What If Ben Johnson’s Bears Beat the Eagles on MNF with Case Keenum at QB???

Ben Johnson has no idea who his quarterback will be for Monday Night Football. Rich has a pretty good guess, and a theory about what happens if it works.

Asked about the situation, the Bears head coach sounded perfectly calm. "We're fortunate here. We've got three guys that that can play ball in this league, that have won games in this league," Johnson said. The room was constructed so they feel good about whoever ends up playing, he added, and it showed in the preseason and in practice. "Not sure who the starter's going to be on Sunday. Or Monday night, we'll let this thing play out."

The crew's translation was less diplomatic. One quarterback is concussed and in the protocol. One probably can't run. And the other is Case Keenum, who, as Rich put it, can back up a trailer, at least the last time he saw him on TV.

Then Rich got to the stat that frames the whole week. Jared Goff answered every bell for Johnson, and Caleb Williams answered every bell until now. So this is going to be the first time Johnson, as a head coach or an offensive coordinator, sends out a quarterback who was not a first overall pick.

That, Rich said, sets up a very specific narrative. Ben just needs the most talented guy. His scheme doesn't matter. He's just rolling the football out. Rich asked if that is what people always say about a coach in Chicago who is one of the best, and the crew went straight to Phil, with all those rings. "He needs only the best. Without the best, he's nothing."

"That's already set up," Rich said. "There's a regression candidate number one for week number three, it's Ben Johnson."

The opponent does not help. The Eagles have been waiting to return the favor for last year's Friday after Thanksgiving game, which Rich called "such a punking by the Bears in Philadelphia." Philly fans will not care whether it is Keenum, Tyson Bagent, or Caleb Williams "with half a leg of a hamstring on him." As Rich put it, "It's not going to be easy. You're not going to be in a rocking chair. You never are. Ever."

Rich also mentioned the pushback he got from last week's direct-to-camera piece where he played Jalen Hurts' anger translator. His point then was that nobody seemed happy with the Eagles even though they won. He is fine with Eagles fans being happy, he said, and they should be, at 2-0. But if the Eagles struggle to put up points in Chicago against a Case Keenum-led Bears team, "it's going to be great."

His prediction is that it will be Keenum. It is tough to get out of the protocol, and Rich doesn't care that people are making fun of Caleb Williams for acting like his season was over when he might be back by October. "Who cares?"

Which brings him to the other side of the regression narrative. "Ben Johnson beats the Eagles with Case Keenum. He's back as a coach of the year again."

And if that happens on the same week the Lions lose to the Jets? The crew already knew what comes next. "Get ready, Detroit fans," one of them said. You're already hearing it: it's all Ben Johnson the whole time.