Ben Johnson and Bears starting to convince even the most skeptical

“The mission's always been to win and to win now," Johnson said. "I said that in my opening press conference and I've been consistent with that with the team. That's the end all, be all. That's what we're going out there to do."

With Johnson, honesty prevails. The truth sets you free.

Numerous attempts by so-called analysts have attempted to paint the Bears as pretenders for various reasons.

They beat Dallas. Oh, CeeDee Lamb got hurt. The Bears don't have their best defensive player,, but no excuses allowed there.

The Bears beat Washington. The ball must have been wet or Jayden Daniels wouldn't have fumbled. Apparently the Bears played with the dry ball all night?

The Bears beat the Raiders. Big deal, they had to block a field goal at the end to beat a losing team.

"I don't see this as a team in transition," Johnson said. "This is a team that this is the 2025 Chicago Bears, and we have a chance to put a stamp on what this chapter of Chicago Bears History is going to look like.”

History seems a bit dramatic but this is the way Johnson has been talking about the task at hand since he arrived. He's not getting ahead of himself by saying all of this in Year 1.

“It's always just process," Johnson said. "It's always process. I know this is a results-based league and we have to win games. I know that. But when we have our process right, with how we come into the building, throughout the week, how we're meeting, how we're walking through, how we're practicing, that's what gives us a chance on game day.

"It doesn't mean we're going to win on game day, but it means we're going to give ourselves a shot. So, I feel good about how we're improving in that department each week. It continues to get better. I'm seeing the fundamentals show up more in practice. We had a padded practice on Wednesday and I thought it was one of our better Wednesday practices that we’ve had all year long so far. And so these guys, they're getting it. They're hungry. The wins help in terms of wanting a little bit more because they haven't been pretty wins yet."

Johnson saw the Lions go from perennial losers to winners and made note of the mood, feelings and confidence running throughout that team when they advanced.

"I think when we really start to turn the corner here and when we know that we're on the right track, some of these wins, that feeling in the locker room's going to be, 'well shoot, it doesn't necessarily feel like a win because we didn't play as well as we're capable of,' " Johnson said. "Right now we're really excited because that feeling of winning is so important for us that it makes us want to come back for more.

"But there's going to be a point where it's going to be like, 'OK, well we have to play even better than this, than what we've been doing.’ They're starting to understand that the standard continues to rise, the expectation level continues to rise. I think good things are coming.”

Whether they come on Sunday in Baltimore against a 1-5 team that obviously knows how to win remains to be seen.

The Ravens are playing without Lamar Jackson, another convenient excuse to doubt the Bears. However, there are plenty of ways to win in the NFL. The Bears have been finding this out for four weeks. They won on a blocked kick, a field goal after a late fumble, a rout and last week by relying on their defense and running game.

If the next step they learn is how to put all of that together and dominate, then they'll match their longest win streak since 2012. They also won five straight in 2018.

Then again, if they just luck out against a backup quarterback who beat them in his first start four years ago, Tyler Huntley, it's just as good. As Johnson says, it's a week-to-week league.

If it happens, all of the convenient excuses for why they're not for real might stop, but don't count on it.