The Chicago Bears’ Monday night game against the Minnesota Vikings quickly turned into a Bears Monday Night Football meltdown. It looked like a storybook debut for new head coach Ben Johnson. His team held a comfortable double digit lead in the fourth quarter. Then everything unraveled during this unexpected Bears Monday Night Football meltdown.
According to CBS Sports, Johnson became just the second coach in the last ten years to lose his head coaching debut. He lost after leading by 10 or more in the fourth quarter. The only other coach to suffer the same fate was Matt Nagy back in 2018.
The moment quickly went viral, picked up by Threads. Fans called it the latest chapter in Chicago’s long book of collapses.
Fans React With Humor and Pain
The Reddit thread on the Bears Monday Night Football meltdown gathered more than 5,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments.
One Bears fan, u/yoosername456, tried to stay optimistic: “Jokes on you that means 12-5 season incoming ending in… oh god no wait.”
Another fan, u/braddeus, took a jab at Johnson’s style: “My slightly awkward young offensive genius playcaller would never have led in the fourth quarter to begin with.”
Some brought up the Bears’ infamous kicking woes. u/Constant_Chip_1508 joked: “I have full confidence that Santos would triple deink a field goal attempt.”
An Old Nightmare for Bears Fans
This collapse felt like déjà vu for Chicago. The Bears’ struggles under Nagy and later Matt Eberflus left scars. Fans are still haunted by past failures. Wisconsin Sports Heroics even compared the loss to old nightmares against the Green Bay Packers. It was a time when momentum disappeared in the fourth quarter during yet another Monday Night Football meltdown involving the Bears.
Meanwhile, TSN asked the question Bears fans fear most: Is this the start of another long, painful Bears Monday Night Football meltdown season?
Where Do They Go From Here?
For Johnson, this was only one game, but history has not been kind to coaches who start this way. The company he joined with Nagy is a name still cursed in Chicago.
The Bears will have chances to bounce back. However, in a city defined by its football loyalty and heartbreak, patience is always thin. As one fan in the Reddit thread summed it up: “The culture was supposed to change. But here we are again.”
