Many Detroit Lions fans were all doom-and-gloom following an ugly Week 1 loss to the Green Bay Packers, with many already lamenting the departure of former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to the Chicago Bears.
If not for a late touchdown to Isaac TeSlaa, the Lions would have been held out of the end zone entirely in Week 1 versus the Packers, which led to plenty of flak for new offensive coordinator John Morton. New defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard wasn't immune to criticism, either.
As some Lions fans yearn for Johnson back and question the hiring of Morton, they might be comforted to know that he had a rough go of it in his head-coaching debut in Chicago.
The Bears started off the game red hot, with Caleb Williams marching the offense down the field on the opening drive for a touchdown. The Bears then added a field goal on their next series and looked to be cruising after a pick-six in the third quarter put them up 17-6.
And then the wheels came off. The offense completely stalled, Williams was sailing passes left and right, and the Minnesota Vikings saw a complete 180 from J.J. McCarthy en route to a 27-24 comeback victory over Chicago.
Johnson also experienced his first major head-coaching blunder.
With 2:02 remaining and the Bears having just one timeout, Chicago needed to either onside kick it or kick the ball out of bounds or through the back of the end zone to prevent time ticking off the clock and losing the two-minute stoppage.
Instead, kicker Cairo Santos failed to get it through the back of the end zone, which allowed running back Ty Chandler to take it out and run the clock down under two minutes, wiping out the free timeout for Chicago.
All Johnson had to do was tell his kicker to boot it out of bounds, but clearly he did not take that approach and was widely criticized for it.
The Bears did end up getting the ball back, but with only nine seconds left and at their own 20. That wasn't even close to enough time for Williams to drive it down the field and tie or win the game, leaving Johnson at 0-1.
Nobody is going to say that Johnson is a total failure after one game, no matter how ugly it was. And the same logic should be applied to the Lions' new coordinators and the team as a whole following a brutal start to 2025.
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