Ben Johnson was still in elementary school when he learned that asking a football coach whether he won could be the wrong question. His father had an away game, and young Ben stayed awake waiting for him to return. It was around 10 p.m. when the coach finally walked through the door.

Johnson wanted the result. His dad wanted to correct the question.

“Dad, did you win?” Johnson remembered asking during his appearance on Bears, etc.. “No, son, that’s not the question,” his father replied. “It’s not whether we won. It’s how much did we win by?”

Some childhood lessons apparently come with a scoring margin attached.

Years later, Johnson shared that story while explaining a question Bears fans had plenty of reason to consider after Chicago’s 27-24 victory over Tampa Bay: Does the way a team wins actually matter? His answer was immediate.

“Yeah.”

The Bears had just reached 7-2. They had won four straight games, completed another successful prime-time appearance and given themselves a favorable place from which to begin their bye week. Johnson still looked like someone had handed him a list of things to fix. In fairness, his offense had supplied quite a few.

Chicago started with two touchdown drives, then spent much of the evening losing possession or struggling to sustain it. Caleb Williams threw four interceptions. Luther Burden III lost a fumble on the play that left him with a concussion. The Bears needed repeated defensive stops, Jaylon Johnson’s pick-six and a final scoring drive to avoid surrendering a game they once led 14-0.

There was a victory to appreciate. There was also a performance Johnson had no intention of framing. His father’s answer helps explain how those feelings can coexist.

Johnson said his dad coached in college before moving to high school football so he could spend more time around his children. Football was part of the household, and so was a competitive outlook that clearly made an impression.

The story mattered enough that Johnson said he shared it during one of his earliest meetings with the Bears after taking the job. That gave his players an introduction to the expectations. Winning would always be the objective, but the final score wouldn’t be the only measure of their work.

“It does matter,” Johnson said of how a team wins. “And we believe that in this building.”

He also added an important qualification: Chicago wouldn’t apologize for finding a way through an ugly game.

That part belongs in the story, too. His dad’s response makes for a memorable punchline, but Johnson wasn’t demanding that the Bears turn every Sunday into a blowout. He recognized the value of beating a difficult opponent when several things went wrong.

What he wanted was a team capable of appreciating the result without letting it excuse the mistakes. Players sounded comfortable with that distinction.

Colston Loveland, whose 38-yard catch helped set up the winning field goal, was blunt about the offensive performance afterward. Jonah Jackson later said he wouldn’t argue Chicago needed an ugly win, acknowledging that the team should have scored more.

Those responses suggest the coach’s expectations have reached the locker room. Players can celebrate seven wins and still recognize that they made the seventh much harder than necessary.

Johnson’s own history adds another twist. During the same podcast interview, he said becoming a head coach only became an ambition within the previous five years. He had long loved football, its strategy and the relationships it creates, without always knowing where coaching would take him.

The job title came later. The standard had been there since childhood.

Now Bears fans get to watch Johnson live with the same question his father planted years ago. Chicago can win, improve its record and send everyone home relieved.

Its coach will still want to know what else was available.