Ben Johnson Blames Bears' 9-3 Loss on 3 Red-Zone Failures and Penalties
Updated
Updated · ChicagoBears.com · Sep 22
Ben Johnson Blames Bears' 9-3 Loss on 3 Red-Zone Failures and Penalties
3 articles · Updated · ChicagoBears.com · Sep 22
Summary
Three empty second-half trips inside the Vikings' 12 defined Chicago's 9-3 loss, Ben Johnson said, including drives to the 1 and 5 and a final possession that reached the 12 with 10 seconds left.
Johnson said poor execution and self-inflicted mistakes drove the collapse: the Bears got zero points from those chances, and Tyson Bagent's last three end-zone plays ended with two incompletions and a sack.
Seven first-half offensive penalties and just 27 rushing yards on 12 carries by running backs repeatedly left Chicago in third-and-13, third-and-12 and third-and-29 against a Minnesota defense built to exploit long-yardage situations.
Special teams compounded the problem when Isaiah Rodgers blocked Cairo Santos' 23-yard field-goal attempt after nearly getting a hand on a 50-yarder earlier, with Johnson calling the kicking operation unclean and in urgent need of correction.