What Aditi Kinkhabwala would have done differently in Ben Johnson exchange
CBS sideline reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala said Monday she would’ve been more “artful” in her now-viral halftime interview with Bears head coach Ben Johnson during the team’s Week 4 win over the Raiders.
After the Bears committed three turnovers and trailed 14-9 at halftime Sunday, Kinkhabwala asked Johnson what he told his team to get the offense going in the second half. She followed up by asking, “Do you need to change what you’re doing?”
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Johnson, however, thought he heard Kinkhabwala telling him he needed to make a change, when really she was asking the Bears’ first-year coach if he was going to make adjustments.
During Monday’s appearance on the “Mully and Haugh Show,” Kinkhabwala brushed the moment off, calling Johnson “competitive” while explaining she would’ve been more specific in her line of questioning.
“It’s not the most ideal position to be put in, regardless, but you know I’ve talked to [former Patriots coach] Bill Belichick at halftime — so I’d like to think after all these decades of doing this job, I’m not going to be intimidated,” Kinkhabwala said via phone.
“I wish I’d been a little bit more specific on that follow-up. Instead of saying, ‘You need to change something.’ What I was trying to get at was, ‘Is it just simply about being cleaner, or is it that you need to make a very specific adjustment?’ For me, it was the run game, but I don’t want ot put any words in somebody’s mouth.
“I could have been more artful. But you know what, I’m thinking about today, I’m thinking about [Raiders quarterback] Geno Smith saying to me on Friday how his offensive line was so beleaguered, and he said, ‘You know what, I’d like some of those people to stand up and try to block.’”
Kinkhabwala explained that she wasn’t surprised by Johnson’s reaction because he was “so great” and animated during their production meeting before the game.
“Sometimes there is a lot of chaos, there is a lot of craziness,” she continued. “It’s funny, I was talking to my friend Bobby V earlier, and he said, ‘You probably didn’t expect [Johnson] to respond that way.’
“Yes, I did because you know what, he was so great in our production meeting. [Bears quarterback] Caleb Williams walks in and [Johnson] starts teasing him about calling more quarterback runs to get the run game going… We’re all competitive people. It was a tight game, and things weren’t going great in that first half. Things happen, they happen.”
Johnson, who addressed the interview in his postgame press conference, explained he couldn’t hear well while on the field at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, and that he misunderstood Kinkhabwala’s questioning.
“Honestly, I didn’t think too much of it,” Johnson said when asked about the interview generating “buzz” online. “I’m kinda in game mode. But then, when I looked back at it, I am a little disappointed with what that looks like.
“I didn’t hear very well and that’s not an excuse. But when I thought I heard that -— not a question — but that I needed to make some changes, I didn’t take that very well. I’ll do a better job with those going forward.”
Emmanuel Acho, a former NFL linebacker-turned pundit, defended Kinkhabwala, explaining on X that she wasn’t able to articulate her question because “Johnson was tripping” and he “just kept trying to talk over her.”
In a reply tweet to Acho, Kinkhabwala wrote, “I appreciate that, thank you. It’s amazing how a bad captioning job can completely misrepresent what actually happened.”
Johnson, who took over as Bears head coach in January, replacing a fired Matt Eberflus, hinted at potential changes to the offense.
“I don’t feel like everybody on offense yet is pulling their weight, and that’s myself included,” he said. “There’s a number of things from [the game] that I have to do a better job of.
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“… When you look at it as a whole, it was just a mess, man. I’m just not proud of what we put on tape. I think it’s a reflection of myself. I always take it personally. I saw us getting better the first three weeks in a lot of ways on offense, and then this was just a little bit of a step back for us. Like I said, the bye week is coming at a good time, and we’re really going to be able to take a good look at ourselves and do a little soul searching. It’s always good when you play that poorly and yet you’re still able to come away with a win.”
The Bears have a bye week next week before a Week 6 matchup against the Commanders in Maryland on “Monday Night Football” Oct. 13. That game will air on ESPN.
CBS will broadcast the Bears-Ravens game in Week 8 on Oct. 26.
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