It's a tale as old as overtime.
There's a dramatic difference between being a coordinator and being a head coach. Some coordinators thrive at the next rung on the ladder. Others become real-life examples of the satirical Peter Principle, which stands for the notion that many organizational employees keep being promoted until they land in a job that they can't effectively perform.
The jury remains out on whether Bears coach Ben Johnson will step up, or step off, in his promotion from offensive coordinator to head coach. In only one game, however, he (along with the rest of us) have witnessed the stark differences between sitting in the football lab and cooking up unstoppable plays and game plans and standing exposed in the spotlight as the man in charge of the entire team.
Last year in Detroit, it wasn't his job to decide how to handle a critical late-game kickoff. Last Monday, Johnson made the wrong decision with 2:02 on the clock, telling his kicker to try to bang the ball out of the end zone (surrendering the 35) in lieu of deliberately kicking it short of the landing zone or out of bounds (and giving up only five more yards of territory).
He needed the two-minute warning to hit after Minnesota's first-down play far more than he needed the five yards. And he should have known that.
Last year in Detroit, it also wasn't his job to face the music after a multi-score lead went sideways. To explain himself after making a tactical error. To refrain from pulling a "stop asking" like Brandon Staley in 2023 when someone brought up the fateful, and failed, kickoff strategy on Friday.
When a reporter pivoted back to the subject, Johnson mistakenly shared his quiet thoughts out loud: "I mean can we go on to the next game?"
That's not how it works. And he needs to figure out how it works. Or he's going to realize (along with the rest of us) that he no longer has the safety blanket of Dan Campbell. That he no longer can be regarded as the next big thing, while focusing solely on aspects of the game that he had thoroughly mastered.
He's now front and center. And he'll need to develop, and to hone, skills he never before had to use.
We've seen this movie before. Many times. It either has a very good ending, or it has a very bad ending.
So far, the opening act has been less than ideal. The second scene comes today, when he goes back to Detroit and matches wits directly with Dan Campbell.