It’s not a passing combination the Bear will likely think about much in the regular season or hope they don’t, anyway.
It’s still nice to have in their back pocket.
Quarterback Brett Rypien hit 6-foot-6 wide receiver Collin Johnson three times, including twice for touchdowns, and led a 21-17 Bears preseason win in the Hall of Fame Game.
“This one meant a lot for me tonight,” Rypien said. “I’m sitting on a year of my last start in Green Bay didn’t go the way I wanted it to.
“I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth the entire offseason.”
The 13-of-28 effort for 130 yards and a 45.2 passer rating against the Packers as Matthew Stafford’s replacement starter for the Rams last Nov. 5 looked nothing like the Rypien who stood in the pocket Thursday, slid one way or other at times and threw in time as he piled up three touchdown passes and 166 yards on 11 of 15 attempts with a passer rating of 148.9.
“I’ve taken the approach I didn’t really know how this year was going to look, even if I was going to have an opportunity to compete for anything, but just kept working hard every single day and said, you know, just going to do what I can.
“I know how I play my best football and I’m going to try to get back to that.”
Maybe it was just the stadium and setting of the Hall of Fame but it was his second time making an impact there. He had thrown for 41 yards and a TD in a 14-10 Denver win in the 2019 Hall of Fame Game.
“I mean that’s what you know as a backup quarterback, is that you have to be ready at any moment,” Rypien said. “You never know what that opportunity is going to look like or when it’s going to come, and you are playing on limited (practice) reps a lot of the time.
“So I think that’s a skill that you have to learn how to hone in on and go out there and execute when you haven’t taken that many full-speed reps with the guys that are out there.”
The three catches for 56 yards and two TDs by Johnson might have been even more if not for a replay challenge that went against him on a second back-shoulder catch he made. A 20-yard catch and a 9-yarder for the go-ahead touchdown.
The combination of he and Johnson had its roots in practice earlier in the week when Rypien found Johnson on a back-shoulder throw deeper along the sidelines.
“I’ve been really close with him ever since I got into the building,” Rypien said of Johnson. “A guy like that with that much size and he’s got great release ability, too, so when you get him in press coverage there’s so many type of throws you can make to him.
“You can lead him over the top. You can throw those longer kind of back shoulders which is what I was doing tonight because I knew he had the size advantage on the corner. But yeah, he’s a great guy and unbelievable player too.”
Johnson was with the Bears practice squad last year and briefly the regular roster near season’s end. He has 30 career catches after stints first with Jacksonville and the Giants.
It was a catch he made of a back-shoulder pass by Rypien earlier this week that might have made all of this possible.
“I think I hit him on a ball a couple of days ago,” Rypien said. “I’ve been really close with him ever since I got into the building.
“with a guy like that with that much size and he’s got great release ability too, so when you get him in press coverage there’s so many types of throws you can make to him. You can lead him over the top. You can throw those longer kind of back shoulders which is what I was doing tonight because I knew he had the size advantage on the corner. But yeah, he’s a great guy and unbelievable player too.”
Rypien has a positive feeling with the Bears when he hasn’t had it as much in recent offseasons.
“I went into last year thinking I was going to sign fairly early, me having two starts the year before that. And it didn’t work out and then I didn’t end up signing to Los Angeles until late May,” Rypien said. “I think I was very fortunate to sign the second day of free agency this year.”
Johnson is fighting back from a surgically repaired torn right Achilles
“It’s been a long journey for me with injuries and stuff like that,” Johnson said. “so I just wanted to put my best foot forward. I think i did that tonight.
“I left some plays out there and I’m just going to learn from that. I’m just going to keep my foot on the gas and keep gong, keep improving cause that’s all I know.”
Johnson was nearly as proud of his special teams play as his receiving. He got in on the first tackle ever made under the new kickoff rule.
“I started making some plays on offense and HT (Richard Hightower), our special teams coordinator, was like, ‘Colin I’m going to pull you out of special teams and I was like ‘No sir, I want to be in there, I want to show you I can do it. And getting that special teams tackle on the opening kickoff because that’s the first tackle for this new kickoff rule it was super cool. And I’m just going to keep growing.”
The back shoulder pass he caught to trigger a three-catch, 56-yard day was a key for his receiving.
“It was one pass, one catch but it was a big-time play for us because it was a go-ball and he put it back on his shoulder right on the money where a big receiver like me likes it. I think we just grow from there. Sometimes all you need is a couple of plays in practice.”
