Every hero has a nemesis. Otherwise, what's the point of having the hero?
For Sherlock Holmes there was Moriarty, for Harry Potter there was He Who Must Not Be Named. And, in honor of next week's movie release, there is Superman and Lex Luthor. Or if you're going Marvel instead, then Dr. Doom to the Fantastic Four.
Everyone might think Ben Johnson's nemesis is Matt LaFleur, considering all of the attention the new Bears coach paid to the Packers coach this offseason.
"And to be quite frank with you, I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year," Johnson quipped when discussing why he stayed in the NFC North.
In a sense, LaFleur is his nemesis but he is only one of several and he hasn't exactly had much kryptonite to use against Johnson. There are coaches who have gotten the best of Johnson while he was Lions coordinator. He brings along this baggage to Chicago, along with his trick-play offense.
Here are the arch nemeses of Ben Johnson.
Dan Quinn
Sure, the Commanders' head coach beat Johnson's Lions in the playoffs at Ford Field last year but the Detroit offense didn't exactly struggle. Johnson managed coach 31 points out of Jared Goff and Co. in that one, it just wasn't enough to carry Detroit's badly crippled defense.
However, Quinn directed Dallas' defense against the Lions in 2023 and 2022 and definitely got he better of Johnson. So Quinn is 3-0 the last three years against Johnson.
On Dec. 30, 2023, the Cowboys gave up an 11-yard TD pass from Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown in the final seconds and a PAT kick would have tied it. Dan Campbell went for the win and the two-pointer failed, leaving Dallas with a 20-19 win in a game when they allowed the Lions 295 yards passing and 125 rushing.
A year earlier, Quinn's Cowboys dominated the Lions 24-6. They held Detroit to 195 yards passing and took the ball away five times.
That's not exactly the coach you want as an antagonist considering the Bears lost last year on a Hail Mary to Washington.
John Harbaugh
There's not much to go on here besides the 2023 Baltimore rout of the Lions. That's fairly substantial, though, because they hammered Detroit 38-6. The Lions had 337 yards against Baltimore, but six points was it as they were thoroughly trashed on both sides of the ball.
By the way, both the Ravens and Quinn's Commanders are on the Bears' schedule for this season.
Mike Macdonald
The Seahawks head coach wasn't the Seattle coach in 2023. He was Harbaugh's defensive coordinator who schemed up the plan that held the Lions to 253 passing yards while limiting them to 84 rushing yards.
Todd Bowles
There has been a good give and take here, with the Lions getting beat in Week 2 last season and Johnson's offense sufficiently kept out of the end zone. The Buccaneers won 20-16 and two turnovers helped the Buccaneers win despite 463 yards allowed. Johnson got his revenge with 31-23 playoff win to make the NFC championship game.
Bowles defense did a nice job in 2023 during the regular season, holding the Lions to 20, but Detroit's own defense rose up to shut down Sam Bradford and Co. 20-6.
Bill Belichick
This would be a phantom menace. The Bears don't have to worry about facing Belichick unless they find North Carolina on their schedule. If this happens, they have real problems. But Belichick's defense did the ultimate number on Johnson's offense in 2022, a 29-0 shutout victory when Detroit had 312 yards. What's even more worse is that same Patriots team that shut out Johnson's offense gave up a 33-14 win to the Bears two weeks later.
Matt Eberflus
Yes, that Matt Eberflus. How many other ones do you know?
Eberflus brings his Cowboys defense to Soldier Field in Week 3 this season and last year they held Goff and Co. to 23 Thanksgiving Day points going into the closing seconds. If only he figured out how to call a timeout as well as he schemed up a defense to stop Johnson.
In the previous season, Eberflus had the Lions held to 14 points with 4 1/2 minutes left and they managed to blow a 12-point lead in a 31-26 loss. The Bears gave Johnson the most convincing beating he's had against an NFC North opponent during the rematch that year, 28-13, with 267 yards of offense allowed. So yes, Eberflus knew how to beat Johnson. He just didn't know how that thing with the minutes and seconds on it works.
Matt LaFleur
OK, give LaFleur some credit. The Packers really did beat Johnson's Lions once, 29-22 in 2023, but Detroit's offense piled up 464 yards. They also turned it over three times, one week after the Bears had taken it away from Johnson's offense four times.
This was the only time Johnson lost to LaFleur but Detroit's defense had to win some of the other games against the Packers while Johnson's offense struggled. In 2022, Johnson's offense produced 20 and 15 points but the Lions won twice anyway, and they won 24-14 last year. The lowest yardage output Johnson's offense had in three years was 254 against the Packers in 2022's 15-9 Detroit win.
So while it's true Johnson might like beating LaFleur, it's been a lot tougher doing it than the Bears coach likes to mention.
