Chicago Bears’ Ben Johnson concerned with key aspect of offense against Rams

Originally posted on ChiCitySports | By Jordan Sigler | Last updated Jan 14, 2026 6:58 PM ET

The Chicago Bears relied on Caleb Williams to engineer 25 points in the fourth quarter to earn a 31-27 comeback win over the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night in the wild-card round.

The Bears offense had nothing going for it in the first half after the first drive of the game resulted in a field goal. The lack of a potent rushing attack was a problem against the Packers, much as it was against the Detroit Lions in a 19-16 loss in Week 18.

The Bears rushed for 65 yards on 18 carries in the regular season finale. Against the Packers on Saturday night, Chicago ran the ball 28 times for 93 yards and a touchdown.

The Bears want to clean that up before hosting the Los Angeles Rams in frigid conditions on Sunday night. As Zack Pearson of Bear Reported noted, the Rams had the No. 11 run defense in the regular season, allowing just over 109 rushing yards per contest.

Bears head coach Ben Johnson is concerned with the rushing attack this week, saying it has “dipped” in recent weeks.

“Yeah, it feels like it’s dipped a little bit,” Johnson said. Not something that we certainly want. Certainly, late in the season, we wanted that to pick up, playoffs, weather games like this, you certainly want to be able to lean on your run game. So those are some elements we’re looking at. What can we do to help ignite that?

“It’s both efficient runs to stay on track and ahead of the chains, and also explosive runs as well. Where can we find a few of those?”

The Chicago Bears need to run on the Rams

Nov 28, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Chicago Bears running back D’Andre Swift (4) carries the ball against the Philadelphia Eagles during the second quarter of the game at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Johnson credited the Rams defense for finding ways to stop the run.

“I’ll say this, we got a really tough opponent in that regard,” Johnson said. I think they do a really good job. I think the front is their strength. These guys at the line of scrimmage are really good football players. I think they shed blocks at an elite level. I think they are relentless. I think they’re violent, really, across the board.

“So I have a lot of respect for them, and we’re gonna have to be on our ‘A’ game to be able to run it on this crew.”

Adding to the Bears’ rushing troubles, starting tackle Ozzy Trapilo was placed on injured reserve this week after suffering a knee injury against Green Bay.

Without a threat from D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, Chicago would once again have to rely on its second-year quarterback to deliver the team to the NFC Championship.

This article first appeared on ChiCitySports and was syndicated with permission.

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