Ben Johnson gained valuable insight while coaching in four playoff games over the previous two seasons as Lions offensive coordinator.
"When the stakes are higher, you've got to focus on the little things a little bit more," the Bears coach told reporters Monday via Zoom. "And so catching the football when it comes your way, making sure you're tucking it properly, making sure we play with good pad level, making sure we're tackling well in space, all of those things that aren't necessarily the most fun to talk about to the casual observer, those tend to get highlighted even more in the playoffs."
When Bears players return to Halas Hall Tuesday to begin preparing for Saturday night's NFC wild card showdown with the Packers at Soldier Field, they will review Sunday's 19-16 loss to the Lions before rapidly moving on to Green Bay.
Despite falling to Detroit, the NFC North champion Bears (11-6) secured the No. 2 seed with Philadelphia's 24-17 home loss to Washington. Had the Eagles won, the Bears would have been the No. 3 seed and hosted the 49ers in the wild card round.
"We'll make our corrections, and we'll quickly turn the page," Johnson said. "We don't have to sulk on what happened [Sunday], and they understand that. We talked about that at the end of the game. I think we're going to be good turning the page, but the things that need to be cleaned up, we're going to clean up."
Throughout his first season as coach, Johnson has been honest when assessing the Bears' performance.
"The role of the head coach is not to be a cheerleader," Johnson said Monday. "It's to say it like it is. If something pops up and I feel like it needs to be said, then I say it. If I don't, then we keep it moving.
"We've got a great group of guys. We've got a prideful group. We've earned a division title. We've earned the No. 2 seed in the NFC. Those are things that we're certainly proud about, and at the same time, the season's not over. It's just starting for us, and our guys understand that. We can play better than what we played at the end of the season and that's really our expectation going forward."
Johnson believes that the offense is close to reverting to the unit that helped the Bears average 27.8 points in the six games that preceded their loss to the Lions.
"We're not far away; you never are in this league," Johnson said. "You're really close and so we've just got to clean up some of the mental errors we had. I think in the first 11 plays we counted six mentals as an offense. When you're facing a good team, you can't do that. And so we'll clean that up. We'll be a lot sharper here going forward, and so we're going to be OK. But when you have eight possessions and three of them are three-and-outs, it's just not a recipe for good football."
The Bears defense also is focused on improving. On Sunday, the Lions scored on their first three possessions and compiled 237 yards and 15 first downs in the first half in taking a 13-0 halftime lead.
"We have a number of areas where we can play better," Johnson said. "But at the same time, I mean the No. 1 thing is we're looking to limit the opponent with their points. You left that game with a good offense and they only scored 19 points, 16 up until the last 2 minutes of the game there. So I thought our defense played well enough for us to win that ballgame."
