Courtney Cronin
Rob Demovsky
Rob Demovsky
ESPN Staff Writer
Rob Demovsky is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Green Bay Packers. He has covered the Packers since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2013. Demovsky is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the NSSA.
When the Chicago Bears hired Ben Johnson 11 months ago, the first-time head coach had already been exposed to NFC North rivalries from six seasons as a Detroit Lions assistant coach. He understood the division’s intensity and how words can serve to motivate, as well as to agitate.
“I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for the coaches and the players in this [division],” Johnson said at his introductory news conference in January. “I’ve been competing against them for the last six years.”
He complimented a couple of the coaches, and if he would have left it at that, few would have remembered what he said that day.
But he wasn’t done.
“And to be quite frank with you, I kind of enjoyed beating [Green Bay Packers coach] Matt LaFleur twice a year,” he added.
It wasn’t the first time a Bears coach has targeted the Packers upon being hired. In fact, it has become a tradition. But Johnson took it a step further by targeting their coach.
The Bears are 1-11 in their past 12 games against the Packers. An 11-game losing streak was snapped in Week 18 last season. The Bears haven’t beaten Green Bay in consecutive games since 2007.
So at the time, Johnson’s words might have seemed like nothing more than bluster. But the Bears have responded to Johnson’s coaching and bravado, and they take a 9-3 record and the NFC’s No. 1 seed into Lambeau Field against the 8-3 Packers. It’s the first regular-season matchup in which both teams faced each other five-plus games over .500 since Week 13 of 2001, per ESPN Research.
“Eventually, someone’s gotta draw a line in the sand and say, ‘this is not acceptable anymore,'” said former Bears guard Tom Thayer, who was on the 1985 Super Bowl champs when the rivalry was one of the best in the NFL. “For that to come out of the head coach, it was probably just the initiation of confidence that he had in himself that we’re all learning about now.”
The NFL will learn a lot about where the Bears and Packers stand after their Week 14 meeting Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, Fox). It’s the first of two games between the teams in 13 days and goes a long way in determining the division winner and the playoff viability of both teams.
A win against Green Bay would give the Bears a 64% chance to win the division whereas a loss would drop their chances to 22%. A win would give the Packers a 71% chance to finish the season with the NFC North crown and only a 27% chance with a loss.
If the Bears are going to back up Johnson’s words Sunday, they’ll do so as underdogs. DraftKings favors the Packers by 6.5.
Here’s how Johnson’s quote was received by both teams, at least publicly, and what it might do for the rivalry.
‘He said it for a reason’
Bears quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett was a Detroit assistant as the Lions compiled a 5-1 record against Green Bay during the three seasons — 2022-24 — with Johnson as offensive coordinator. The way he reacted to Johnson’s comments was simple: “We gotta have his back.”
He was unaware of any sort of rivalry between Johnson and LaFleur. The two had never coached on the same staff nor knew each other beyond the context of being in the NFL coaching fraternity.
“I have no clue if there was any previous beef going on there,” Barrett said. “I think [Johnson] was just talking his s—, which is great.”
Those who know Johnson’s competitive fire view it as a playful barb.
“[That’s just] Ben being Ben,” Bears wide receivers coach Antwan Randle El said. “He wants to win.”
Bears wide receiver DJ Moore sat in the front row that day in January and listened closely to his new head coach. He didn’t think the comments were random.
“He said it for a reason,” Moore said. “So we can go out there and have a hell of a game. He really wants to beat them.”
If Johnson wanted to express the level of confidence he has in his new team, it worked.
“We loved that,” defensive end Austin Booker said. “That’s a head coach that we all love playing for. He has a great mindset, just like us. A killer mindset just like us. That’s something we respect. We play even harder for a head coach like that.”
‘They’re words … you’ve got put them into action’
Johnson isn’t the first Bears coach to stoke the rivalry upon getting the job. At Lovie Smith’s introductory news conference in January 2004, he dropped this: “The No. 1 goal is to beat Green Bay.”
This one, however, became more personal when Johnson made it about him against LaFleur.
And Johnson seemed to know exactly what he was doing because after he uttered the words, “And to be quite frank with you,” he scanned the room, paused, stuck out his lower jaw and let a smile come out before he continued, “I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year,” and then appeared to bite his lower lip.
The comment came as more of a surprise to LaFleur than anything else in large part because the two don’t know each other.
The first time LaFleur had a chance to publicly respond to Johnson’s comment came at the NFL annual meeting this spring in Palm Beach, Florida.
When asked if he knows Johnson, LaFleur said: “I do not.”
“I’m sure he’s playing to the fans a little bit,” LaFleur added. “It is what it is. I’m not going to lose too much sleep over that.”
Later, when a reporter for a Chicago television station asked LaFleur what Johnson’s arrival in Chicago does for the balance of power in the NFC North, LaFleur said: “Yeah, well we’re about to find out, right? I think he’s a guy, he’s obviously a very good football coach, so we’ll see how he does.”
That wasn’t the last word, however, from LaFleur. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on location during the draft in Green Bay, LaFleur was asked about the NFC North.
“We got a great division,” LaFleur said. “You can’t discredit what the teams have done, and I think Chicago’s done a nice job of adding to their roster, and you get a good football coach, as he said himself, in Ben Johnson.”
McAfee and his panel cracked up.
“No, I do respect Ben,” McAfee added. “He’s one of the best playcallers in the game.”
When asked this week if he’s thought about Johnson’s comments, LaFleur said: “Not really, no.”
It might have gotten more play around Lambeau Field in advance of the first meeting between the Bears and Packers had it been, say, the season opener. But 11 months later it did not carry much weight in the locker room.
If anything, it got better responses from members of LaFleur’s coaching staff.
1:43
Schrager: Bears’ HC Johnson is a culture setter
Peter Schrager explains how head coach Ben Johnson has reshaped the Bears’ culture.
“You take it personal, for sure,” Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “I’ll just leave it at that.”
Given that Johnson called the offensive plays for the Lions, he might have been talking about beating Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley more than LaFleur.
“I don’t think too much into it,” Hafley said. “Introductory press conferences, at times you’re trying to win the press conference, at times things come out maybe one way or the other, but I don’t look into that stuff very much, honestly.
“I’ll leave that between those two and we’ll figure it out on Sunday.”
Quarterback Jordan Love said there was no rallying cry to win one for their coach this week.
“No, we’re not worried about those things that are said,” Love said. “It’s another game, obviously. [The] Bears matchup, we’re always trying to win that game.”
Packers receiver Jayden Reed, a Chicago native, shrugged it off.
“They’re words, man,” Reed said. “Just words. People can say whatever they like. You’ve got to put them into action.”
Rivalry renewed?
Before Brett Favre became the Packers’ starting quarterback in 1992, the Bears were 23 games over .500 in the all-time series, including playoffs. The Packers have since gone 51-16, counting playoffs, including a loss in Favre’s first start against Chicago.
The series got so lopsided during Aaron Rodgers’ tenure that during the 2021 game at Soldier Field, Rodgers uttered the infamous, “I still own you” line to Bears fans.
LaFleur had his own dominance. He took an 11-0 record against them as Packers coach into last year’s regular-season finale, when he finally lost to the Bears.
“You can never take it for granted, that’s for sure,” LaFleur said this week. “In the most critical moments, you gotta be at your best. Unfortunately, a year ago, myself, we weren’t at our best.”
This version of the Packers claim the Bears have their attention.
None of the Packers’ stars tried to play this matchup off as “just another game.”
Instead, they embraced it.
“Honestly, my personal belief is you have to,” Packers receiver Christian Watson said. “All of our goals is to come out here and play in big-time games, and there’s a lot on the line in a game like this, so it’s best to approach it like it’s a big-time game.”
