Lovie, We Hardly Knew Ye (WE WILL DROWN YOU WITH NEW CONTENT)

As the dust settles over the post-Lovie-Smith Chicago landscape, the new coaching situation is still very much in the air. As we said in last week’s For the Record, our pick would be either McCoy or Arians. I’d also be okay with Trestman, who Jimmy Johnson apparently thinks already got the job. How do you know that? Hey, I’m asking you a question. Answer me, thing in the mouth-face.

But despite the fact that they interviewed Mike Singletary (which I’m choosing to believe was only because this city can’t wipe its ass without first asking the opinion of an ’85 Bear instead of the horrifying alternative that they actually might hire Mike Singletary to be their head coach) and a handful of Special Teams guys, including Toub, I think it’s obvious that an offense-minded, decidedly not-Lovie-Smith Chicago coaching staff is on its way in.

Now, despite what Iggins! would have you believe, I was the only one of our merry band whose surety that Lovie would get the axe never wavered. Red called me that Sunday night and explained for like a half hour all the reasons he was certain Lovie was safe, a sentiment that was echoed around the Internet by people who like Lovie Smith. We’ve always been pretty firmly in Lovie’s camp, and I still don’t think he necessarily deserved to get fired, but I understand why he did.

That needlessly long introduction aside, what I wanted to do here was break down a couple of the arguments people had for keeping Lovie around and why, sadly, they weren’t enough to save his job. Because I hate things that are different, the arguments will be in italics and my responses will be in regular ol’ Times.

For the Record: Lovie Sads and What's Next Edition

Erik, our newest esteemed colleague, is represented by mashed potatoes. HE KNOWS WHY.






This season was certainly a disappointment. Life as a Bears fan is full of disappointment…but this one was unique. They’ve never raised hopes so high and then crushed them in such a long, methodical fashion. There was no easy, quick collapse like last year, when we all could say “well, if they had Jay…” This year they had everything they should have needed. At some point they just stopped playing good football, nearly across the board. In those situations, fair or not, the blame has to fall on the only thing that connects all of those players. Lovie paid the price. Even if it wasn’t his fault, even those of us who’ve always been in his corner conceded that there was little to be said in his defense. The Bears were patient. They gave him four chances at getting the offensive coordinator right. They threw QBs and players under the bus to protect him. They threw Jerry Angelo in front of the train to protect him…and in the end, he was the last man standing. You can’t win every power struggle and then expect to avoid the blame when everyone else you could have blamed is gone.

I will miss Lovie Smith. You can never truly tell with such things, but I believe he was a good man. He brought respectability back to this franchise. I’ve been frustrated, but rarely embarrassed, to call myself a Bears fan during his tenure. His philosophy works, but things never came together the way they needed to. Such things happen. Cowher took 14 years to win his Superbowl with the same formula. Such patience is hard to find.

He certainly had his issues. His devotion to his philosophy alternately strengthened and crippled him. It allowed his team to consistently limit big plays and get big takeaways…but kept him from recognizing when the four man rush was failing, when the blitz was necessary…when that 20 yard catch and sprint by the RB was eventually going to be a big f*&king deal. His greatest failure was that he knew nothing of offense, and trusted it to the wrong people. That cost him his job, and no one can say they lacked the justification needed to do so.

So goodbye, Lovie. We like you, we respect you, we thank you, we wish you well, but more importantly, we’re ready to move on.


That last thing there is the most surprising thing to me. Like you said, I don't think any of the three of us has any contempt for Lovie. He fielded good teams, epsecially great defenses and special teams units. But the offenses killed him. Cutler hasn't panned out over his first 4 years, flailing between awfulness and greatness. His offensive coordinators have been a marching band of fail. Turner was too plain, Martz was too crazy and had to be neutered, Tice was running two offenses at once and wasn't great at either of them.

But yeah, even though I don't have an issue with Lovie, it was time. His consistent okayness had become unacceptable. Eventually strides forward need to be made, and Lovie hadn't made any noticeable strides in many years. Time to cut the cord.

I'm sad to see him go, because he's probably the second-best coach in Bear history, but this team should be competing for Super Bowls, not missing the playoffs. Like you said, everyone else who could have been fired has been fired. He's the only one left.


What were we talking about? I was going to do an alternate, gloating piece in which I examine each of Red's arguments in favor of Lovie staying and why they didn't save his job. I'll save my sad recollection for that.


Well, that’s only fair.

It’s definitely going to be an offensive minded head coach next. If it’s McCoy I think the likelihood that they give Cutler one more year goes up. He has Denver ties, has worked with Marshall in the past, was able to adjust his playbook for both Tebow and Peyton Manning, so he seems like a guy they’d hire to give one last crack at sparking the Cutler light bulb. If he fails, you don’t blame him and you let him pick the new guy.

This Sunday and its Meaning

This is going to be the biggest Sunday of football in recent Bear history. It's true: they went to a Super Bowl not long ago. And even more recently the Bears played the Packers in an NFC title game. But it's hard to say that either of those two games had quite the impact this weekend will have. Rex Grossman wasn't winning a Super Bowl. The Packer game only served to humiliate the Bears for letting the Packers fall ass-backwards into the playoffs. But this Sunday could change the entire trajectory of an organization that has largely looked exactly the same for eight to nine years.

If the Bears win and the Vikings lose (Thank God Green Bay actually has something to play for), the Bears get a weakened 49er team with a quarterback they never should have committed to. If the Bears win that game, Lovie is safe and the Cutler-Smith experiment will continue.

But let's be honest with ourselves, Bear fans. I probably don't even have to tell you that: we're Chicago sports fans! We're oftentimes a bit TOO pessimistic about what is going to happen to our sports teams. And really, pessimism is simply realism here. The reasoned observer will say that the Bears have a good chance of making the playoffs and getting blown to pieces by the 49ers. There's a good chance Lovie gets fired even if he DOES get to 10-6 and the playoffs in that case. The Bear fan in all of us, of course, is pretty damn sure they'll lose to Detroit this weekend while we also watch Minnesota lose by 30.

And in that scenario, well, everything changes. The head coach we've known since 2004 will be fired, Mike Tice will be gone, Marinelli too (mostly because new HCs want their own coordinators). Most likely so will the 4-3 Cover 2, Brian Urlacher, Devin Hester, and maybe even Jay Cutler. The entire face of this organization will change with that loss. And consider this: the Bears will have one of the best defenses in the league, two Pro Bowl starting corners, a potentially Hall of Fame linebacker (Briggs), a Hall of Fame DE, Henry Melton, the second or third best WR in the game, a top 5 RB, and a team that went 9-7. That sounds like a damn good job opportunity to me.

The coaching options are numerous, but I guarantee the top 2 names on the Bear's list will be Sean Payton and Rex Ryan (Yes, Rex Ryan just got run out of New York. But he has strong Bear ties, he made it to two AFC championship games with defense alone, and he has a very "Bear" mentality. Just enough reason for the Bear organization to put him at the top of a small list, whether the fans agree with it or not.). Rex represents a slightly more conservative approach to change. The defense will become a 3-4, which is entirely foreign to Bear fans, but the Bears actually have the pieces to run that defense right now with very little transition. Shea would be a great 3-4 OLB, Henry Melton is exactly what you want for the middle of your 3-4 line, and Peppers will be great doing anything. The non-change here would be the offense. Rex likes running the ball and occasionally slinging shit deep. Sound like a Cutler offense to you? Yeah. Rex almost fits too perfectly.

But before the Bears call him, they will certainly call the most coveted HC on the open market, Sean Payton. Through a very strange loophole, the Saint HC got released from his contract in part because of the year-long suspension from bounty-gate. I personally believe he's just going to leverage the Cowboy's and Bear's interest against the Saints in order to get a bigger deal, but what if he doesn't? The Bears job is by far the best of the three. It'll give Payton a defense for the first time in his career, one of the best receivers in the game, and a gun-slinging QB who he can either trade for someone he covets or give a one year tryout. Of course, Payton would change the defense AND the offense, and the last time the Bears ran something looking like a spread... well, Cutler still has bruises.

The league is changing. Will the Bears change with it? This team has never been anything but defense-first, run the ball, rinse, repeat, and the one season we tried becoming pass-centric Jay Cutler almost died at the hands of Mike Martz. The last few seasons Lovie has been awkwardly hiring new OCs, trying to turn this offense into something new and, well, good. But his results have been mediocre at best, and occasionally painful and even dangerous. It is, and I say this with love in my heart for Lovie, very clear he has no idea what to do on offense in today's NFL. But one thing is clear; he thinks he needs to change. This is why, if Lovie goes, the Bears will almost assuredly grab a coach that will change the very fabric of the team. I'm not here to argue whether changing is good or not. But the Bears may look at the list of Super Bowl champs and realize the last time a team won with their current mentality was 2003. And that was when the Bucs beat the Raiders in possibly the worst Super Bowl ever.

It is very rare that you get to watch something understanding the full weight and context of the situation you are seeing. Nobody knew the Bulls would trip and fall into the #1 pick to get D. Rose. Nobody knew Bartman was coming. Make no mistake. This Sunday means more to the Bear's organization than either of those two events. It could mean changing the entire identity of a team that has remained constant for so long. So tune in this Sunday and watch as a man fights for his job, and maybe more importantly, a team decides its trajectory for the next ten years.

Packers 21, Bears 13- With a Whimper

The collapse is more or less complete. The Bears could win their last two and get some help and still make the playoffs, but that seems incredibly unlikely. It doesn't matter anyways. This is not a good football team. It's hard to believe it ever was. They were failures in every possible phase today, and they let the division title that was in their hands for half a season go to Green Bay on their home turf.

There will be hard decisions in the future. The end of this season has gone about as badly as you could have ever imagined for the two individuals who have the most control over the team's fate: Jay Cutler and Lovie Smith.

I don't want to say goodbye to either of them, myself. The sinking feeling in my stomach tells me this franchise would be no closer to a title without them than it is with them, but there's also little that can be said to defend either one of them right now. There are plenty of excuses. There always are in a team sport where so many variables play into wins and losses, but the blame for this collapse will fall on the shoulders of these two, and it'll be truly interesting to see whether the axe will come out, and where it will land.

I don't much have the heart for a breakdown, frankly. The only good I saw was in the pass rush early on, and a run game that reappeared for just a few moments. After that it was all bad. The officiating was undeniably bad, but the Bears have no one to blame but themselves for being incapable of scoring points against any defense with a pulse. That Green Bay Packers squad that carried away the division championship today is clearly the worst unit that Rodgers has led since his first year as a starter, and the Bears weren't even close to them in either game. Think about that. Or don't. I won't blame you.

I haven't got the faintest idea where everything will be once the dust settles. I can only assume that I'll be as unhappy as I am right now.

Seahawks 23, Bears 17: Take the Points You Jackass

I'm a big defender of Lovie Smith. Have been for years. Very little of the stuff he gets blamed for is actually his fault, but this game....oh this game, Lovie f*&ked up royally. You do not go for it in field goal range (TO DETERMINE A TWO SCORE GAME, MIND YOU) on 4th down in the first fucking quarter. You do not pucker up and play prevent offense AND defense with a four point lead against a scrambling QB. You do not continually play two deep safety when your team CANNOT stop a running QB or the runningback. They were f&king running goddamn stunts to collapse the middle against a QB who WANTS to get outside the pocket! HE'S A F*&KING MIDGET ROOKIE FOR F*&K'S SAKE.

Sorry, that one's on Lovie. Tice called a brilliant game up till they got the 14-10 lead and then he puckered. The defense puckered all game long. It was obvious the front four wasn't getting any penetration and Lovie/Marinelli didn't dial up anything extra, and they continually gave Wilson the edge as though Urlacher could run him down like he would have seven years ago. Just pathetic.

The Packers now move back into first place at 8-4, with the head to head tiebreaker, and I don't see the New York Giants coming along to knock them back down. You had a rookie QB at his own 1 yard line at home in December, and you couldn't make a fucking play. There's very little reason to think this team's going to be able to contain Kaepernick, Wilson, RGIII, or Rodgers at this point. This was a costly one, folks, far more than the Texans or 49ers games. Utterly pathetic.

The Good:

Brandon Marshall: If it weren't for him this game would've been over before it started. He kept the chains moving, came up with the miracle ball to send it to overtime, and was generally the only receiver who did more damage against the Seahawks than the Bears.

Jay Cutler: He was utterly amazing today against one of the NFL's best pass defenses, and he couldn't find anyone other than Marshall to help him out. Earl Bennett dropped what may have been the best throw of Jay's career, and the game went away from them after that.

The Offensive Line: Cutler was untouched all game long, and they eventually got the run game going late. Terrible to see an effort like this wasted.

The Bad:

Lovie Smith: You do not pass on a double-digit lead at home over one of the NFL's best defenses. YOU DON'T DO IT. F*&KING FUCK, LOVIE. I just can't add anything more. I realize that there were numerous opportunities afterward, and that nothing in the first quarter "loses" a game, but you don't take points off the board. It's that simple. If you're at the 34 yard line and go for it, you're showing faith in both your offense and your defense. If you're already in chip shot range, you're just letting fucking emotion cloud your judgement.

Brian Urlacher: He was old, slow, and exposed the entire fourth quarter. I hate to say it, but Cam Newton, Kaepernick, and now Wilson should have it drilled into their heads by now that the "don't worry, Brian will run them down" approach to mobile QBs needs to go.

Earl Bennett: I'm aware that he had a TD and it sucks that he left with a concussion, but you can't drop that ball. Inexcusable. Absolutely pathetic that no one outside of Brandon Marshall can step up. This entire receiving corps has regressed from last year outside of Marshall, and they were shitty to begin with.

That's it for now. Another one where the meatballs can have their day, because every overblown, overrated meatball explanation for Lovie Smith being a bad head coach showed up today, and while it doesn't define a career, it fucked his team hard today.

No, YOUR Pass Defense Sucks: The Myth of the Bears Awful Secondary

For two straight years now I've heard that the secondary is a potential weakness keeping the Bears from Superbowl contention. Now, this irritates me for a couple of reasons. For one, when people tend to say _____ is keeping someone from Superbowl contention, they're usually basing that on some illusory concept of the ideal Superbowl champion rather than assessing the league as a whole and basing their opinion on that comparison. Those are the kinds of people who would never have imagined the 2007 or 2011 Giants winning the Superbowl, or that it was possible that the 32 ranked rushing offense (2009 Colts) or the 32nd ranked defense (2011 Patriots) would get a team all the way to the big game. So when I hear that the Bears secondary is a question mark for the team, I look at several other teams considered to be contenders, like the Packers, Patriots, and Lions, and wonder how the hell people get that idea.

Now, I'll admit the safety play on last year's team concerned me and I've addressed that before. Things were considerably better once Chris Conte replaced Chris Harris/Brandon Meriweather, and even Major Wright was adequate when healthy. With Conte, Steltz, Wright,and Hardin in the mix I'm optimistic that the disastrous pass defense of the first 5 games last year is long gone. I don't expect the starting duo for the Bears to consist of two hall of famers, but they'll be capable of limiting big gains and making the occasional play.

As for the cornerbacks, I've already spent time defending the two best cornerbacks in the NFC North, Charles Tillman and Tim Jennings, who both allowed less than 60% completions and allowed only one gain of at least 47 yards. They're not flashy and they aren't going to blanket someone like Revis, but they're not asked to do so and they'll provide plenty of turnovers (well, P'Nut will).

So where does this idea that the Bears have a weak secondary really come from? An outdated concept like basing defenses on yardage allowed. The Bears finished 28th in the NFL in passing yards allowed, with 4065 yards allowed (254 ypg). That looks bad. But let's take a closer look:

1) The Bears were really good at stopping the run. After an awful and extremely atypical slow start against the run last year (135 ypg in the first 5), the Bears pulled Anthony Adams out of the nose tackle position (the key run stopper in the Cover 2) and replaced him with a Polynesian rotation of Paea and Toeiana. That switch led to a stingy run defense that allowed just 78 yards per game over the final 11 contests (consider also that in two of the mere 3 games in which they allowed over 100 yards rushing in that span, they faced Michael Vick and Tim Tebow). That was just a yard behind the 77 ypg allowed by the 49ers, the NFL's top run defense, during that time period.

What has this got to do with the pass defense? Well, futility in the run game forced teams to chuck it a lot against the Bears defense, for a whopping 631 attempts, good for 2nd in the NFL in most passing attempt against. Teams are naturally going to get a good amount of yardage on 631 attempts.

2) What did they do with those attempts, though? Well, 4065/631 equals just 6.4 YPA. In case you need a reference, that's like telling someone they're going to go up against Shane Matthews every game. They'll take it. That 6.4 YPA attempt against is good for 3rd best in the NFL, right up there with the Ravens. Something tells me no one's saying their secondary is going to keep them out of the Superbowl. Everyone knows that's Joe Flacco.

3)Interceptions. The Bears got 20 of them. Tied for 6th most in the NFL. They allowed 22 touchdown passes, good for 13th fewest in the NFL.

4)Opponent Passer Rating. Passer rating is a flawed stat, but the Bears still held opponents to just a 79.8 rating, good for 8th best in the NFL.

5) The Bears had to face Aaron Rodgers (2x), Matthew Stafford (2x), Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, Cam Newton, Philip Rivers, and Michael Vick last year, the only team in the NFL to face that particular gamut. That's 9 games against 7 of the top 11 passing yardage leaders in the NFL last year. They went 5-4 in those 9 games.

The only thing the Bears didn't do particularly well in pass defense last year was get after the quarterback. Although Melton and Peppers both had fine pass-rushing seasons, the Bears know they need another DE who can get after Aaron Rodgers and they drafted Shea McClellin to do so. I think people will see this year that, as usual, yards don't mean a damn thing against Lovie's defense.

So if the Bears secondary doesn't suck, do those same excuses apply to New England, Detroit, or Green Bay? No. Those teams aren't Cover 2 teams, and their secondaries, frankly, just plain suck. Look at the stats for opposing passers vs. those teams compared to the Bears stat line:

Chicago: 383/631 (60.7%), 4065 yds, 22 TDs, 20 INTs, 254 YPG, 6.4 YPA, 79.8 Rating
Green Bay: 390/637 (61.2%), 4796 yds, 29 TDs, 31 INTs, 299.8 YPG, 7.5 YPA, 80.6 Rating.
Detroit: 376/604 (62.3%), 3831 yds, 26 TDs, 21 INTs, 239.4 YPG, 6.4 YPA, 82.1 Rating
New England: 386/619 (62.4%), 4703 yd, 26 TDs, 23 INTS, 293.4 YPG, 7.6 YPA, 86.1 Rating.

As you can see, all of those teams were worse than the Bears in nearly every category. The Lions lower yardage total can also be somewhat excused by the fact that their run defense (23rd in the NFL) was downright shitty, so they're much easier to attack in multiple ways. Now, I'm not saying those teams aren't Superbowl contenders (well, Detroit isn't), but simply that the Bears secondary is certainly looks much better when you compare it to several other contenders who give up plenty of yards, and touchdowns, in schemes that aren't designed to allow short yardage passes like the Bears defense is.

So, once more, I say: No, YOUR pass defense sucks.

What the Hell is a "Tweener?" Shea McClellin, Zone Blitzes, and the Evolution of Lovie Smith's Defense

“While the 6-3 1/2, 260-pound McClellin may be a bit of a tweener, he has a track record for getting after the quarterback.”- NFLDraftScout.Com

“Shea McClellin is a tweener seemingly better suited for a 3-4 defense.”- Mark Potash, Chicago Sun Times

“At 6’3” and 260lbs is a true ‘tweener and will likely be asked to add 15-20lbs if his role in the pros requires a hand in the dirt”- Pro Football Focus

Those are just three of the many profiles of Shea McClellin that discuss the biggest issue Bears fans and beat writers seem to have with the pick: McClellin is a “tweener,” a seemingly classic case of a college athlete who doesn’t have a true position in the pros, since he’s too big to be a full time linebacker and too small to be a 4-3 DE. Those are usually the guys that go to a 3-4 scheme, yet here Shea is in Chicago, a committed 4-3 if ever there was one.

So why did the Bears tab McClellin as their guy?

Was it, as some paranoid idiots have claimed, so that they have Urlacher’s replacement on the roster since he’s more hurt than the team has claimed? I doubt it.

Is it, as other paranoid idiots have claimed, because Emery is prepping for a 3-4 in a Lovie-less future? Not exactly, since I hardly doubt Emery would undermine Lovie’s system when all of his other moves have screamed “Superbowl or Bust” this year.

Is it, as I myself and others have suggested, that McClellin’s really not that undersized and that there are numerous examples of 4-3 DE’s who have been successful with similar measurables (one name I should have mentioned as well when compiling that list was Alex Brown, who was 6’3’’, 262 and very effective in Lovie’s system)? This seems most accurate, and would be my guess, but there’s also another reason I think the Bears wanted a “tweener” on their defense.

I was reading an interview today with Chris Brown of SmartFootball.com (yes I mention him a lot. He’s brilliant and you should read his stuff often if you want to pretend to know something) and Brown said something very interesting when he was asked what he was most looking forward to in the near future of football:

“…on defense the big trend I see is to take existing defenses, like the 3-4 or 4-3, but to begin using more “hybrid” defenders in the base defense, guys who were maybe considered “tweeners” a few years ago without a true position. These are the linebacker/safety hybrids and the defensive end/linebacker hybrids, who, when facing all these no-huddle or multiple-formation attacks, must be able to both take on a fullback or tight-end at the line, rush the passer, or drop into pass coverage. You're definitely starting to see it in the NFL as they need players who can stuff the run and cover athletic tight-ends down the field. But you also are increasingly seeing it in college, both given the diversity of offensive attacks from week to week -- pass-first spread to pro-style to option to run-first spread -- and the increasing speed with which they operate in the no-huddle. Defenses don't have the luxury of having time to substitute the exact personnel they want for a specific situation; they need dynamic, multi-purpose playmakers on defense to deal with dynamic, multi-purpose playmakers on offense.”

That, in a nut shell, is the reason why I think the Bears wanted McClellin. Not only can McClellin use his speed as an edge rusher to take advantage of the attention paid to Julius Peppers on the other side in order to get to the quarterback, but also because his versatility is an undeniable asset in an NFL where offenses are rapidly evolving. You can say McClellin lacks the size necessary to take on tight ends or fullbacks, but teams are starting to emphasize speed over bulk at those positions as well (think Greg Olsen, Jermichael Finley, Aaron Hernandez, etc. Those guys are receivers first and aren't going to bulldoze guys like McClellin out of the way either) so in the end it's a wash.

If you look in the Bears own division you’ll see two teams in Green Bay and Detroit who essentially operate under the same principles as college spread offenses. While Green Bay still pays some respect to their old west coast offense background and Detroit’s Scott Linehan uses a one back offense that uses pass concepts from the old Run N Shoot, among others, both teams more or less ignore the run game and move the ball by spreading teams wide with four or five wide receiver sets and putting Stafford and Rodgers in the shotgun. Obviously the Bears need to counter this if they’re going to compete.

One way the Bears counter their aerial opponents is simply by remaining loyal to their system. While people love to claim the Tampa Two is obsolete every time the Bears players struggle, their success the last two years is proof that this scheme only becomes more valuable as opposing teams become more pass-oriented than ever before.

However, the base Tampa Two scheme can only get you so far and often leaves the team vulnerable to seams, slants, and out routes as well as inside runs. The Bears actually play the Cover 2 less than 30% of the time, as they often use Cover 4 and Cover 3 in passing downs as well. More importantly for this discussion is the fact that they also use a lot of zone blitzes.

Zone blitzes? What the hell? Not Lovie Smith, that boring old biddy. Zone blitzes belong to exotic defensive coordinators like Dom Capers and Dick LeBeau. The Bears scheme is as boring and conservative as it gets! Hell, it’s not like they're 2nd in the NFL in points allowed since 2004 or that they lead the NFL in takeaways in that time period. Oh wait. They are. And they do.

Actually, zone blitzes are one of the unheralded mainstays of Lovie’s scheme. As Matt Bowen noted, when Lovie Smith arrived with the Rams in 2001 the very first play he installed on defense was the Storm blitz, where the strong safety and middle linebacker blitz while three lineman rush and the weakside defensive end (likely to be Shea McClellin) and the SAM and WILL backers drop into coverage.

Another zone blitz you’ll see the Bears use with regularity is the Cover 1 Robber, where they use a single high safety in coverage, use the other safety to play man , blitz Lance Briggs, and use Urlacher in the middle of the field in a zone as the “robber” to take away short passes toward the weakside vacated by the blitzing Briggs.

In almost all of these zone blitzes, the presence of Shea McClellin will prove to be invaluable. McClellin, who played nearly as much linebacker at Boise State as he did DE, will be a much better player in coverage than Israel Idonije, and will give Lovie even more flexibility with the pressure he chooses to bring. As teams like the Falcons in 2010 learned, playing man coverage and blitzing Aaron Rodgers leads only to a painful death. Besides simply hoping a four man rush can get home, the zone blitz is the most effective tool the Bears will have against the Packers and Lions offenses. If the Bears can use any combination of blitzing Briggs or Urlacher (or DJ Moore, who they frequently send at the QB) and dropping athletic guys like Peppers or McClellin into coverage, they have a way to pressure those QBs without sacrificing too much in coverage.

So yes, Shea McClellin is a tweener. He’s not your prototypical defensive end or linebacker. If Julius Peppers were to disappear tomorrow and McClellin would find himself as the RDE, forced to take on double teams and carry an entire Cover 2 defense with his pass rush alone, he’d probably struggle. That’s not the plan, however, and by adding McClellin the Bears have actually added a great deal of flexibility to what they can do on defense. Times are changing and anyone who refuses to adapt will be left in the dust. Lovie Smith, who is unfairly criticized far too often for refusing to change, has seen where things are going and knew he needed a guy that’s as comfortable racing around the right tackle to chase Aaron Rodgers as he is dropping into coverage and covering Jermichael Finley. It’s a shame people are too short-sighted to see how McClellin’s greatest “weakness” is actually going to become a Bears strength.

2011 Bears Position Reviews: The Coaching Staff

Last one! Then Start Kyle Orton goes on hiatus for a couple of weeks as I attend to the business of getting married and then heading on a honeymoon. Anyways, onto the coaching staff.

Lovie Smith, Head Coach

I still like Lovie. I sometimes wonder if this puts me in the minority. I choose to believe it doesn't, although it may put me at odds with a very vocal and virulent part of the Bears fanbase. I think Lovie's a solid coach from Monday-Saturday. I think his defensive philosophy, when he's got the pass rush and the linebackers to run it, is still a sound one, especially in an era where passing records are falling all over the place and a commitment to avoiding the big play at all costs makes a lot of sense (especially since the Lions in particular are extremely beatable so long as you avoid the Stafford-Megatron bomb). It's a fact that his players play very hard for him and I personally think he's coaxed more wins out of the Bears roster during his tenure than most guys would have. He admittedly has won when his stars are healthy and struggled when they weren't, but he's also had, from 1-53, a thinner depth chart than most of his division rivals. Even so, he generally patches together a winning season from teams that didn't always merit it. He gets too much shit for being a "player's coach," when really you need only look at the benching of Anthony Adams, the shakeup at safety, and his move to cut Chris Harris to see that that just isn't true.

I said during my midseason review this year that Lovie should go if this team doesn't make the playoffs, simply to avoid a Jeff Fisher like malaise. I'll make an exception considering he lost his starting QB, RB, and no.1 receiver all in a span of four weeks. This year Lovie's team was close to something big, and injuries took it away from him. He's still got at least one more year with the defense that he's ridden to this point, but now he has a GM who has a clear desire to build a winning offense that can both assist that defense this year and carry it over the inevitable reloading that is to come. Emery's loaded up the depth chart in a number of places Angelo used to ignore, and for the first time it seems Lovie may be able to go toe to toe with the heavyweights rather than simply finding a way to overachieve. For one more year at least, I still believe in Lovie Smith.

Mike Martz, Offensive Coordinator

I've already discussed why the Bears will be better off without Mike Martz, and it goes far beyond simply cutting down on the number of seven step drops. As for Martz's performance in 2011, well, I honestly don't think I can say anything more than I didn't say in October:

I give him credit for improving Jay Cutler's footwork and his mechanics. Jay's unfortunately had to rush some throws this year thanks to the shoddy protection, but I feel at this point that his worst days are behind him. If the team around him melts down we'll probably still see plenty of errant throws like we saw against New Orleans and Green Bay, but I think the days of streaking passes to guys like DeAngelo Hall are long gone. True to his reputation, he's probably made Jay Cutler a better player.

However, there's another side of the coin. It's a good thing that Mike has helped Jay improve his mechanics and pocket presence, because he's needed it while dodging the free blitzers that Martz's scheme doesn't even dream of accounting for.

What we've seen [during the five game winning streak] are gameplans indicating a changed individual. We've seen 25+ rushing attempts, 6, 7, and even 8 man protections, play action passes, bootlegs, and back shoulder throws. It's been nice, and it's allowed the two most important players, Forte and Cutler, to do what they do best.

The question, however, is what this means for Mike Martz's future. If even Mike Martz himself has given up on running "The Mike Martz Offense" with capital Ms, is he worth keeping around to run "the mike martz offense"? Can't someone who specializes in this West Coast-style offense be brought in who actually Wants to run it, not a guy who has been browbeaten into what I'm sure he considers a bastardization of his offense?

Martz  really did his best in the second half of both 2010 and last year to compromise. The simplest answer was that it was a better idea to simply find a coordinator who would run the same offense the Bears switched to at midseason the last two years from day one. That's what they did. I wish Mike well in retirement, even if it is clear from every comment Jay makes that he really, really fucking hates him.


Rod Marinelli, Defensive Coordinator

Let's face it, none of us really knows where Lovie Smith ends and where Rod Marinelli begins. Since we all gave up on the "Rod Marinelli could make ANYONE into a pro bowl defensive lineman" bit from 2009 a long time ago, there's really no way of saying whether the team would be any different if Lovie was still calling the defensive plays himself. Hell, the idea of calling plays in the Bears defensive is kind of amusing, considering that the scheme is very basic outside of the occasional zone blitz. Based off of results, though, Rod's pretty good at his job. Provided that job isn't head coach of the Detroit Lions.

Dave Toub, Special Teams Coordinator

I'm still waiting for that John Harbaugh-esque leap from special teams coordinator to head coach for Dave. There's no way to argue with his results. It'd be one thing to say he benefits from the attention given to Devin Hester, but he's made productive returners out of RW McQuarters, Danieal Manning, Rashied Davis, Johnny Knox, and Earl Bennett as well. He's watched as Robbie Gould became one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history. His units block more field goals than any other team in the NFL. At some point he's got to move on. Until then, I'm glad he is a Bear.

Start Kyle Orton's 2012 Half-Assed Bears Draft Predictions

The NFL draft is just a month away, and with a very active and productive free agency period winding down for the Bears (Brandon Marshall and Michael Bush! Hurrah! Re-signing Idonije! Okay! Bringing back Craig Steltz…Wait just a goddamned minute..) it’s time to move our attention on to the main event of the offseason. Now, while Iggins, Mrs. Code Red, and I are preparing mock drafts for a special NFL Draft Prog Bukakke, I figured I’d discuss in a more general nature what I think the Bears should do. My opinion is totally important, because I have a blog, so I figured everyone would want to know.

The Bears are sitting at #19, one of the “cocktease” spots, since they’re about as late in the draft as your team can get without the sweet reward of a playoff appearance. I’d say a trade up is unlikely since the Bears don’t have a surplus of picks to bargain with and there’s really no need for it. I’d rank the teams greatest needs accordingly:

Defensive End: I suppose greatest “need” is a bit of a stretch. I don’t know that the Bears can’t get by with another year of Izzy playing opposite of Peppers, especially with Henry Melton building on a 7 sack season. That said, Lovie’s got one year to make a deep playoff run and the best way to improve the entire defense is to upgrade the pass rush with a true bookend to Julius Peppers. Quinton Coples is the best defensive end in the draft, but there’s no way in hell he’ll make it to 19. Melvin Ingram would be very nice and a slight possibility. I would also accept USC defensive end Nick Perry.

Wide Receiver: Brandon Marshall was an excellent pick up. Everyone knows how much I love the BBE, but he’s an expert slot receiver. Devin Hester at this point is a gimmick and a situational deep threat. Johnny Knox may not play at all this year. Eric Weems is less of a receiver than Hester. Dane Sanzenbacher is a white guy with bad hands. A true #2 wide receiver, would be nice. This is a deep draft at that position, and a guy like Stephen Hill or Alshon Jeffery could slip into the 2nd round.

Offensive Line: Could be either a tackle or a guard. Just another guy with some potential to throw into the mix, as the only lock right now is Garza at center. Chris Williams, Gabe Carimi, and J’Marcus Webb will all compete at tackle, while Edwin Williams, Chris Spencer, Lance Louis, and hopefully INSERT ROOKIE HERE will compete at guard. The Bears offensive line looked bad in the second half thanks to Caleb Hanie’s epileptic pocket presence, but when Cutler went down they had allowed just five sacks in their last five games, were 6th in the NFL in scoring, and they cleared the way for over 2,000 rushing yards last season. With a less idiotic blocking scheme, some help on the outside, and health from Carimi and C. Williams, the line will be better. One more body would help, though.

Then again, Frank Omiyale is gone, so maybe all of the world’s problems went with him. Fuck you, Frank.

Linebacker: They need someone who can push Nick Roach but also has the potential to slid over to MLB down the road. The time for an Heirlacher is nigh. Vontaze Burfict is batshit crazy and reckless and he’s sliding down draft boards. If the Bears can nab him in the middle rounds and train him next to Urlacher and Briggs, that could be a relatively risk-free pick with huge upside down the road.

Safety: It might surprise some reactionary folks that PRO BOWLER Charles Tillman, Tim Jennings, and Chris Conte performed pretty well last year. It’ll surprise no one that the other safety spot was a disaster. I’m not saying the team needs to give up on Major Wright just yet, as he had a good stretch in the middle of season where he was, for the first time in his career, both healthy and effective. They just need another option that’ll let Brad Biggs tweet some more snarky comments about Lovie’s revolving door at safety. And yes, I’m aware Craig Steltz was surprisingly not that awful at times last year. He’s still Craig Steltz.

Cornerback: Charles Tillman is coming off the best year of a career where he’s been very good and I don’t really give a damn if you disagree. That said, the team needs an insurance plan, as he’s not young and has had injury issues in the past. Tim Jennings should be fine for a few years, and you can pencil in DJ Moore at nickel for a long time. This is just a position where you can never have enough depth.

Tight End: I think Kellen Davis is a fine player who allowed just five pressures (none in the last 11 games) and no sacks despite spending more time blocking than damn near any other tight end in the NFL. He’s a great red zone target and I think he’ll be a fine receiving threat in a new offense. No, I do not miss Greg Olsen. That said, the Bears may look for more of a pure receiver at the position to complement Davis, but that’s very, very low on the priority list.

So with all of that, my strategy would be:

1st Rd: Best available DE.

2nd Rd: Best available OL or WR, whichever is higher on their board

3rd: Linebacker

4th Rd: Whatever you didn’t address in Round 2 (maybe a guy like Marvin McNutt would appease Iggins!)

5th Rd: Best Available DE

6th Rd: Who

7th Rd: Cares?

Next month we’ll SKOscast the entire draft and you can all mock how incredibly wrong I am both here and in my mock draft. It’ll be grand. I’m just looking forward to seeing whether or not we can continue our Phil Emery boners or if we’ll have tone it down a notch.

Go Bears.

Everything's Coming Up Cutler

I hesitate to cast any kind of opinion at this point on Phil Emery. For one, there are plenty of people out there who think Lovie is currently pulling the personnel strings. If that's so, kudos to Lovie. For another, if Phil did make the Marshall trade, it's still unwise to judge him before free agency is over and he's conducted his first draft.

That said, I like where things are headed, because so far, every major decision the Bears have made this offseason has been made with Jay Cutler's welfare in mind. That may sound incredibly simple, but it's surprisingly fucking novel for the Bears, mostly because they've gone so long without a franchise QB worth catering to and because the previous GM figured Jay could just magically transform a shitty offensive line and average receiving corp into awesomeness. The fact that Jay came close this year to doing just that before his injury is no reason not to tailor the offense to his every desire.

Let's review:

-The Bears tossed Mike Martz. While I think Mike did a good job of refining Jay's mechanics, no one can deny that a different scheme with more emphasis on protection and the run would be good for Jay.

-The Bears hired Jeremy Bates. I still have my reservations about the whole Two-headed OC monster idea, but Bates was the right guy to pick as the QB coach/passing game coordinator since he and Jay have a good relationship and Bates knows exactly how to utilize Jay's strengths, something Martz always struggled with.

-Frank Omiyale is gone. This one doesn't need much explaining, I just really wanted to get in a final "Fuck you, Frank Omiyale." I'm just kidding, of course. There will be many, many more.

And finally, the Bears made a trade for Brandon Marshall. I'm not going to address the alleged incident in too much detail, other than to note that charges haven't been filed, the accuser waited a full 24 hours before going to the police, and my own personal guess is that Marshall walks away from this without any charges or a suspension.

If we can focus on the on-field stuff (and I think it's safe to do so, because, despite his previous off-field troubles and the supposed risk he carries that has some of the usual meatballs making "team cancer" comments, Marshall's played in at least 15 games every year of his career), this is a tremendous move to pick up Marshall for just two 3rd round picks. Thanks to the Greg Olsen trade, the Bears still have a full draft and this move still leaves them with plenty of cap room. Marshall has always produced, averaging almost 1200 yards a year as a starter despite catching passes from Chad Henne (who couldn't find Marshall in the end zone on a fade route if Marshall was painted orange and was wearing a jet pack), Matt Moore, and (sorry Kyle) Kyle Orton. There's every reason to believe that he can be as productive with Cutler in Chicago as he was in Denver. I applaud.*

It's also a pretty great move to sign Jason Campbell (and to re-sign Josh McCown as the third stringer) in order to back up Cutler. While avid Start Kyle Orton reader and huge Cutler fan PenFoe said that he felt the new QB depth chart was a giant "Fuck You" to Mike Martz, I'd have to argue that it's more of a fuck you to Jerry Angelo, who always considered the back up quarterback position as a nice place to save money (the real fuck you to Martz was the move for Marshall, as the 6'4'' receiver is a nice rebuke to Martz' system of small receivers and Roy Williamses). With the exception of Chris Chandler and Brian Griese, this signing of Jason Campbell is the first notable instance of the Bears signing an established veteran who could potentially start somewhere else as the #2 QB. In the case of Chandler and Griese, the situation was different as well, since Jim Miller and Rex Grossman were nowhere near entrenched and both guys took the job with the clear hope of fighting for playing time. Campbell has no such illusions, which makes this an impressive move.

The Bears also made a couple of good pickups on special teams, signing Blake Costanzo and Eric Weems. Costanzo's ability on special teams is apparently great enough to send Brad Biggs into the levels of ecstasy usually only brought on by Tim Shaw (or Corey Graham. Or Rashied Davis. Or any special teams player that Biggsy thinks the shortsighted Bears will regret letting slip through their fingers).

As for Weems, there's been some chatter from meatheads and the often mistaken Kevin Seifert of ESPN's NFC North blog assuming that this means some kind of woe for Devin Hester's future as a Bear. Those people naturally just ignore the fact that Johnny Knox or Danieal Manning handled most Bears kickoff returns between 2008-2011 anyway and that Manning is gone while Knox may not play at all in 2012. Seifert even quoted some bullshit $10 million roster bonus due to Hester, which Sean Jensen of the Sun Times noted was just an escalator for receiving production that we all know Hester didn't reach.

There are still some major issues remaining, of course, that will really prove whether Phil or Lovie or whoever is running the show here is up to the task:

1) Avoiding a Forte holdout: He's not happy about the franchise tag, and though he's eventually going to sign the tag like everyone else, it would be nice to avoid a holdout. It seems the Bears may be playing hardball by flirting with Michael Bush. I'd really just like this problem to go away.

2) How to address the aging defense: there's an easy solution for this, and his name is Mario Williams. I don't think it's going to work, because Mario's apparently made it clear his concern is being the highest paid defensive player in the NFL. The Bears couldn't, and shouldn't pay that price. So then it gets trickier. As it stands the Bears still need another edge rusher opposite Peppers, a young linebacker who can play OLB and prepare to fill the Urlacher or Briggs spot in the near future, a veteran safety, and an heir to Charles Tillman. Obviously they can't fill all of these spots in one offseason. I'd like to see at least the safety or the DE problem solved in free agency. With the acquisition of Marshall, I'm fine with the 1st round pick going towards a defensive player, and I'm sure Lovie is too.

3) The offensive line: It's hard to remember in the chaos of the Hindenburg-esque end to the season, but there was a time, before Cutler went down and after Mike Martz finally abandoned "his" offense, that things were looking good. Then Chris Williams got hurt, Cutler went down, and it all went to hell. That said, there's still plenty of young talent to work with between Chris Williams (if they re-sign him, and it seems they will, and that he'll compete at tackle as well as guard), Chris Spencer, and Lance Louis, all of whom performed pretty well this year for long stretches. The J'Marcus Webb experiment seems to have failed at left tackle, but he still has some ability and might make a good interior linemen. A healthy Gabe Carimi has to be a potential upgrade at either tackle position. Roberto Garza played well at center and got an extension. If the Bears can sign one veteran guard or tackle to upgrade the unit, that, along with the change in scheme, should result in solid enough protection for Jay in a run-based attack. If not, one of their top two picks should go towards addressing the line once again.

That's really all of the glaring needs I can think of at the moment. It's hard to remember, but this team was looking really damn good when it was 7-3. That's not to say they can't spend their time adding depth and youth on defense, where it's sorely needed, but this is a roster more in need of an infusion of youth and some quality insurance rather than a complete overhaul.

The fact is, if the braintrust currently running the Bears has truly decided that their best chance for victory lies with giving their quarterback the time and weapons he needs to succeed, then things really have taken a turn for the better.


*- I should state that, should Marshall eventually be charged and found guilty of punching a woman in the face, I do not support assaulting women and I certainly will acknowledge that he's a jackass. As of now, though, it's all mere allegation and hearsay and most of the sources I generally believe to be reliable think that this will not result in lost playing time for Marshall.

What's the Problem with Lovie Smith?

Now, when I ask that, I'm not asking what Lovie's problem is. I'm asking what it is that so many Bears fans seem to hate about the guy. He's now at 72-55, including playoffs, during his tenure as Bears head coach. He's made 3 playoff appearances, and (fingers crossed) appears to be headed towards number four. Those 3 playoff appearances are more than the Bears managed in the 11 damn years before they hired Lovie. He's done a tremendous job cleaning up the mess, and when his key guys are healthy, he wins. It's that simple.

So what's the problem? I get that Lovie makes some absolutely hare-brained decisions regarding fourth down attempts and challenges. How much of the job of an NFL coach boils down to those two things? Honestly? How many games do you remember the Bears actually Losing because of a poor decision in one of those two categories by Lovie Smith? Take, for example, the 4th and 1 they failed to convert against Detroit, that took 3 points off of the board. The Bears lost by 11. Didn't matter. I suppose you could complain about his failure to challenge Jay's fumble against the Redskins last year, but, much as I love Jay, that game boiled down more to his ridiculously stupid decisions than Lovie's failure to throw a red flag.

Sure, there was a rather dark time period where the Lovie Era seemed to be a disaster, and I too called for a clean house when they were 5-9 fourteen games into the 2009 season. That was two long years, and a 19-8 record in the last 27 games, ago. I've long since recanted. As I said during my bye week analysis of the team, I think Lovie's an excellent coach, who has the loyalty of his players. He's got a philosophy that he's loyal to, and, much as it can be frustrating when the pass rush is nonexistent, since the arrival of Julius Peppers it's worked as well as it did back in 2005 and 2006. He's made some tough calls this year, benching guys like Meriweather and Anthony Adams and cutting Chris Harris. All of them have worked out. Conte and Major Wright have stabilized the defense, and Adams responded the week after his benching with a career game against Detroit. At this point the Bears have faced the 6th most difficult schedule in all of football, and they're 6-3 (it's technically 9th, but Detroit, Tampa, and Minnesota's schedule are only more difficult because they've all faced Chicago, rather than vice versa). I think Lovie's doing a great job. It's that simple.

Another aspect of the Lovie Hate I find a bit difficult to explain is the fact that so many people lump him in with Jerry Angelo as though the two are joined at the hip. I have my beefs with Angelo. He's obviously a bit smarter than most gave him credit for, since guys like Lance Louis, Chris Williams before this unfortunate injury, Roberto Garza, and Chris Spencer have played far, far better than people expected, but that doesn't excuse the mess that his offensive lines have been for most of his tenure. Outside of Earl Bennett, the wide receiver corps is inconsistent at best and shitty at worst (I'm looking at you, Roy). Angelo is the guy responsible for Frank Omiyale's continued opportunities when Lovie's now benched him at various points in three consecutive seasons. Obviously they aren't both part of some kind of hive mind.

As a friend of mine pointed out today, even if you concede to the mob the fact that Angelo supposedly sucks at his job, talent acquisition, than that should, logically make Lovie look even better for crafting three (hopefully four) playoff teams and four (hopefully five) winning teams out of Angelo-built "shitty" rosters. So why blame Lovie?

I don't really have a conclusion here. I'm not stating definitely what the cause is for all this anger toward Lovie, since I honestly don't know. Why do those three disappointing seasons (and really that 2008 team was far better than it had any right to be) seem to count more than all of the good things he's done?

Oh well. Let the world know I'm still a fan of Lovie Smith. I hope most of you are, too.

The Bears at the Bye, Part III- The Coaches

We reach the final part of my (naturally) wordy and exhaustive breakdown of the state of the Chicago Bears during their bye week. I conclude now with the coaching staff:

Dave Toub, Special Teams Coordinator:
Is there anything negative to say about Dave? I keep thinking a John Harbaugh-esque leap from ST coordinator to head coach is possible for him. You have to give Hester a lot of credit as the greatest returner of all time, but it's still a testament to Dave's excellence that the return unit has been dangerous over the years whether Hester, Knox, Rashied Davis, Earl Bennett, or Danieal Manning has been the returner. The Knox TD in the Packer game that was nullified by the weakest holding call I've ever seen in my life was, to paraphrase Aaron Rodgers, one of the most amazing plays I've ever seen. It's too bad he'll have to keep that one in his back pocket for awhile. Not much else to say, here, other than I'm glad Dave is still a Bear.

Rod Marinelli, Defensive Coordinator:
I really don't know how important Rod Marinelli is. His specialty, the defensive line, has been awesome in four games and non-existent in three. You can probably figure out which ones I mean. As for his playcalling as a coordinator? Does it matter? You know what the Bears are going to do on defense. It's a common retort when fans rail against coaches that the most important thing is the execution by the players on the field. Sometimes that too easy of an answer, but in the case of Lovie and Rod and the defense they run it's especially accurate.

If you look at the difference between this year's defense and last year's, the big plays they've surrendered, none of the problems have come from poor playcalling. Major Wright just wasn't where he was supposed to be in New Orleans. Brandon Meriweather's never been where he was supposed to be, and Chris Harris' obviously got a reprimand for his poor discipline. The last two games have been especially promising in that the shoddy run defense has improved. That's step one. If that trend continues, we'll look back at Rod as a good defensive coordinator at the end of the year. If not? None of us will be that upset to say goodbye to him, since, again, no one really knows how important he is anyway.

Mike Martz, Offensive Coordinator:
Give Mike Martz his due: he knows how to get the most out of me, whether positive or negative. My vacillation between the depths of despair and guarded optimism regarding his hiring two years ago resulted in some of the most hilarious number-crunching in the history of this site, as I somehow managed to prove that Mike Martz was the single worst possible thing for Jay Cutler while also possibly the key to Jay's improvement. I give him credit for improving Jay Cutler's footwork and his mechanics. Jay's unfortunately had to rush some throws this year thanks to the shoddy protection, but I feel at this point that his worst days are behind him. If the team around him melts down we'll probably still see plenty of errant throws like we saw against New Orleans and Green Bay, but I think the days of streaking passes to guys like DeAngelo Hall are long gone. True to his reputation, he's probably made Jay Cutler a better player.

However, there's another side of the coin. It's a good thing that Mike has helped Jay improve his mechanics and pocket presence, because he's needed it while dodging the free blitzers that Martz's scheme doesn't even dream of accounting for. His decision to ignore Matt Forte in back to back games against New Orleans and Green Bay put the team in a hole that they're still trying to crawl out of. I think at this point Forte's done well enough that even Mike can't deny that the offense needs to go through him. What we've seen the last two games are gameplans indicating a changed individual. We've seen 25+ rushing attempts, 6, 7, and even 8 man protections, play action passes, bootlegs, and back shoulder throws. It's been nice, and it's allowed the two most important players, Forte and Cutler, to do what they do best.

The question, however, is what this means for Mike Martz's future. If even Mike Martz himself has given up on running "The Mike Martz Offense" with capital Ms, is he worth keeping around to run "the mike martz offense"? Can't someone who specializes in this West Coast-style offense be brought in who actually Wants to run it, not a guy who has been browbeaten into what I'm sure he considers a bastardization of his offense? I don't mean to make too much of the overblown Cutler footage. I honestly think Jay just wanted to take a shot at the end zone and was disappointed that the ball was taken out of his hands, but I think it's obvious that something there isn't clicking. It doesn't mean Cutler lacks leadership, as Pompei or Telander or one of the other braindead columnists opined after the incident, and it doesn't mean that he even necessarily dislikes Mike Martz or doesn't buy in. It just seems to be a case where you don't have the guy who can maximize the talent of a valuable asset. Why not move on?

Lovie Smith, Head Coach
Lovie's a tragically misunderstood figure. He's often depicted as a boring, listless dunce who coddles his players. So far this year he's been anything but boring. He hasn't hesitated to shake up the lineup on offense and defense when things aren't working well. Remember that he gave Chris Harris his walking papers the next time someone tries to tell you that Lovie never cuts one of "his guys." He's also made the usual number of batshit crazy 4th down calls and poor challenges. Make of that what you will, but the job of a head coach really doesn't boil down to what they actually do on the sidelines. Yeah, his 4th down decisions and the challenges are terrible, but he's actually not that far from league average on any of them and they very rarely end up having that much of an effect on the outcome of the game. I don't judge Lovie on those.

When I judge Lovie, I look at his record, and I look at what he gets from the players he has. I think he's a much better coach than he's given credit for. I personally haven't forgotten what a mess this franchise was before he got here and how quickly he turned it around. His players play hard for him, and I think he's generally coaxed more out of his teams than he should be able to. That 2005 Bears team had a quarterback in Kyle Orton who posted one of (there is no hyperbole in this statement, this is scientific fact) the worst passing seasons in modern NFL history. They won 11 games. I still don't blame him for the 2007 Bears. The combination of the fall of Rex Grossman, the major injuries to Tommie Harris, Nathan Vasher, Charles Tillman, Brian Urlacher, and Mike Brown wiped out the talented core of that team's defense, and some of them never recovered. I actually think Lovie did a hell of a job getting nine wins out of a 2008 team that, frankly, wasn't that talented, and that hurt him in the long run because we all (me included) then thought that the 2009 Bears were a hell of a lot closer to contending than they actually were. He's always been a stabilizing influence and his ability to ride out a rough first half really looked smart when things came together in the second half last year. He was a touchdown away from a second Superbowl appearance for a franchise that made 2 Playoff appearances in the 12 years before he arrived. Why that always seems to be forgotten, I don't know.

All that said, if Lovie can't get this crew into the playoffs this year, he needs to go. Not in a "it's all his fault" way, but in a "it's just time to go" way. There's a time limit on these things, or else you end up in a Jeff Fisher situation, where the Titans first window (1999-2003) closed and you spend forever trying to open a new one and it gets harder and harder each year. If Lovie finds a way to win now, and they can keep rebuild while sustaining playoff appearances, great. If he fails? You're not going to be able to rebuild with him in the middle of all of the anger and rage of the fanbase and the organization. We're all worried about how Lovie's going to deal with losing bulwarks like Briggs and Urlacher down the road. If he can't win it's best to let someone without those attachments or those memories make the tough calls. That doesn't mean I won't appreciate what he did, though.

That wraps it up. It's hard to get a gauge on this team. By all accounts (the 2 game win streak, the improvement on both sides of the ball, the return of guys like Bennett and Carimi, the bye week rest) this team's arrow is pointing up, but I have a hard time recovering the enthusiasm I had before the deflating games against the Saints, Packers, and Lions. I look at the remaining schedule and can still forecast anywhere from 9-12 wins for this team, but it's shaky ground I stand on making that prediction. Oh, fuck it. They're going to make the playoffs. Go Bears.

In Review-The Coaching Staff

Time to wrap up the reviews today, and I've decided to finish with the unit that typically causes the most controversy, especially among Bears fans: the coaches. Considering at least half (and I think that's an underestimate) of the fanbase started the year off expecting and possibly even rooting for a losing season out of Lovie and Co. so that they'd get fired, this was a unit that had a long way to go to earn any measure of respect. Personally I've never understood the concept of rooting against your own team in hopes that they will then fire a coach in order to replace him with a coach "who will win." I mean, for one, this may be hard to accept, but your rooting interest has absolutely no effect whatsoever on the outcome of games. Secondly, if the guy that's already there wins, why do you need to replace him with a "winner"? Thirdly, if any of you sonsofbitches ever argued for Mr. Four Division Titles in 17 Years Jeff Fisher as future coach of the Chicago Bears, I will personally fight you. So anywho, onto the brains behind the Bears:

Dave Toub, Special Teams Coordinator
I'll admit it- I never saw the value of a special teams coordinator until Dave Toub came around to show us that there really is a big difference between an average unit and a very good one. Obviously Devin Hester's record-breaking talents have earned Dave his share of credit, but that would be shortchanging him considering how good the Bears have been at kicking, punting, returning, and covering. Hell, one of the best things I can say about Dave Toub is how I was so damned shocked that Dez Bryant returned a punt for a TD in week two against he Bears simply because I assumed it could never happen to them under his watch. That's still only the second return for a TD the Bears have allowed in Toubs seven years. I'll take it. Throw in the fact that the Bears lead the NFL by a wide margin in blocking kicks and punts (20 during Toub's tenure) and it's hard to argue that Toub isn't the best in the game at his job. Not surprisingly, the Bears lowballed Toub on a contract extension this offseason and he turned them down. If he has another year this year like he had in 2010 I wouldn't be shocked to see him as a candidate for a John Harbaugh-style leap all the way to a big job somewhere.

Mike Tice, Offensive Line Coach
I'm not going to cover the rest of the individual unit coaches (although I'll mention that Bob Babich sucks. F*&k you, Babich), but I figured Tice was worth mentioning. You'd think a guy who had the worst offensive line in the NFL by a wide margin would have received all kinds of shit this year. Instead, Tice received nothing but (deserved) accolades for managing to scrape together a patchwork that actually managed to hold together for most of the second half of the season. We all knew the Bears offensive line was dogshit going into the season, and yet Tice managed to find a way to move around Chris Williams, Lance Louis, Olin Kreutz, Edwin Williams, Roberto Garza, Kevin Shaffer, and Frank Omiyale to get to a line that went 7-2 after the bye week and allowed the offense to average over 24 PPG in the second half. Matt Forte had the highest yard per carry average of any back in the NFL in that second half, and they allowed 21 sacks in the 9 games after the bye vs. 31 in the first 7 games. None of those numbers are that stellar, but anyone who watched the change knows that Tice did the best he could with a line very, very thin on talent. Hopefully this damnable lockout ends soon and Tice can continue to mold Chris Williams into a guard and gear up Gabe Carimi for his future as a left tackle in the NFL. J'Marcus Webb still has a lot to learn and a lot of talent to work with, and Lance Louis played very well before he was pushed out of the starting lineup through no real fault of his own. Tice's unit should hopefully be the most improved next year.

Rod Marinelli, Defensive Coordinator
We were all pissed when the Bears failed in their search for a new DC and had to settle for promoting Marinelli. We'd heard all offseason the year before about how Marinelli was going to upgrade the Bears defensive line in 2009 and bring them back their 05-06 heyday. He actually did improve their overall numbers, but to nowhere near the extent we were promised and the backlash was pretty powerful. Rod's Lovie's best friend and yes man and everyone knew it, so it seemed like more of the same was in order for this year.

Well, it wasn't. The truth is that the Tampa Two that Lovie brought to Chicago was never broken, the personnel the Bears had to run it was. Marinelli had Julius Peppers and a healthy Brian Urlacher and Charles Tillman to work with, along with Chris Harris and the breakout year of Danieal Manning. I'll still give Rod some credit, since his game plans were very stout and he never seemed to be too loyal to his base defense or even some of the zone blitzes that Lovie was fond of overusing last year. All in all, this wasn't the bad hire it seemed to be, and the fact remains that the Bears will have a good defense so long as they can keep the big three of Urlacher, Briggs, and Peppers healthy.

Mike Martz, Offensive Coordinator
Oh, Mike Martz. What a long, strange trip it's been. I love the art of offensive strategy in football. The Coryell offense that Martz runs is one of my favorite schemes of all time, if not my all time favorite. Granted, I'm more of a fan of the more balanced attack run that Dick Vermeil and Al Saunders ran in Kansas City, but the fact remains that, schematically, the deep passing of this offense makes it one of the more exciting and difficult to defend offenses in football. That's good, considering what Bears fans have had to deal with in the past with the monotonous Ron Turner, the sham that was Terry Shea's "Coryell" style attack, and the Run'N'Punt of John Shoop.

Of course, the problem is that we've only seen glimpses of the true Mike Martz offense. Cutler hasn't had the protection necessary for the kind of seven step drops and deep dig routes that were Martz's staple in St. Louis. Lord knows Martz tried, and the results were disastrous. You could see him chomping at the bit in the second half while he had to reign things in and play small ball, but he managed to do it well, and eventually things reached a point where he was able to dabble a bit with some of his old favorites, which led to some interesting explosions like the Eagles game, the 40-14 demolishing of the Vikings, and the wild comeback win over the Jets that showed what this offense can be if it can get consistent blocking up front.

I'd have to give Mike a B- for the year if I was giving out grades. On the one hand, he managed to right the ship and gameplan around some serious deficiencies up front in order to do just enough to win 11 games. On the other hand, a lot of his problems were self inflicted. He should have known better than to attempt seven step drops against the front of the New York Giants. He should never have ignored Matt Forte's ability to run the ball until it took a rumored closed door meeting during the bye week to get Matt some more carries. He attempted to run "his" offense against the Packers in week 17 and he missed the chance to knock the Packers out of the playoffs while exposing Cutler to an unnecessary beating and, most damning of all, he tried to run the same god damn offense out there in the NFC Championship Game. When Mike's "genius" was needed the most, he failed to adapt. Cutler should have been in the shotgun early and often in those games, Forte should have been given more than 15 carries, and you DO NOT CALL A REVERSE ON 3rd AND FUCKING THREE.

Sorry. Every now and then I remember that I hate Mike Martz as a person, and that sort of taints my view of him as a coach. I think Mike has earned his reputation in this league, both for good and bad. We saw plenty of both this year. It's easy to say that Mike's offense will do better next year with a better offensive front, but that still leaves the burden on him to remember to give Forte the rock, to protect Cutler at all costs, and to just plain be able to admit when something isn't working. I really hope he can do that.

Lovie Smith, Head Coach
The Lovie Smith experience for me is all about perspective. Last year I jumped on the Fire Lovie bandwagon late, as three years of frustration can have a deadly effect on a man. I think Lovie's an imperfect coach. He has some of the same flaws as his predecessor Jauron in that he can sometimes be too loyal to an assistant (Bob Babich, anyone?) and that he has a tendency to shut things down and pucker late in close games. He's also a bit of a dictator behind the scenes, considering he ran Ron Rivera out of town over a very minor difference in philosophy. His struggles with challenges are infamous, even though statistics say he's about average in that category. I'm also pretty sure that he'd draft seven safeties a year if it was entirely up to him. He's also, however, a pretty good football coach.

That's as controversial a statement as I can make, but the results tend to bear me out. Lovie's now 63-49 (.563%) as coach of the Bears with four winning seasons, three playoff appearances, and a conference championship in seven years. The Bears are a top ten team in this decade with regard to wins and playoff appearances. They're not where we want them to be with regards to championships and consistency, but there's still something to be said for Lovie's ability to turn around a franchise that went 75-101 (.426%) under his two predecessors.

We know what Lovie's faults are as far as on-field coaching goes. He can get too conservative on offense. He will live and die by the Tampa Two, even when you lose three of the four guys who made it so effective in Chicago in the first place (Mike Brown, Brian Urlacher, Tommie Harris, and Lance Briggs). He'll occasionally do some really, really stupid shit. But if he can get healthy players that fit his system, he wins ballgames. When Lovie has 16 games of Brian Urlacher, he's 51-29 with three playoff appearances in five years. I still don't blame him for 2004, since he wasn't the one that put Jonathan Quinn and Craig Krenzel on the roster. 07-09 sucked, and Lovie bears his share of the blame, but again, the biggest problem in that time period was a roster based upon big contracts given to Brian Urlacher, Tommie Harris, Nathan Vasher, and Charles Tillman when those four all missed parts, most, or all of entire seasons with injuries. It sucked to watch a Superbowl contender disappear over night, but it's hard to blame Lovie for being as mystified as the rest of us when most of his best players simply weren't the same guys anymore.

I think this team is on the cusp of ending the ups and downs of the past few years and turning into a perennial contender. There's a great corps of young skill players on offense with Cutler, Forte, Knox, Olsen, Hester, and Bennett that are only going to get better if they can find five guys up front to allow them to go to work. The defense is aging but the performance it gave this year gives me hope that they'll stick around long enough to allow their replacements to start filtering in over the next couple of years. I think the simple truth is that the Chicago Bears are going to have the same head coach for a while, and for once it might not just be the result of ownership being too cheap to fire him.

Packers 10, Bears 3. I've Seen This Movie Before

Hopefully another season ending in an ugly loss to Green Bay leads to a Superbowl berth. I'm not really sure what the Bears hoped to accomplish yesterday. They obviously straightened some stuff out on defense, and yet the offensive game plan seemed almost vanilla. The Bears didn't make any of their usual adjustments, they never used Cutler out of the shotgun outside of third and long, and it appeared as though they didn't want to show their hand for the playoffs. My question then, of course, is why even bother playing their starters the whole game? A Bears offensive line attempting to block Green Bay's front seven in a straight a man-to-man approach is a terrible idea, and the six sacks of Cutler prove that. Either way, my biggest complaint about yesterday is undoubtedly the game plan. Why not put Cutler and the offense into a hurry up Before the two minute drill? Even then nobody seemed to be in That much of a rush. The Bears really needed to decide before the game if it mattered to them, because their approach in that department was inconsistent at best.

I'm not trying to take anything away from the Green Bay Packers, however. That was an excellent slugfest on defense and unfortunately they won. I'm not particularly panicked about a seven point loss at Lambeau, considering they split the season series and an unlikely rematch would take place at Soldier Field. They've got a tough game against the Eagles next week and they'd have to follow that up with a win in the dome against Atlanta in order to make it to the NFC title game and while they're certainly a talented enough team to pull that off, I don't think they'll make it.

As for the Bears? Well, I'd try not to lose much sleep over this. There's a reason you play for homefield advantage. You avoid having to go into hostile environments to face tough teams in their element like the Packers. Of the teams the Bears have lost to this year, the Packers, the Redskins, the Giants, the Seahawks, and the Patriots, the Bears can't run into the Skins or Giants again. As for the he Seahawks game, well, the Bears are a much better team than they were then, and rematches with the Patriots and Packers would be deep into the playoffs and problems I'd be willing to worry about then. The important thing is that Cutler and the Bears have every opportunity to wipe out the bad taste of this ultimately meaningless loss by making some noise in the postseason. Let's hope they take advantage.

The Good:

The front seven- Green Bay could muster little in the way of the run game, and the defense made some huge stops in short yardage situations. GB struggled on third down, and the first goal line stand was a thing of beauty. Morons are bitching about the secondary again, but if you hold the Packers to 10 points you're doing something right. This can't be pinned on the defense.

Tommie Harris: Good to see Tommie get his first sack.

Matt Forte: He went over a 1,000 yards on the season and 500 yards receiving, the first Bears RB to pull that off. His 1,547 yards from scrimmage and 9 total touchdowns are damn good numbers.

The Bad:

Lovie and Martz: Was this game important or not, guys? I'm extremely disappointed with everything I listed above, along with not giving Webb any help against Clay Matthews and allowing Cutler to take a beating by waiting until the fourth quarter to switch to the short game.

Jay Cutler: This was the worst game he's played all year, and I mean that. He was off target all day. Of his two picks, one was a terrible decision in the end zone and the other was just a really bad throw. He made the right read in Hester but didn't step into the throw and the ball sailed high and ended the Bears hopes. He, more than anyone else, needs to do something great in the postseason to get the monkey off his back.

The Offensive Line: You guys suck.

That's all for now. See you all in the playoffs.

Bears-Lions, Who Should Have Won? Who Cares, because I Know Who Did.

There's a lot of fuss right now that the Lions "should have won the game." I love this in football. I really do. Take the last play, or the biggest play, and assume that it was the only play that could have made a difference in the game. How about if the Lions want to win a game they can try picking up a first down more than once in the first 28 minutes of the second half?

The simple fact is that this game should not have even been close. Take away the three fumbles and the Bears probably come close to scoring 40 points in that game, so for every jackass that's saying that "should have been a touchdown", well, so should the four possession the Bears fucked away in the Lions redzone.

Anywho, let's break things down methodically.


The Good:

Jay Cutler: I'm putting the big guy up front this week. 372 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 108 rating. Those are outstanding numbers. The interception was a bad decision, but it was the only one he made all game. He threw deep, intermediate, and short passes well, and while Forte and the line should be given all the credit in the world for that outstanding 89 yard touchdown catch, Cutler placed that ball perfectly and gave him the room to run. He should have had a third TD pass on the first drive of the game, but DA dropped it. Good on you, Jay. Keep it up.

Matt Forte: Add today to the Raiders pre-season game as evidence that the kid has his speed back. The run game wasn't so hot, but he's still the first Bears RB with 200+ yards from scrimmage since Neal Anderson. He and Taylor both are extremely capable receivers. And his game winning touchdown catch was a thing of beauty as well.

The Linebackers: Please baby Jesus let these three stay healthy this year. Detroit gained 20 yards rushing. 20. I don't care if they're the Detroit Lions, that's an impressive showing by the run game. Urlacher showed some great range and speed from sideline to sideline, Briggs made a number of key plays including a textbook strip-sack, and Tinoisamoa made his presence known as well. Shirtless hugs to these three.

Julius Peppers: He had two sacks, in my opinion, one waved off due to a ridiculous roughing call on which I'm forced to agree with Tom Thayer (a rarity), who called it "an embarrassment to the game of football", and one that knocked Matthew Stafford out of the game and forced a fumble. He was also disruptive on several other plays. Way to earn that paycheck, big fella.

Mike Martz: I am pissed he didn't even try a sneak on that goal line possession. Outside of that, however, the man called a perfect game. It was almost surreal to see a Bears team effectively run a screen play. Keep proving me wrong, Mike.

The Bad:

The offensive line, sorta: These guys did a lot better than I expected. They also did some really great things. Cutler had way more time to throw than he usually did last year, and the blocking on the Forte swing pass was brilliant. 2 of the sacks that the Lions had were coverage sacks, and Cutler needs to learn to throw the ball away. They weren't so great at opening holes in the run game, however, and a couple of the sacks were really terrible break downs. Overall I'd give them a C.

Lovie Smith: Mother of God, Lovie. I hate you so much. Why go for it on fourth down and pass up the easy points? At that point the defense hadn't so much as allowed Detroit a first down in the entire second half. You should have taken the 16-14 lead and assumed they'd stop the Lions and get you the ball back. You know, cuz they did. It was also nice to see the return of the Lovie Smith Puckered Asshole Prevent Defense That Stops Absolutely Nothing. As though the Panthers, Buccaneers, and Falcons games of 2008 and the Packers game last year wasn't enough evidence that this is an awful strategy, Lovie (or his partner in crime Marinelli) insisted on switching from the incredibly effective defense they'd played all game to sitting back and allowing Shaun Hill (!) to carve them up without much resistance. Even worse, he then inexplicably switched from zone to man in the red zone and left Bowman without safety help on the the Touchdown That Wasn't. Guh.

Greg Olsen: What purpose do you serve, good sir? You can't block. You drop easy passes. And you fumble after the slightest contact. I've seen enough of this. I'm wondering why I spent all season acting like Mike Martz being willing to use the tight end was a good thing.

Well, that's it for now, folks. Calm down, enjoy the win, and realize that the 463-168 edge in yardage and the 21-13 edge in first downs was far more indicative of the talent levels of those two teams than the close score. The fumbles were flukes that will go away, but the ease with which the offense and defense imposed their will on the Lions in the yardage category may be just the beginning. Obviously those numbers will change against better teams, but even last year the Bears struggled to contain the offenses of terrible teams like the Lions and Seahawks. These are good signs, people.

Does it Make a Difference?

As you all know by now, Julius Peppers is a Bear, along with Chester Taylor and Brandon Manumaleuna. The reactions to these events should range from the Redskin-fan like euphoria, where every fan feels like their team just won the offseason superbowl, to the bitter, jaded response that those moves didn't really address the biggest deficiencies on the team and that they're doomed anyways. Or, if you're completely retarded, you can argue that this team will never win anything because Jay Cutler blahblahblah.

The fact is, these were good moves. Do they smack of desperation? Of course they do. They should. The fact that Lovie and Jerry feel the heat is a good sign. It shakes up the view of complacency that so many of us were afraid of. In an uncapped year there's absolutely no reason for them Not to break the bank on the free agent market, and Peppers was unquestionably the best free agent out there. Peppers also, far more than Rod Marinelli's sage wisdom, has the chance of improving Tommie Harris, and, by extension, the entire Bears defense. They don't need to revert to 2006 form to be competitive, they simply need to be a top 16ish defense, keep the offense in the game, and avoid debacles like the games against the Bengals, Cardinals, or the game in Minnesota.

Taylor was a good move as well, assuming the team uses him in tandem with Forte and doesn't just give up on Matt. The offensive line was the problem with the run game this year, and it would be foolish to judge Forte based on his performance behind that line. It was thinking like that led to the team drafting Cedric Benson when Thomas Jones was already on the roster. The two quality backs are a must, however, as was obvious this season when Kevin Jones went down and Garrett Wolfe only managed to solidify his status as a wasted draft pick.

Manumeleuna was a good move as well, in the sense that he's a good blocker and he fits Martz' system. The rumors are that Greg Olsen wants out and the Patriots are offering a 2nd round pick for him. I don't like that Olsen has to leave just because he doesn't fit a system I don't like in the first place, but if they trade him for a second round pick that can be used on on a quality guard or tackle that can make an impact this year, well, that wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen.

These were good moves. If Jerry can turn Olsen into a 2nd round pick and have a quality draft, and they maybe find a serviceable veteran lineman or safety after cuts in the spring and summer, they might be able to patch together an offensive line or secondary that can get them through the year and get this team back into the playoffs.

The 2009 Bears- The Bad

Well, I was going to do a player by player breakdown of the bad players from the Bears this year before moving onto the coaching staff, but with the latest coaching changes, that's worth more of a discussion, so here's briefly a list of players on this team who suck ass and should probably die:

-Orlando Pace
-Frank Omiyale
-Olin Kreutz' rotten corpse.
-Greg Olsen (most of the time)
-Tommie Harris
-Nathan Vasher
-Danieal Manning
-Zack Fucking Bowman
-Al Afalava
-Kevin Payne
-The three-headed linebacker monster of suck (Hillenmeyer/Williams/Roach)
-Pretty much anyone else on the roster besides the ones I explicitly named yesterday.

Moving on-

The Bears fired 6 coaches yesterday. Let's look at each one-

-Ron Turner, Offensive Coordinator: Anyone that reads this site will know how fervently I defended Turner before this season. His system is not a bad system, and I don't believe he himself is a particularly bad coordinator. He's not particularly good either. He's certainly not innovative. Any moron could look at the offense this year and trace every problem back to the offensive line. Turner isn't responsible for putting that together. But he Is responsible for gameplanning around that, at least somewhat. He didn't. The continued insistence on "establishing the run" over the first half of the season cost this team dearly, as did his utter refusal (until After the team had been eliminated from contention) to roll Cutler out and utilize his mobility in order to buy time to pass. His wide receiver screens, while not as pointless as those used by Crowton, Shoop, or Shea, still sucked. I won't miss him, but he doesn't deserve 100% of the blame, either.

-Harry Hiestand, Offensive Line Coach: This is completely deserved. Name one offensive lineman the Bears have developed effectively during Hiestand's tenure. The only time the line was effective was during the 05 and 06 seasons, when a veteran heavy lineup really didn't Need coaching.

-Pep Hamilton, Quarterbacks Coach: Thank god. Can you name any three quarterbacks with more easily fixable mechanical and technical issues than Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton, and Jay Cutler? Can you name anything Hamilton did to fix Any of those issues?

-Rob Boras, Tight Ends Coach: Can I blame him for my hatred of Greg Olsen? It's not this guy's fault that Olsen drops everything and can't block, is it? If it is, he should probably just kill himself.

And assistants Luke Butkus and Charles London: Other than pissing the meatheads off by firing Dick Butkus' kid, I don't think this will have any effect.

Now, I agree with all of those firings. My problem that list is that it fails to include many of the people who needed to be fired the most, namely, the defensive staff and Lovie's cronies.

I understand that it was a pipe dream to hope that Lovie would be fired, especially after they won the last two games of the season. You'd think in a normal organization three playoff-less seasons would have a bigger impact than two games that allowed a team to finish 7-9, but hey, this is the Bears we're talking about. The fact, however, is that Lovie needs to have the circle of yes men that surrounds him removed. For God's sake, Bob Babich still has a fucking job. The rumors stating that Lovie had decided to make Marinelli the defensive coordinator are fortunately untrue, but that still won't change much.

With Babich and Marinelli and his fellow Cover 2 loyalists in place, the defensive coordinator that Lovie hires (probably Perry Fewell) will be surrounded and outnumbered, if he even wishes to change things. It doesn't matter who calls the defensive plays for this team. The scheme is broken. Tommie Harris is worthless. The front four has been mostly ineffective and wildly inconsistent for three straight years. The safeties all suck, and the corners can't keep up with anybody. The defense and the defensive coaching staff needs a complete overhaul, and Lovie needs to be stripped of as much of his authority as possible. That's not happening, so this team's fucked for at least one more year.

With some actual improvements on the offensive line (which won't be forthcoming if Angelo just signs this year's Orlando Pace or Omiyale on the market) and an offensive coordinator that tailors the offense to fit Cutler's strengths (like Jeremy Bates, the former Denver QB coach and current USC offensive coordinator that Cutler is supposedly lobbying for), this team can make marginal improvements and perhaps be in playoff contention next year, but if nothing changes on the defensive side of the ball the odds of winning anything are greatly reduced. In short, give up hope. Just give it up. It's going to be another long fucking year.

A Poll, Because I'm Still Too Disgruntled to Write

After a whole day of reflection and soul-searching, I still haven't come up with anything to say about the Bears-Vikings game (why I care, given that I'm a life-long Saints fan, I don't know). It went about as poorly as I expected, other than the team only giving up four sacks. Cleveland managed that, so, in your face, Jared Allen. There's no other way to describe this team right now other than what it is: a complete and utter fucking disaster.

My illustrious comrade on this blog, Iggins!, seems to think three playoffless seasons brought on by injuries (not Lovie's fault), poor coaching changes and decisions (replacing Rivera with Babich, keeping Ron Turner, running the Cover 2 long after the personnel no longer suited it, all of which Is Lovie's fault), and awful personnel decisions (Angelo's fault indeed, but also Lovie's, as he was the one who insisted Danieal Manning/Adam Archuletta were better options than Chris Harris, he's the one who insisted the team draft Cedric Benson, he's the one who still runs the Cover 2 even though the personnel no longer suits it), Lovie's just a guy with a bunch of bad luck who shouldn't be fired. I maintain my long-held stance that everything Iggins! says is wrong, and that Lovie (and Jerry) should be run out of town. Hub Arkush (I know. It's not much) says the Bears have talked specifically to Bill Cowher and that Cowher "would be very interested" in the Bears job. Shanahan's also an option, as is Jon Gruden (I'd be okay with two of those. I won't tell you which one I don't like, but I'll give a hint: "That guy is a football player. He came to play football!") But that's all speculation for now. Since I don't want to keep grumbling, and honestly, nothing I'd bitch about would be any different than what I've bitched about with increasing frequency all season long, here's a poll:

Who Will Coach the Bears in 2010

• 
  
  Bill Cowher


• 
  
  Mike Shanahan


• 
  
  Jon Gruden


• 
  
  Mike Leach


• 
  
  Lovie Smith because you know this is a waste of time and the McCaskeys are cheap bastards


• 
  
  Ditka!


• 
  
  Dick Jauron (He's Available!)


• 
  
  Charlie Weiss


• 
  
  My Balls


• 
  
  Other

view results
Free vote poll