Lions Roar, Bears Stumble
September 15, 2025
It was the Ben Johnson homecoming that many fans from Michigan had circled for quite a while on their calendars. Of course, the new head coach of the Bears had been the architect of the Lion offense for the past few seasons and had built close relationships with nearly all of the staff and players as the team grew to have success and make the post season.
If you’re already aware of the score then this might not be interesting to you, but it wasn’t a total blowout the whole way. The game was intriguing early on and was only a two touchdown difference heading into half. Caleb Williams wasn’t phenomenal by any means but he was feeding Rome Odunze to the tune of 7 for 128 and 2 touchdowns while keeping his team in this game. The Bears offense will very clearly be held back until one of their rookie playmakers can start contributing more consistently. They invested so much into Loveland and Burden III, being able to use one of those as a reliable target next to Odunze and Moore would open up their offense so much more.
Okay, okay, it very much became a blow out in the second half. Chicago just doesn’t have what it takes to keep up with a team in a Super Bowl window like Detroit. In only week 2 of year 1 for the Johnson regime, that’s pretty understandable. Much had been said from the Lions side of things about this matchup. When Amon-Ra St. Brown was asked if the team was a little more fire up, he responded with:
“I think so, I think so, I think a lot, especially the offense, we were fired up. Ben, what he did for us, I mean we’ll never take that for granted. He was a big part of what we did here. But just him being over there, we wanted to show that we can still — us as players, we can still make it happen. We’ve got a great group of guys, a great group of coaches. So, we wanted to go out there and put on a little show.”
St. Brown erupted for 9 grabs,115 yards and 3 touchdowns. Jared Goff would throw for 5 touchdowns while Sonic and Knuckles would combine for nearly 150 yards on the ground. About half way through the fourth quarter, Detroit had their backups in and ran the clock out.
It certainly wasn’t the return that Ben Johnson had hoped for but it was the statement win that Detroit needed after falling to Green Bay in week 1. The season is still fresh and hope is still there for everyone, but if you’re the 0-2 Bears, you’re going to need to get this straightened out before it gets any worse.
Keith, Author
Keith runs youth flag football leagues by day, and by night he hosts the podcast and writes articles with the confidence of a man who’s been rushing quarterbacks since dial-up. A longtime flag football DE and lifelong Falcons fan, he’s no stranger to heartbreak and enjoys watching the bears get slaughtered each week. Equal parts coach, critic, and chaos, Keith calls it like he sees it… even if it hurts.
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