Sunday night’s Bucs-Bears matchup has a lot of moving parts, but the most compelling one is simple: Ben Johnson’s offense against Todd Bowles’ defense.
That’s the chess match that gives this game its edge. Bowles has already seen Johnson from the other sideline three times, though all of those meetings came back when Johnson was running the Lions’ offense rather than steering the Bears. Bowles is 1-2 in those games, and the lone win came in 2024, when Tampa Bay escaped with a 20-16 victory even though Detroit piled up 463 total yards to the Bucs’ 216.
Johnson’s path to this point has been anything but ordinary. His father, Don, was a high school principal at Idaho State and The Citadel, and Johnson himself was a walk-on backup quarterback at North Carolina behind Bucs pass game coordinator T.J.
Yates. From there, he worked five different jobs with the Dolphins before following Dan Campbell to Detroit.
The results with Jared Goff in Detroit and now Caleb Williams in Chicago have made him one of the league’s most interesting offensive minds.
Bowles knows exactly what he’s dealing with. “It’s a great offense,” he said of Johnson’s scheme.
“We saw it when we were in Detroit. He had a great offense there, he has a great offense now.
He does a lot of things with it. He slows the tempo, he speeds the tempo, different personnel groupings.
… He uses everybody in the offense. He keeps you honest."
Johnson, for his part, sees a defense built to disrupt everything. The Bucs rank second against the run, third in total defense, fifth in scoring defense and fourth in first downs allowed.
His description was blunt: “They’re chaos,” Johnson told reporters in Chicago leading up to Sunday night’s game. “I think that’s what stands out.
Whenever you play single high to the rate that (Bowles) does, it gives you an extra defender in the box. Schematically, it’s very challenging to run the ball.
And then when he gets you off schedule in third down, that’s where he draws up all those exotics. It’s a good mix of talent.”
That pressure lands on quarterbacks who can beat you in different ways, and both Caleb Williams and Baker Mayfield fit that mold. Williams can make plays both inside and outside structure, and Bowles made clear the Bucs have to stay disciplined snap after snap.
“He can throw in-schedule throws and off-schedule throws both very well, and he can make things happen out of the pocket and in the pocket,” Bowles said of Williams. “So we’ve got to be sound, all 11 guys. If one guy’s out of place, he’ll make you pay.”
That’s the kind of game this looks like: Bowles trying to force Williams into discomfort, Johnson looking for answers to the blitz, and whichever coach-quarterback combination handles the heat best likely walking away with the win. The setting only sharpens it. Soldier Field gets the prime-time stage, and the Bucs arrive with a defense that can make life miserable.
The secondary has become a major part of that story. Tampa Bay may have the best cornerback duo in the NFL in Zyon McCollum and Jacob Parrish, and the numbers keep backing that up.
McCollum has shut down some of the league’s top receivers, including Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Christian Watson, CeeDee Lamb, DK Metcalf, Tetairoa McMillan and Drake London. Parrish, meanwhile, leads the NFL with 13 passes defensed.
Both corners have two interceptions.
There was also plenty of attention on the field conditions at Raymond James Stadium after last Sunday’s game against the Falcons turned into a mess in heavy rain. Bobby Silvest of the Tampa Sports Authority said 4 inches of rain fell during the game. Aaron Rodgers had already called the surface “one of the worst surfaces in the league” and raised safety concerns, and last season the field received an F grade on the NFLPA’s player survey.
Bowles pushed back on the idea that Sunday’s conditions told the whole story. “It’s been the same since I’ve been here and I’ve been here eight years,” he said.
“USF played on it (the day before the Falcons game), and it rained that night, so you knew it was going to kind of be messed up the day of the game. It rained all day - it wasn’t light rain either, it was kind of a downpour, so (you) can’t judge it off that.
Both teams played on the same field.”
The good news, at least for what comes next, is that Silvest said the entire field will be replaced after the Ed Sheeran concert on Saturday night.
In Other News...
Buccaneers Secondary Looks Different Thanks To One Rookie Surprise
The Buccaneers secondary has gotten an unexpected lift from a rookie who has forced his way into the conversation early in his first NFL season. Keionte Scott has become a real part of Tampa Bays defensive rotation, piling up 39 tackles, a sack and five pressures while handling 63% of the defensive snaps, and his work has fit neatly into a unit that has helped push the Bucs into the leagues top three defenses.
For a team that has been trying to keep its back end steady, Scotts emergence matters because it gives Tampa Bay another young piece to build around alongside Zyon McCollum and Jacob Parrish. Todd Bowles has noticed the impact, and the bigger question now is how far Scott can keep climbing as the season goes on, especially with the Buccaneers looking for that secondary to stay one of the strengths of the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Todd Bowles Faces A Defining Test Against Chicago's Surging Offense
The Buccaneers are heading into a matchup that should tell plenty about where Todd Bowles defense stands right now. Tampa Bay has looked better on that side of the ball, but the next challenge comes against a Chicago offense that has been moving with real purpose and a quarterback in Caleb Williams who has found a strong rhythm of late.
For Bowles, the test is as much about adjustments as it is about execution. The Bears have been one of the leagues most productive units, and the coaching chess match with Ben Johnson adds another layer to a game that could force Tampa Bay to prove its defensive progress is real against a much sharper opponent. [Read more 🡒]
Bucs Suddenly Look Much Healthier For A Tough Bears Test
The Buccaneers head into their Week 9 matchup with the Bears in a far better spot physically than they did earlier in the week, with the final injury report pointing to a roster that is mostly intact for a tough road test. Emeka Egbuka is listed as questionable but was a full participant in practice, while the bigger concern on the defensive side is the absence of outside linebacker YaYa Diaby because of a knee injury.
Tristan Wirfs also returned to limited practice and is expected to be available, which matters for a Tampa Bay offense trying to keep its footing against a Chicago defense dealing with its own question marks. The Bears have a few players listed as questionable as well, including running back Kyle Monangai, defensive back Malik Muhammad and cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, so both teams enter Sunday with some uncertainty even if the Bucs are trending healthier overall. [Read more 🡒]