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Ben Johnson slammed for his poor late-game decision in Bears’ Week 1 loss

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Renzo Pocholo Salao | Last updated Sep 9, 2025 8:42 AM ET

Ben Johnson is already under fire just one game into his Chicago Bears coaching tenure.

The Bears head coach made a fairly questionable call late in his team’s Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill. The Bears kept their hopes alive late with a touchdown at the 2:02 mark of the fourth quarter to trim their deficit to 27-24.

The Bears’ fatal mistake came on kicker Cairo Santos’ ensuing kickoff. Santos kicked the ball into the hands of Vikings return specialist Ty Chandler, who was waiting in the end zone.

Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was seen signaling Chandler to take the ball out of the end zone rather than kneel for a touchback. The move ate up some clock and allowed Minnesota to take the game to the two-minute warning.

KOC telling Ty Chandler to take the ball out, so that the #Bears didn’t have the 2 minute warning on their side.

There’s a reason why he was the coach of the year. pic.twitter.com/SWy97MHP0U
— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) September 9, 2025

Chicago had just one timeout remaining at that point. Several fans questioned why Johnson didn’t have Santos kick the ball out of bounds for a 5-yard penalty instead.

Bears should have kicked the ball out of bounds there and took the penalty.
— Joey Knish (@JoeyKnish22) September 9, 2025

Bears not kicking it out bounds was a mistake. Who cares if they get the ball at the 40 If they get a first down the game is over anyway. These coaches need to hire someone off twitter.
— Raheem Palmer (@iamrahstradamus) September 9, 2025

I dont understand that decision to kick off there with just 1 timeout left. If you're going to kickoff, kick it out of bounds.

OR try the onside.

Makes ZERO sense. #Bears
— Zack Pearson (@Zack_Pearson) September 9, 2025

The #Bears not kicking that ball out of bounds is the perfect summation of a second half where they simply were not interested in winning.
— Conor Forrest (@conorforrest_) September 9, 2025

While the Vikings would have had better field position in such a scenario, the Bears would have benefited more from stopping the clock and forcing Minnesota to start its drive before the two-minute warning.

The Bears were able to get the three-and-out that they needed. However, Chicago had just 16 seconds to score, which was not enough to prevent the Vikings’ JJ McCarthy-fueled fourth-quarter comeback.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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