Williams leads NFL quarterbacks with 52 incompletions due to an overthrow (per TruMedia). 17 more than the next highest and added 5 more last night <a href="https://t.co/whEBRcKDJb">pic.twitter.com/whEBRcKDJb</a></p><p>— James Foster (@NoFlagsFilm) <a href="https://twitter.com/NoFlagsFilm/status/1965359081348366755?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2025</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://instagram.com/embed.js"></script></p></figure><p>That… is worrying. The one that likely still lingers on Bears fans’ minds is the missed throw to DJ Moore. Moore found himself wide open on a fade route, with no defender near him. It should have been an easy completion and another touchdown for the surging offense. Instead, Williams missed Moore significantly, costing them precious time.</p><p>It wasn’t just overthrows for Williams: <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/caleb-williams-alarm-bells-ringing-after-bears-week-1-collapse-vs-vikings">the Bears quarterback just couldn’t find his accuracy</a> consistently against the Vikings. He would have some incredible passes, like a running strike to Rome Odunze early in the game that kept their opening drive alive. However, Williams would also miss some easy throws, which was infuriating for fans and for Ben Johnson.</p><p>Williams definitely has the chops to be a good quarterback in the NFL: he started the Vikings game a perfect 10-for-1o on his passes. However, the Bears quarterback needs to be able to consistently hit the mark to be great in the NFL</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Mind-blowing Bears’ Caleb Williams ‘overthrow’ stat will destroy all hope in Chicago

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-peyton-manning-jokes-ben-johnson-analytics-guy-error');   ga('set', 'title', 'Peyton Manning jokes about being Bears’ ‘analytics guy’ after Ben Johnson error');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-head-coach-Ben-Johnson.jpg"><figcaption>Denny Medley-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Peyton Manning jokes about being Bears’ ‘analytics guy’ after Ben Johnson error</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T09:31:55-07:00">September 9th, 9:31am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T09:31:55-07:00">September 9th, 9:31am</time><address><a>Yasmin Edañol</a>Yasmin D.G. Edañol is a PhD candidate in Chemistry at the University of the Philippines Diliman, with a background in scientific research and publishing. He brings a data-driven perspective to sports storytelling as an Associate Editor at ClutchPoints, with a focus on the NBA. Whether it's breaking down a clutch play or a stat line, he believes every great moment has a deeper layer waiting to be uncovered.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Chicago Bears <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-most-to-blame-for-disastrous-week-1-choke-vs-vikings">are once again at the center of attention</a> as Ben Johnson’s <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-reveals-kickoff-gaffe-nuked-comeback">late-game decision in the matchup against the Vikings</a> backfired. Meanwhile, Peyton Manning used his ManningCast platform to break down the controversial call. As a result, his sharp analysis immediately <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-espn-hits-chicago-bear-troll-job-week-1-collapse">put the Bears-Ben Johnson partnership under the spotlight</a>. Overall, <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/tired-of-bears-choke-jobs-only-a-matter-of-time-until-they-figure-it-out">the Vikings-Bears clash was intense</a>, but Chicago’s failure to manage the final two minutes turned into the biggest storyline.</p><p>During the broadcast, Manning <a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/peyton-manning-rips-bears-for-burning-the-two-minute-warning-with-a-returnable-kickoff" rel="noopener">joked</a> about stepping in to help. “I just don’t know if I have time to be the Bears’ analytics guy and do this show,” he said. The remark summed up the frustration of Chicago fans who saw a winnable game slip away. The defense forced a three-and-out. Even so, the Bears’ mismanagement of the clock left them with little chance to mount a comeback.</p><p>Manning also explained exactly what the Bears should have done after cutting the deficit to 27-24 with just over two minutes left. Specifically, he emphasized that Chicago needed to protect the two-minute warning at all costs. In his view, kicking the ball out of bounds would have been smarter than risking a returnable kickoff.</p><p>Furthermore, he pointed out that the field position difference would have been minimal compared to the value of preserving clock stoppages. However, Johnson’s decision gave the Vikings a chance to burn the two-minute warning and drain valuable time.</p><p>On top of that, Manning predicted what would happen the moment the Bears lined up for the kickoff. He revealed that Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell had already prepared his team for these late-game situations. As expected, Minnesota returned the kick, burning crucial seconds and putting Johnson’s strategy under fire. Notably, Manning didn’t hold back, repeatedly saying the Bears should have kicked the ball out of bounds.</p><p>In the end, this loss raises serious questions about Johnson’s in-game decision-making. Moving forward, if he wants to restore faith in the Bears’ direction, learning from Peyton Manning’s situational awareness might be the first step.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Peyton Manning jokes about being Bears’ ‘analytics guy’ after Ben Johnson error

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/tired-of-bears-choke-jobs-only-a-matter-of-time-until-they-figure-it-out');   ga('set', 'title', 'Tired of Bears choke jobs? It’s only a matter of time until they figure it out');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/781139699-ben-johnson-playcalling-bears.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Tired of Bears choke jobs? It’s only a matter of time until they figure it out</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T08:46:16-07:00">September 9th, 8:46am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T08:46:16-07:00">September 9th, 8:46am</time><address><a>Bailey Bassett</a>Bailey Bassett is a sports writer from Denver, Colorado, covering major sports events and athlete backgrounds at ClutchPoints. He has experience covering and writing on high school, collegiate, and professional sports.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Optimism was sky high for the Chicago Bears after they drafted Caleb Williams first overall in 2024, but the USC product’s rookie year was marred by narrow defeats and heartbreaking choke jobs. The team got even better during the 2025 offseason by loading up on offensive-line talent, pass-catching weapons, and a <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-hiring-ben-johnson-next-head-coach">play-calling genius in new head coach Ben Johnson</a>.</p><p>Those moves led many to believe that these frustrating losses, where wins were attainable, would be a thing of the past during the 2025 season. However, the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-was-supposed-to-be-different-bears-look-like-same-old-bears">Bears suffered yet another inexcusable and avoidable loss</a> in their first game of the 2025 season.</p><p>The Bears looked like they turned over a new leaf to begin their game against the Minnesota Vikings, even going up by a score of 17-6 in the third quarter. Williams showed moments of brilliance, and it looked like the Johnson hiring was paying off.</p><p>Then the fourth quarter hit, and things went south quickly. The Bears’ offense went stagnant, and the Vikings started to rip through Chicago’s defense. It resulted in yet another depressing loss (27-24). Will these tragic late-game blunders and disappointments continue in Chicago, or will the Bears figure things out?</p><h2><b>Bears will develop a winning culture sooner rather than later</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/781139711-caleb-williams-pylong.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption></figure><p>The Bears are still a very young team, and that is partly to blame for their continued late-game struggles. The team has the pieces and the coaching to win a lot of games going forward, though, and they’ve gained a lot of experience over the last season and one game. The Bears drafted Williams as one of the most highly touted prospects in recent history. He hasn’t quite lived up to that potential yet, but the flashes have been there, especially during Week 1.</p><p>The escapability and his threat to make a big play after evading pressure are what make Williams so special, and that was on full display for much of the game against the Vikings. Notably, Williams avoided a sack and ran in for his first career rushing touchdown. And he nearly did it again later in the game.</p><p>Williams’ <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/nfl-stories/ranking-all-32-nfl-teams-receiving-corps-for-2025-season">receiving corps</a> is stacked as he has Rome Odunze, DJ Moore, Luther Burden, Cole Kmet, and Colston Loveland to throw to. Johnson will be able to make the most of that group, even if results didn’t pan out in Week 1. The Vikings are a really good team, and the Bears had a clear path to winning.</p><p>“We felt like we were dominating the game,” Williams<a href="https://www.nfl.com/news/caleb-williams-bears-fizzle-after-hot-start-qb-vows-to-keep-growing" rel="noopener"> said</a>. “It’s a growing process. It’s going to keep growing from here. This is the start, but it’s definitely not the end.”</p><p><a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-caleb-williams-makes-promise-after-contributing-to-collapse-vs-vikings">Williams knows that these end-of-game meltdowns</a> have to stop, and he has the confidence that things will change. Things won’t get easier in Week 2, though, as the Bears have a tough matchup against the Detroit Lions, who will also be coming off a disappointing loss against a division rival, losing 27-13 to the Green Bay Packers. The Lions are the defending NFC North champs and Johnson’s former team.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Tired of Bears choke jobs? It’s only a matter of time until they figure it out

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-new-kicker-week-1-disaster');   ga('set', 'title', 'Why Bears must look for a new kicker immediately after Week 1 disaster');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/CHICAG_2.jpg"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Why Bears must look for a new kicker immediately after Week 1 disaster</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T08:37:45-07:00">September 9th, 8:37am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T13:40:55-07:00">September 9th, 1:40pm</time><address><a>Zachary Draves</a>Zachary Draves is a sportswriter and broadcaster based in the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa. Zachary covers a variety of different sports as well as sports history, sport and society, and sport and culture. He is also a professor of sociology.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Chicago Bears’ season opener on Monday <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-fans-shambles-meltdown-vs-jj-mccarthy-vikings">brought on the heartbreak</a>. A season with supposed promise <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-was-supposed-to-be-different-bears-look-like-same-old-bears">got off with much of the same old same old</a>.</p><p>They not only lost to the Minnesota Vikings 27-24, but there were glaring reasons for concern for what could lie ahead. Most notably, the performance of kicker Cairo Santos.</p><p>He missed a 50-yard field goal, almost missed a 42-yarder, and then there was the kickoff. At the end of the game, the Bears sought to kick the ball out of the end zone to save time.</p><p>They brought the game to 27-24 after a touchdown.</p><p>However, the ball landed in the middle of the end zone. Vikings returner Ty Chandler dashed down the field, and ultimately, the Bears exhausted at least seven precious seconds off the clock, when they still had a chance to win the game.</p><p>Immediately, <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-fans-rip-chicago-over-late-game-decision-vs-vikings">Bears fans pounced</a> on that crucial mishap. Afterward, Bears coach Ben Johnson <a href="https://x.com/kfishbain/status/1965265084412035305" rel="noopener">sought to explain</a> his strategy, per Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic.</p><p>According to Fishbain, Johnson said that a three-and-out would have given them 56 seconds. However, the Bears ended up losing the two-minute warning and got the ball back with only 9 seconds remaining.</p><p>Despite leading the game through the first two quarters and with <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-caleb-williams-makes-promise-after-contributing-to-collapse-vs-vikings">Caleb Williams having a solid performance</a>, this was by no means the ideal start for a team in desperate need to turn the page.</p><p>A need that would require an honest assessment of their kicker.</p><h2><b>Cairo Santos is hurting himself and the Bears</b></h2><p>While Santos has had his fair share of decent moments and has good accuracy, overall he is not who the Bears need. In part due to the fact that he is nursing a bad leg.</p><p>As a result, he has even greater difficulty kicking the ball long distance. He was lucky to have converted a 42 yarder to begin with.</p><p>The problem is that the Bears know this has been an issue since 2017. That year, Santos <a href="https://chiefsdigest.com/chiefs-waive-injured-kicker-cairo-santos/#:~:text=Santos%20suffered%20a%20groin%20injury,%E2%80%9CI%20wished%20him%20luck." rel="noopener">suffered a serious groin injury</a> when he was with the Kansas City Chiefs.</p><p>Afterwards, they waived him and it’s been a struggle ever since. Granted, he can convert on shorter field goals with relative ease, but when the game is on the line, you need to go the distance.</p><p>He can’t do that. And yet Bears <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39173028/bears-pk-cairo-santos-gets-4-year-16m-extension-source-says#:~:text=Dec%2023%2C%202023%2C%2011:,2020%20set%20a%20franchise%20record." rel="noopener">felt it was necessary</a> to sign him to a four-year $16 million contract extension in 2023.</p><p>$9.5 million of that is guaranteed and his cap is at $4.26 this season.</p><p>At this point, the Bears need to start looking for a new kicker. In letting Santos go, the Bears <a href="https://www.sportsmockery.com/chicago-bears/bears-veteran-starter-could-be-cut-soon/" rel="noopener">would save</a> at least $1 million in dead cap money. An additional $1.12 million <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2025/05/30/nfl-post-june-1-cut-explanation-candidates/83952027007/#:~:text=stats%20and%20more.-,What%20is%20a%20post%2DJune%201%20cut%20in%20the%20NFL,over%20the%20next%20two%20seasons." rel="noopener">would transfer</a> until the 2026 season.</p><p>Altogether, they would have $3.2 million in cap savings to likely be spent on getting a kicker in free agency.</p><p>Beyond the money, they need a kicker who is healthy and can be counted on.</p><p>Santos can’t do it anymore. This is simply of case of its broke and it needs fixing.</p><p>If the Bears don’t act, buckle your seatbelts for another bumpy ride.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Why Bears must look for a new kicker immediately after Week 1 disaster

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-reveals-kickoff-gaffe-nuked-comeback');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears HC Ben Johnson reveals what was supposed to happen on kickoff gaffe that nuked comeback');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-HC-Ben-Johnson-before-game-vs-Vikings-2.jpg"><figcaption>Denny Medley-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears HC Ben Johnson reveals what was supposed to happen on kickoff gaffe that nuked comeback</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T08:01:55-07:00">September 9th, 8:01am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T08:01:55-07:00">September 9th, 8:01am</time><address><a>Yasmin Edañol</a>Yasmin D.G. Edañol is a PhD candidate in Chemistry at the University of the Philippines Diliman, with a background in scientific research and publishing. He brings a data-driven perspective to sports storytelling as an Associate Editor at ClutchPoints, with a focus on the NBA. Whether it's breaking down a clutch play or a stat line, he believes every great moment has a deeper layer waiting to be uncovered.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Chicago Bears <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-espn-hits-chicago-bear-troll-job-week-1-collapse">collapsed in a stunning defeat to the Vikings</a>, and it came down to a single miscalculation that changed everything. <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-most-to-blame-for-disastrous-week-1-choke-vs-vikings">After scoring a touchdown to cut the deficit to 27-24</a>, Bears head coach Ben Johnson revealed that <a href="https://x.com/kfishbain/status/1965265084412035305" rel="noopener">the plan was simple</a>. The kickoff was supposed to sail out of the end zone. However, the execution failed, and it derailed what could have been a stunning comeback in the Bears-Vikings showdown.</p><p>In explaining the decision, Ben Johnson said the idea was to force the Vikings into a long field. He believed that a touchback would set them up perfectly for one last shot at a win. Furthermore, Johnson explained that if the Bears’ defense had managed a quick stop, they would have regained possession with roughly 56 seconds left. He believed that was enough time for one or two solid drives to reach field-goal range and potentially force overtime.</p><p>Unfortunately for the Bears, things didn’t go according to plan. Because the kickoff didn’t go out of bounds, the clock ran differently. As a result, they ended up losing the two-minute warning advantage. As a result, by the time the Bears got the ball back, only nine seconds remained on the clock. That wasn’t nearly enough time to mount any kind of comeback against a disciplined Vikings defense.</p><p>The <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-was-supposed-to-be-different-bears-look-like-same-old-bears">Bears-Ben Johnson era is barely underway</a>, yet it’s already under intense scrutiny. This ending only raises more questions about game management. The Bears had momentum after clawing back into the game. However, a late-game miscalculation and poor game management erased their chance to control the final possession. It’s a bitter pill to swallow for a team that believed they had a path to victory against a division rival.</p><p>Ultimately, for Ben Johnson, the loss is another lesson in precision and execution. Every decision matters in close games, and this one slipped away because the details weren’t perfect. The Bears now sit at a crossroads early in the season, searching for answers after a missed opportunity. Now, the question is whether Ben Johnson can rally his team and deliver the wins needed to stay competitive in the NFC North.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears HC Ben Johnson reveals what was supposed to happen on kickoff gaffe that nuked comeback

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-was-supposed-to-be-different-bears-look-like-same-old-bears');   ga('set', 'title', 'Ben Johnson was supposed to be different. Bears look like same old Bears');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Ben-Johnson-on-Sept.-8-2025.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Ben Johnson was supposed to be different. Bears look like same old Bears</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T07:41:43-07:00">September 9th, 7:41am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T09:11:14-07:00">September 9th, 9:11am</time><address><a>Zachary Weinberger</a>Zachary Weinberger joined ClutchPoints in October 2023 as a Miami Heat reporter as well as an Associate Editor. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University in 2022 after covering the school's athletic programs since his freshman year at the FAU University Press, where he was a Sports Editor and Editor-in-Chief. He then covered FAU Sports for The Palm Beach Post.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>After the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-caleb-williams-makes-promise-after-contributing-to-collapse-vs-vikings">Chicago Bears’ collapse in their loss to the Minnesota Vikings</a> on Monday night, 27-24, the focus has now shifted to the leadership of new head coach Ben Johnson. As fans look for <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-most-to-blame-for-disastrous-week-1-choke-vs-vikings">who to blame for the Bears’ loss to the Vikings</a>, the one aspect that the community can agree on is that the team looked the same on Monday as they have been for many seasons.</p><p>Of course, this is the first game of Chicago under Johnson, with any assessment being in a vacuum. However, fans wanted to see a change from mediocrity to a franchise that operates as a well-oiled machine and can be a force in the NFL for years to come.</p><p>Fans didn’t get that, though the start was a promising one. The Bears had a 17-6 lead, as right from an efficient first drive, there could have been some people who felt a different team was ready to take the league by storm, but it then fizzled out.</p><p>“<a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/ben-johnson-bears-made-too-many-mistakes-myself-included" rel="noopener">Obviously a disappointing way to start the season,</a>” Johnson said, via NBC Sports. “To have a 17-6 lead and then see it go the way it did there in the fourth quarter — we said going in to Week One that the team that made the least number of mistakes would win the game, and unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of that. We made too many there late in the game, myself included.”</p><p>“There were a number of things that I could have done better, a number of things that a number of guys could have done better,” Johnson continued. “When you look down at the stat sheet and see 12 penalties, that’s got to get cleaned up in a hurry, and yet, we’ve been saying that all training camp as well.”</p><h2><b>Another Bears performance filled with sloppiness</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Caleb-Williams-2.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption></figure><p>While <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/caleb-williams-alarm-bells-ringing-after-bears-week-1-collapse-vs-vikings">alarm bells could be ringing for Bears fans</a> after the loss, the deficiencies in the game could be rectified, but it featured once again a relatively lethargic running game and a sloppy 12 penalties. It also displayed some poor decision-making on the sidelines by Johnson, like losing a challenge and a kickoff mistake towards the end of the game before the two-minute warning.</p><p>Still, another aspect that could be cleaned up is the performance of quarterback Caleb Williams, who threw for 210 yards to go along with a touchdown pass and even a score on the ground with 58 rushing yards. He would call the performance a <a href="https://www.audacy.com/670thescore/sports/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-debut-ends-with-familiar-dismal-loss-for-bears" rel="noopener">“frustrating”</a> one but mentioned how this is still a “growing process,” according to Audacy.com.</p><p>“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…It’s a growing process. It’s going to keep growing from here. This is the start, but it’s definitely not the end.”</p><p>Chicago looks to bounce back in Week 2, but it doesn’t get any easier as the team now travels to take on the Detroit Lions in another NFC North contest.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Ben Johnson was supposed to be different. Bears look like same old Bears

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-caleb-williams-makes-promise-after-contributing-to-collapse-vs-vikings');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears’ Caleb Williams makes promise after contributing to collapse vs. Vikings');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Chicago-Bears-QB-Caleb-Williams.jpg"><figcaption>Matt Marton-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears’ Caleb Williams makes promise after contributing to collapse vs. Vikings</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T06:49:17-07:00">September 9th, 6:49am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T06:50:14-07:00">September 9th, 6:50am</time><address><a href="https://matthew516sports.substack.com/">Douglas Fritz</a>Douglas Fritz has been writing about sports for almost four decades and publishes a Christian sports newsletter and podcast on Substack at Matthew516Sports. He started as a reporter for the student newspaper at East Tennessee State University, worked his way up to Editor-In-Chief, and began his sports writing career at the Johnson City Press daily newspaper while still in college. During 30-plus years at the Press, he covered University of Tennessee football, men's and women's basketball, ETSU athletics, and high school athletics. Among the people he has interviewed are Dale Murphy, Bobby Cox, John Smoltz, and Bruce Smith. He is also a Christian-based screenwriter (five feature-length and one short), book writer (three completed manuscripts and one novel), and songwriter.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>It <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-joins-matt-nagy-unfortunate-exclusive-list">wasn’t a great debut for the Chicago Bears’ Ben Johnson.</a> Nor did <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/caleb-williams-alarm-bells-ringing-after-bears-week-1-collapse-vs-vikings">things end well for Caleb Williams</a>. However, Williams made a promise after contributing to the Monday night collapse against the Vikings.</p><p>Williams said the Bears felt like they <a href="https://www.audacy.com/670thescore/sports/chicago-bears/ben-johnson-debut-ends-with-familiar-dismal-loss-for-bears" rel="noopener">had the game</a> in complete control, according to Audacy.com.</p><p>“We felt like we were dominating the game,” Williams said.</p><p>But a 17-6 lead disappeared into a 27-24 loss that left Bears fans shaking their heads.</p><h2><b>Bears QB Caleb Williams makes promise after debacle</b></h2><p>Williams said he and his teammates will learn from this tough division setback.</p><p>“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.</p><p>“It’s a growing process. It’s going to keep growing from here. This is the start, but it’s definitely not the end.”</p><p>The game read like two different stories for Williams. In his first game of his second NFL season, he went 13 of 16 for 112 yards in the first half. Everything looked sharp and zippy, and he added a touchdown run.</p><p>However, things went awry in the second half as he finished 8 of 19 for 98 yards. There were numerous instances where he missed wide-open receivers with high throws in the awful finish.</p><p>For the game, Williams put up numbers of 21 of 35 for 210 yards and a scoring strike. He also rushed for 58 yards.</p><p>Johnson said the Bears victimized themselves.</p><p>“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.”</p><p>Things don’t get any easier for the Bears. In fact, they get much tougher for Johnson personally. Chicago will travel to face Johnson’s old team, the Detroit Lions. Making matters worse for Johnson and the Bears, the Lions are coming off their own disappointing loss. And they will be loaded for bear, so to speak.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears’ Caleb Williams makes promise after contributing to collapse vs. Vikings

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-most-to-blame-for-disastrous-week-1-choke-vs-vikings');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears most to blame for disastrous Week 1 choke vs. Vikings');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-DJ-Moore-during-their-game-against-the-Vikings.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears most to blame for disastrous Week 1 choke vs. Vikings</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T06:44:36-07:00">September 9th, 6:44am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T06:44:36-07:00">September 9th, 6:44am</time><address><a>Gerard Angelo Samillano</a>Gerard Angelo Samillano is an Associate Editor for ClutchPoints, with his focus primarily on the NBA, NFL, MLB and NCAA Football. When he's not writing for CP, Gerard can often be seen playing VALORANT or playing pick-up basketball.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Well, that game turned around so quickly for the Chicago Bears. After an excellent first quarter of play, it felt like the Bears were finally showing signs of breaking out. With Ben Johnson calling the shots on offense and Dennis Allen leading the defense, Caleb Williams and Chicago were due for a breakout.</p><p>Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Their early brilliance quickly started to fade, and key issues started popping up. They weren’t able to fully put away the Minnesota Vikings while they were down and struggling as well. That eventually cost them, as <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-fans-shambles-meltdown-vs-jj-mccarthy-vikings">the Vikings mounted a furious comeback from 17-6 to stun the Bears in Week 1.</a></p><p>There’s a lot of blame to be passed around for the Bears. Who are the entities most to blame for spoiling Ben Johnson’s Bears debut. Let’s discuss.</p><h2><b>Caleb Williams</b></h2><p>There’s no beating around the bush here. The offense’s inability to rack up points stymied the Bears’ chances of winning the game. They started off hot: they scored on their first drive, and Caleb Williams completed his first ten pass attempts. Williams even recorded his first rushing touchdown of his career.</p><p>However, they struggled to score after that. Another field goal put them at ten points at the half, but that would be the last points the Bears offense would put up until the fourth quarter. By then, the lead was just too insurmountable. At the forefront of the offense’s struggles is <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/caleb-williams-alarm-bells-ringing-after-bears-week-1-collapse-vs-vikings">Caleb Williams, whose struggles severely stymied the Bears offense for most of the game</a>.</p><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-Caleb-Williams-preparing-to-throw.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Even when he seemed to play well in the first quarter, there were some worrying signs. The Vikings still occasionally got to Williams, but he had clean pockets to work with for most of the first half. Yet, Williams was weirdly conservative with his decision-making, passing up big plays to get to his checkdowns. There were a couple of plays where a receiver came open downfield, only for the Bears quarterback to check it down to D’Andre Swift.</p><p>That in itself wasn’t too big a deal. What really started to hurt the Bears, though, was when Williams started misfiring. Even when there was little pressure on him, Williams routinely missed his attempts to his receivers. The most painful miss was when he <a href="https://x.com/barstoolsports/status/1965253159011701042" rel="noopener">badly overthrew</a> a wide-open DJ Moore on a fade route in the third quarter. It got to a point where even his checkdown passes started to miss.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Caleb Williams had DJ Moore wiiiiiiiide open<a href="https://t.co/iWujmvo9vi">pic.twitter.com/iWujmvo9vi</a></p><p>— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) <a href="https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1965253159011701042?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2025</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://instagram.com/embed.js"></script></p></figure><p>There were definitely some encouraging signs for Williams. He seemed better at navigating the pocket and was able to generate runs for himself when he couldn’t find an open man. However, these accuracy problems will severely hurt an offense that largely generates production from on-time, on-target throws.</p><h2>Bears’ running game</h2><p>It wasn’t just the Bears’ passing attack that struggled against the Vikings. Heading into the year, <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/fatal-flaw-chicago-bears-address-training-camp">a spotlight was put on Chicago’s rushing attack</a>. It was one of their many weaknesses last year. With Johnson’s love of the running game from his days in Detroit, there was a lot of emphasis on Bears running back D’Andre Swift to produce.</p><p>Unfortunately, the Bears still struggled to get great production on the ground. While they did have a total of 119 rushing yards, 58 of those came from Williams scrambling out of the pocket. When it comes to designed runs, the offense struggled to get positive production. Swift got 17 carries, but was only able to get 53 yards for a measly 3.1 yards per carry.</p><p>It’s a bit hard to tell whether the Bears’ struggles in running the football stem from Swift or the offensive line failing to open up lanes. Swift did have a few explosive plays where he was able to find the crease in the blocking scheme, but his longest carry was only 13 yards. The Bears also tried giving Moore touches from the backfield, but he only got eight yards on three carries.</p><p>The Bears will need to figure out how to fix their offensive woes, and fast. Johnson is a talented playcaller from his days in Detroit, but his success there was built on Jared Goff’s accuracy and play-action proficiency, as well as Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery being elite runners. So far, we haven’t seen those elements from the Bears’ key actors on offense.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears most to blame for disastrous Week 1 choke vs. Vikings

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-ben-johnson-joins-matt-nagy-unfortunate-exclusive-list');   ga('set', 'title', 'Bears’ Ben Johnson joins Matt Nagy on unfortunate exclusive list');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Bears-head-coach-Ben-Johnson-reacts.jpg"><figcaption>David Banks-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Bears’ Ben Johnson joins Matt Nagy on unfortunate exclusive list</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T06:25:49-07:00">September 9th, 6:25am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T06:25:49-07:00">September 9th, 6:25am</time><address><a>Rexwell Villas</a>Rexwell Villas is an experienced sports writer covering a variety of sports, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and college football. He's a Communications Arts graduate from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines, and he claims to have JR Smith's conscience with his shot selection. He has won a basketball, a baseball, and a football championship in fantasy all within a year.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Ben Johnson era in Windy City <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-espn-hits-chicago-bear-troll-job-week-1-collapse">began with a loud thud</a>. The Chicago Bears had control of Monday night’s game against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field, but floundered when it mattered the most, resulting in an <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-fans-shambles-meltdown-vs-jj-mccarthy-vikings">embarrassing 27-24 loss</a> at the hands of JJ McCarthy and company.</p><p>Johnson, who has been <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-hiring-ben-johnson-next-head-coach">hired by the Bears in the offseason</a> to run the show for the team from the sidelines, was confident that he could transplant his success as an offensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions to Chicago. The jury is still out on that for Johnson, but Week 1’s debacle against the Vikings certainly did not do his image any favors. Moreover, the way the Bears lost in Johnson’s first game with the team was also reminiscent of a meltdown Chicago had during a different coaching debut from several years ago.</p><p>Back in the Bears’ 2018 season opener against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, Chicago erected a 17-0 advantage after two quarters of Matt Nagy’s first game as the team’s head coach. But that apparently was not enough for Chicago to hold off the Packers, who outscored the Bears in the second half by 18 points to come away with a thrilling 24-23 victory.</p><p>Over the last 10 years, only Johnson and Nagy have<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DOYcvRglC5Z/" rel="noopener"> lost in their coaching debuts</a> despite their teams leading by at least 10 points in the fourth quarter, according to CBS Sports.</p><p>In the Vikings game, Chicago had an 11-point lead at the start of the final period. After the Bears missed a field goal in the first possession of the quarter, McCarthy found wide receiver Justin Jefferson for a touchdown, followed by a failed two-point conversion try. The Vikings then forced Chicago to punt before running back Aaron Jones Sr. scored the go-ahead receiving touchdown. McCarthy later scored his first career rushing TD in the NFL to stretch Minnesota’s cushion, as the Vikings held on to complete the dramatic come-from-behind win.</p><p>The good news for Johnson and the Bears is that it’s still too early in the 2025 season to panic. They bounce right back and score Johnson’s first coaching win with him at the helm this coming Sunday against fellow 0-1 starter Detroit Lions at Ford Field in Detroit.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Bears’ Ben Johnson joins Matt Nagy on unfortunate exclusive list

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl/chicago-bears/caleb-williams-alarm-bells-ringing-after-bears-week-1-collapse-vs-vikings');   ga('set', 'title', 'Caleb Williams alarm bells ringing after Bears’ Week 1 collapse vs. Vikings');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Caleb-Williams-soured-on-Shane-Waldron-after-bad-Seattle-review.jpg"><figcaption>© Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h1>Caleb Williams alarm bells ringing after Bears’ Week 1 collapse vs. Vikings</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2025-09-09T06:17:30-07:00">September 9th, 6:17am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2025-09-09T06:17:30-07:00">September 9th, 6:17am</time><address><a>Ben Strauss</a>Ben Strauss is an Associate Editor at ClutchPoints. He is a die-hard NFL fan who cheers for the Detroit Lions. He has previously written fantasy football content for IDPGuys and ImportantNonsense.com.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Chicago Bears</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Chicago Bears did not start off the 2025 NFL season on the right foot. <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-fans-shambles-meltdown-vs-jj-mccarthy-vikings">Chicago lost to Minnesota 27-24</a> thanks to an epic fourth quarter meltdown. The Bears surrendered 21 unanswered point in the final quarter, which was enough to lose by one score. It was not a good look for the first game of the Ben Johnson era in Chicago.</p><p>Week 1 was a tale of two halves for the Bears. And for Caleb Williams specifically.</p><p>The second-year quarterback started the game off great. He completed his first 10 passes and <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nfl/chicago-bears/bears-news-caleb-williams-breaks-rushing-td-drought-vikings">scored Chicago’s first opening-drive touchdown</a> since the 2023 season.</p><p>Williams helped lead the Bears to a four-point advantage at halftime.</p><p>But almost everything went wrong during the second half, aside from a few scoring plays.</p><p>Caleb became incredibly inefficient in the second half, despite completing 13 of his first 16 attempts. He missed multiple passes during the fourth quarter that could have made a huge difference in the outcome of this game. In fact, he finished the game with a <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46203931/caleb-williams-chicago-bears-see-lead-evaporate-mnf-loss" rel="noopener">league-worst 29.4% off-target rate</a> according to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin.</p><p>The Bears did look much different than they did during the 2024 season. But in a one-game sample size, some of Williams’ worst traits persisted.</p><h2><b>Should Bears fans start panicking about Caleb Williams after Week 1 collapse?</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Caleb-Williams.jpg"><figcaption>Matt Marton-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>It may be too early to place all of the blame on Caleb Williams after Week 1.</p><p>Williams had a solid game on paper. He went 21-of-35 passing for 210 yards and a touchdown. Williams also <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap/_/gameId/401772810" rel="noopener">led the team in rushing</a> with six carries for 58 yards and a touchdown.</p><p>But he will admit that his execution could have been much better.</p><p>“It’s not a play-call thing, it’s not anything like that,” Williams said when asked about head coach Ben Johnson. “It’s just being able go out there and execute the plays that are called and be able to execute them at a high level. That’s something that we take pride in and today that didn’t happen.”</p><p>Perhaps more concerning is that Monday’s loss was a complete team effort. Yes Williams did not play well in the second half. But he was not alone in making mistakes.</p><p>The Bears short-circuited on multiple drives because of pre-snap penalties. Often false start penalties on offense. In total, the Bears committed 12 penalties for 127 yards.</p><p>That makes a huge difference, especially in a one-score game.</p><p>Bears fans should not solely blame Caleb Williams for Chicago’s Week 1 collapse. Chalk this one up to growing pains.</p><h2><b>Caleb Williams, Bears will be under a ton of pressure in Week 2</b></h2><p>Caleb needs to show that he can bounce back from Monday’s ugly loss. Especially because of the significance of Chicago’s next game.</p><p>Chicago travels to Detroit for another divisional matchup in Week 2.</p><p>Ben Johnson will want to beat his old team and prove his worth after losing in Week 1. And Bears fans will desperately want to win that game.</p><p>If Caleb struggles again in Week 2, he will be under the microscope like never before.</p><p>Bears fans should keep a close eye on how Williams responds in Week 2. If he is still struggling heading into Week 3, then you can start getting worried.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

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