Should Bears fans be worried about Ben Johnson's practice habits?

On Wednesday, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson had a message for his team: You play like you practice.

The Bears — who went 5-12 in 2024 — may be amid another lost season after a slow start. Chicago is 0-2 following losses to the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions. Johnson blames the early struggles on the team's practice habits.

Johnson says Bears' practice habits leave much to be desired

"I think our practice habits are yet to reflect a championship-caliber team," Johnson told the media. He then listed the practice habits of a championship-caliber squad.

"We should be going to the football, finishing hard," he said. "We talk about it all the time with the offensive players that our fundamentals, our finish, and our technique, they need to show up in the walk-through, they need to show up on the practice field. That's how it shows up on game day. Simple things of how do we properly block? How do we catch the ball? How do we block after the catch? Ball security and things like that. It's the little things that you learn in youth league football that even at this level, they make a huge difference."

If Johnson's players can't remember what they learned in pee-wee football, then the Bears are doomed.

Things aren't getting any easier for Chicago

The Bears are in the NFC North, perhaps the deepest division in the NFL. It features the Lions (1-1), Vikings (1-1) and the Green Bay Packers (2-0), all of whom made the playoffs last season. Green Bay looks like a legit Super Bowl contender after dominating Detroit and the Washington Commanders (1-1) in Weeks 1 and 2.

The divisional matchups won't present the only challenges for the Bears. According to Tankathon, they have the league's seventh-most-difficult remaining schedule. Surely, these teams have better practice habits than Chicago does. 

The Bears' inability to practice correctly says a lot about the team and its trajectory this season. Don't be surprised if it continues to plummet. On Sunday, Chicago hosts the Dallas Cowboys (1-1) at 4:25 p.m. ET (Fox). As of Wednesday, ESPN Bet lists Dallas as a 1.5-point favorite.