Ben Johnson’s ‘clean it up’ promise gives Bears fans déjà vu: Telander

Chicago Sports Tonight: Breaking down the Bears lackluster loss at Baltimore

Jim Miller joined Lou on CST to discuss what Caleb Williams needs to fix, Jims belief that Williams will improve and the issues continuing to plague the Bears offense.

CHICAGO - "We’re going to get this thing cleaned up," Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson said after the team's 30-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Encouraging words, right?

I recall hearing the same thing from Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, over and over, during his close-but-ultimately-failed reign as quarterback from 2009 to 2017.

After losses, Cutler would say something about "cleaning up" whatever had gone wrong, with the assumption being matters would be sparkling pure by the next game.

"We’ll clean that up," Cutler would say of things like red zone failure, interceptions, running game collapse. It brought to mind a high-level car wash or elite hotel maid service after a trashed-out bachelor party in Vegas.

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The thing was, stuff didn’t always get cleaned up.

The Bears made one post-season appearance in Cutler’s nine years with the Bears, ending with Cutler injured in the 2010 NFC Championship game, blank-faced and mute, with backup Caleb Hanie learning the NFL was not going to be his long-term career.

Why didn’t things get cleaned up back then? And why is it troubling to hear they’ll get cleaned up now? Because there is a fundamental problem with anything you do on offense or defense in football, since there is always a counter move on the other side of the ball. It’s like cleaning against cleaning. You fix your side; your next opponent—who studies your film and schemes and tendencies—fixes theirs.

"Obviously, we’ve got some things we need to clean up," Jay Cutler said precisely 15 years ago, during a bye week, after a loss to the then-Redskins. "We’re aware of that, and we’re going to address them this week."

The Bears did win seven of their next eight games, cleanly, before losing the finale to the Packers. They won their first playoff game, and then the Packers came down to Soldier Field two weeks later for the NFC Championship game, and suddenly all was dirty again. Cutler finished with a 31.8 passer rating after completing just six of 14 passes for 80 yards and an interception. The Packers went to the Super Bowl. The Bears went home.

The Bears wouldn’t make the playoffs for another eight years, with Mitch Trubisky as quarterback, promptly losing the 2018 wild card game to the Eagles.

At any rate, I wonder about cleaning up things. If you’re still trying to sanitize penalties, for instance, seven games into the season—the Bears are third worst in the NFL in yards lost to penalty—maybe it’s something other than furniture that needs moving. Maybe it’s a lack of talent.

Lining up too far back or jumping offside or not being close enough to the line can be ways to try to get an advantage. Pass interference penalties result from the chicken-fighting between defensive backs and receivers and often can be a sign that a DB is overmatched.

So can a quarterback’s grasp of the game and his vision afield and comprehension of details be ``cleaned up’’? Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, preparing for his 25th straight start, has been on a downward spiral recently. No touchdowns and two interceptions in his last two games. Red zone stalling. A pair of intentional grounding calls against the Ravens. Uncertainty about when to scramble. Picking the wrong target. Overthrows. Underthrows.

That’s the fear—that Williams, admittedly still young, is not a great quarterback, will never be one, and may not even be the best in his class. Bo Nix, Jayden Daniels, Drake May, Michael Penix Jr., and J.J. McCarthy were all drafted after Williams in 2024. They’ll haunt him for years.

Great quarterbacks must have a spark, but they also develop over time. Seemingly declining guys like the Dolphins Tua Tagovailoa and the Texans C.J. Stroud were quite good on Sunday. Seeming Cowboys superstar-in-the-making Dak Prescott was lousy. Maybe a rookie like the Giant’s Jaxson Dart is a coming supernova. It’s all hard to read.

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The Bears play the Bengals next, and their 100-year-old quarterback, Joe Flacco (actually 40), has thrown for 784 yards, five TDs and no interceptions in his last three games. Where did that come from?

The Bears have two former high-pick quarterbacks, Trubisky and Justin Fields, deemed failures, now on other teams. Two points separate the Bears from being 2-5 this season, not 4-3.

Man, it would be nice to see Williams prove he understands it all and take the leap to greatness. The Bears have lived with failure long enough.

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Want more? Read some of Rick Telander’s recent columns for Fox 32:

The Source: This article was written by Rick Telander, a contributing sports columnist for FOX 32 Chicago.

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