Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson drew notice this week for how he interacted — or failed to — with the Detroit Lions after Sunday’s lopsided defeat.

Detroit hammered their former offensive coordinator 52-21 on Sunday at Ford Field in Detroit, Mi. As they often did under Johnson, the Lions kept pressing late, even adding another touchdown on 4th and goal with 7:58 left, despite the game already being decided.

Clips surfaced on social media after the contest showing Johnson in the routine postgame handshake line. He gave a quick handshake to Lions coach Dan Campbell, then briefly acknowledged quarterback Jared Goff. After that, Johnson hurried off to the locker room, with neither he nor Detroit’s players appearing eager to trade greetings.

Some wondered if this suggested leftover resentment from Lions players about Johnson’s decision to depart and coach a divisional opponent. More likely, Johnson had no interest in chatting with his old team after a 31-point defeat. Besides the optics, his frustration was clear, shown by a tense exchange he had during his postgame media session.

J ohnson had been credited with much of Detroit’s offensive creativity after taking over as coordinator in 2022. On the other hand, the Lions grew weary of constant mentions of that before the matchup. Whether or not bad blood exists, both sides had clear motivation to keep their distance after this one.