Ben Johnson Likes His Ball Hog Bears But Points Are the Real Goal

The Bears are the NFL's accidental ball-control leaders.

At least this is what coach Ben Johnson contends.

It's not something Johnson necessarily sought and he's not even a big proponent of the possession game. This is the coach who loves big plays and got plenty of them on Thursday night in the 30-24 win over New England. But he also got the same thing he's been getting all season long, and that's ball control with time of possession.

“I do think that's played a part in some of these games so far," Johnson said. "I've never been one for the time of possession stat. I don't know that that really equates to winning and losing necessarily and yet, when you look up, we are possessing the ball more than our opponent more often than not."

They did it in every game except the loss to Green Bay. Even in that blowout loss using quarterbacks Tyson Bagent and Case Keenum for injured Caleb Williams, and with five turnovers, they still finished only minus-24 seconds in TOP.

"I do think it takes something off the defense," Johnson said. "I'm certainly conscious of how much it adds to the offense, as well, because they feel it. There's some lingering effects to that when that play count gets up."

Just because the offense has the ball doesn't mean it's the other team being worn out. The Bears offensive linemen can get worn down from being on the field for so long. Wide receivers can, as well. They normally rotate running backs anyway but in cases like the Jets game, a week before they played Green Bay, they monitoring snaps becomes necessary.

"We need to maintain an equal share of the load with all of our skilled players certainly but be conscious of it with our offensive line as well over the course of the week because it's a long season as we all know," Johnson added.

Is this all necessarily good for Bears?

Whether this is necessarily the right path is debatable, even if it is a byproduct of taking what defenses give instead of the actual game plan. Also, it must be pointed out the Bears are leading in TOP despite operating without injured running back Kyle Monangai for three games. He is their ball-possession back, while D'Andre Swift is the breakaway threat.

Seven of the top 10 teams in TOP made the playoffs the last three seasons. The Bears last year were eighth at 30:53 per game. They were third in 2023 and didn't make it with a 7-10 record because, in addition to having possession time, they didn't score enough and allowed too many points.

It doesn't mean a Super Bowl for teams. The Eagles did lead in 2024 when they won the Lombardi Trophy, but that was with an asterisk. It didn't include overtime games. If you included OT, they didn't lead. The last time a Super Bowl champion led in time of possession overall it was also the Eagles, in 2017.

"I would rather have a one play drive for a touchdown than a 10-play drive for a touchdown," Johnson said. "The ability to stay efficient, stay on schedule, I do think that's something that good offenses show that they can do. I'm proud of the fact that right now we're not playing very clean football, very disciplined football from a penalty standpoint there's too many pre-snap penalties and there's too many holding penalties right now for us, but despite those, our guys still find a way to get back on track and overcome.

"I've been a part of teams where you get one penalty and that just derails the whole drive and that's it. That's not what's happening to us right now. I look forward to the day that we clean those up and see what that looks like.”

Although Johnson strives for big plays, the possession time follows him mainly because of his emphasis on the running game. His Lions offenses were third in 2024 and fifth in 2023 in TOP. They were 13th in his first season, 2022. They didn't make the playoffs in 2022 but did in 2023 and 2024.

What Johnson would rather have is like what they had on Thursday night. They had eight pass plays of 21 yards or longer to two by New England, and still owned the possession time edge 32:24 to 27:36.

Bears time of possession

• Bears 34:03, Panthers 25:57 (W)

• Bears 32:41, Vikings 27:19 (L)

• Bears 36:53, Eagles 23:07 (W)

• Bears 42:45, Titans 17:15 (W)

• Bears 29:36, Packers 30:24 (L)

• Bears 40:08, Falcons 19:52 (W)

• Bears 32:04, Patriots 27:36 (W)