Lions make point against Ben Johnson, Bears with 52-21 rout

DETROIT — Lions defensive back Brian Branch described Sunday’s divisional game against the Bears as “personal” given it was the first between the teams since Ben Johnson left Detroit to take over as Chicago’s coach.

“Very motivated. We knew coming into this game that this is personal,” Branch said. “Really, all these games personal, but this one we felt like we’d been betrayed from the staff to players. And we love Ben, we still love Ben. He’s a great coach. He’s a great mastermind but, yeah, it was time to get after him.”

And the Lions very much did.

As chants of “F— Ben Johnson!” echoed throughout Ford Field near the end of the fourth quarter, the Lions closed out a dominant 52-21 win a week after a lackluster season-opening effort in Green Bay.

It marked the third time the Lions (1-1) scored at least 50 points under coach Dan Campbell. Before Campbell’s arrival in 2021, Detroit had only three other instances of 50-plus scoring games, per ESPN Research.

Johnson was Detroit’s offensive coordinator for the past three seasons, with the team leading the NFL with 33.2 points per game in 2024. But he left for the NFC North rival Bears this past offseason.

Branch said he certainly respects his ex-coach but didn’t agree with where he chose to go.

“He could’ve went anywhere else, but he’s gotta see us again,” said Branch, who had six tackles, a sack and a forced fumble Sunday.

At one point, Detroit’s defense taunted Johnson. After a second-quarter interception by All-Pro safety Kerby Joseph, Lions players recreated Johnson’s famous “stumble bum” trick play that he used against Chicago last season as an in-game celebration.

On their seventh and final touchdown Sunday, which allowed them to surpass the 50-point threshold, the Lions had four straight run plays deep in Chicago territory. They then drew up a pass play on fourth-and-goal that resulted in a 4-yard touchdown throw from Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown and a celebration from Detroit’s sideline.

Asked about it after the game, Johnson said he didn’t feel that Campbell was trying to run up the score.

“What’s he supposed to do?” Johnson said. “It’s fourth-and-goal, what do you want him to do? Yeah, he could have kicked the field goal. They don’t kick field goals; they go for it there. He was doing what he’s supposed to do. That’s what he does.”

Lions quarterback Jared Goff, meanwhile, said he didn’t agree with how fans mocked Johnson in the home opener.

“Yeah, I didn’t like that. He did a lot for us here,” said Goff, who threw for five touchdowns and 334 passing yards while going 23-for-28. “I don’t know if he deserved that.”

Coupled with their Week 1 loss to the Vikings, the Bears are now one of 11 teams since division realignment in 2002 to start 0-2 with both losses in divisional games. None of the previous teams has gone on to make the playoffs.

“It’s not demoralizing at all,” Johnson said of Sunday’s defeat. “We got to play better. Simple as that.”

Detroit finished with 511 yards of total offense and averaged 8.8 yards per play. Campbell said he felt there was a heightened sense of urgency within the group throughout the week’s practices to clean up its mistakes after the Packers loss, while silencing any doubt about the changes in the organization.

“I made it as simple as, ‘Let’s just clean up the mess we had last week.’ It’s really not more than that,” Campbell said. “There’s always going to be this, ‘we don’t have the rhythm offensively because we lost Ben or we’re not as good because we lost AG (former defensive coordinator and current Jets coach Aaron Glenn), or this player leaves.’ Ultimately, it’s, ‘Do you have the coaches? Yes. Do you have the players? Yes.’ We just got to clean a few things up.”

Jameson Williams had two catches for 108 yards in the win, including a 44-yard touchdown. St. Brown had nine receptions for 115 yards and three TDs. He became the first Lions player with 100 receiving yards and three receiving scores in a game since Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson in 2010.

“It’s still early, it’s Week 2, no overreactions,” St. Brown told ESPN. “Like, ‘Oh, they scored 50, they’re back.’ We’ve still got to put the work in every week, and we’ve got a good team coming up in Baltimore, so that’s gonna be another good test.”

Ahead of his return to Ford Field, Johnson reminisced about his time with the Lions and his relationship with Campbell, whom he coached with in both Miami and Detroit. Johnson said he views Campbell as “family” and joked about their early years in the coaching profession “when I was just a young, snot-nosed computer punk as [Campbell] likes to call it in Miami.”

There weren’t many interactions between Johnson and his former colleagues until the moments immediately after Sunday’s game, when he exchanged pleasantries, including with Campbell.

“It’s always good to see Dan Campbell, but not when you are on the losing side like that,” Johnson said.