Cutler's Last Stand

On the one hand, I'm surprised the new Bears regime has named Cutler their starting quarterback. On the other hand, what choice did they have? They certainly didn't hitch their wagons to him, but rather made it sound just a tad better than being saddled with him.
The idea that Cutler hasn't won anything while he's been here is correct, but unfair. I'm not saying that he's the second coming we expected when he pouted his way out of Denver, but he's also not the pariah everyone makes him out to be. It is fair to focus on his turnovers, especially on bad decisions, but consider what he's been up against since he's been a Bear.

1st year - new team, terrible line, terrible receiving corps. Defense was solid.
2nd year - still no real support beyond Matt Forte, and the offensive coordinator was Mike Martz - a guy who had been critical of Cutler in the media previously and had left the league after having become a non-factor. He is out of football completely as far as I can tell. Defense was solid.
3rd year - more Martz, same line (or much worse), lots of yards but not enough wins. Defense was solid.
4th year - Mike Tice becomes OC. WTF. J'Marcus Webb. WTF. Marshall joins the team and Cutler can call his own plays, but that's only because the OC can't. Defense is okay.
5th year - new head coach, new OC, new offensive line that shows promise. Rookie WR that makes Marshall that much better, new TE from outer space. Stars align for offense, Cutler gets hurt. Defense sucks. Lovie guys must have been sabotaging Emery.
6th year - new HC is figured out, OC talks shit to press about Cutler, defense is made up of players who wouldn't make practice squad on most other teams. Hell, special teams sucked.
7th year - this year - yet another new HC/OC. Marshall traded away. Bennett might be butthurt that his pal/mentor was let go (he wasn't super cooperative last year in camp). The Bears needs are mostly at defense, which is no guarantee of improvement, but it also means that the offense might not improve significantly, either.

Each of these failed OCs has tried to put their mark on the offense (except Tice - not sure what he actually did), and the entire offense was upgraded around Cutler under Emery and Trestman. But the rest of the team fell apart. The offense didn't perform as anyone would have expected, but the defense was historically bad, and the special teams was laughable.

Balance is key in football. All three phases need to be average to good to stand a chance in any game. You can start getting into playoff talks by moving one of your phases from good to great, and sometimes having a great group lifts the rest of the team. Conversely, when two of three phases are floundering - and just two years previous were great - it's an anchor for the whole team.

I feel like nobody mentions the number of times Bennett dropped easy passes early in games, where it would have been nice to start with a long drive and a score, but they ended up kicking the ball away instead. For every interception Jay threw, I'd be curious to learn how many drops occurred on catchable balls.

I'm not hitching my wagon to Cutler, either, but I really don't think he's the liability he's been made out to be in Chicago media. I have thought and agreed that he could jog out to the receiver who just scored and pat him on the helmet, but I'm not basing his value as a QB on his celebrations. If John Fox and Adam Gase are the seasoned veteran coaching pair that I think they are, they might use Cutler like Denver did back in Jay's halcyon years. He can run and he's sometimes more accurate outside of the pocket. That's hard to defend.

More importantly, my hope is that the new regime brings balance back so that the losses are not so embarrassing, and the wins don't feel like losses. If Jay's part of it, I hope the haters can find a way to lose the Jay-face.

Cheaters Sometimes Prosper

I have a hard time with cheating in professional sports. I'm conflicted with the morality at play. "Deflate-gate" is just the latest in a long series of issues (not the first for the Patriots, either) that sully the most basic concepts of sportsmanship. Or do they?

As far as deflating a football goes, I am aghast that both teams don't use the same ball in a game. This seems less like cheating and more like the league missing an opportunity to add more parity. The NFL should provide any and all balls, and they should never be in the hands of equipment personnel from either team. Simple enough. I believe that the only way the playing field is actually level is if everyone has the same access to performance enhancement.

Performance-enhancing drugs? If I understand them correctly, many of them are meant to assist in recovery after exertion. I would allow those immediately. Yes, there's the concern of health issues down the road, but any professional athlete is risking life-altering injury every time they compete. Hell, a 25-year-old cricket player just died after being hit by a ball. Doesn't matter if he was on the juice or not. Besides, who can say that steroids are worse than Splenda in the grand scheme of things?

I want to see my favorite basketball/baseball/football/hockey/soccer/tennis/etc. player do what they do best. If that means Adderall to focus or HGH to recover and hit the field faster, how is that more dangerous than telling football players they can only tackle knees? Concussions are a bigger concern, in my opinion.

The bigger travesty than Lance Armstrong getting caught for using PEDs is that he essentially buried the guy who originally outed him. It's pretty well known that everyone in cycling does some kind of performance enhancement; the crime here was slander, and Armstrong was the villain. I could have forgiven him for getting caught doping, but ruining another person's life to maintain his ridiculous lie is unfathomable.

It's worthwhile to consider the concept of cheating within the realm of professional sports. The ultimate draw of sports is competition, but professional sports is also entertainment. The key word is "professional". At the point when sports becomes a career, I believe any advantage an athlete can gain to win or be the best in their position should be available to them, with the exception of substances that are illegal in general.

This is Rich

I know I've discussed the alternate universe scenario where instead of firing Lovie Smith, the Bears actually hired a competent offensive coordinator* instead. The result would have been at least one more year of Lovie ball, but that would have meant that Rod Marinelli would have stayed, and likely Brian Urlacher as well. Cutler would have gotten his wish, Emery would have fixed the offensive line, and who knows where the limit would have been.

Well, we're in this dimension and it's much messier than that. Our cast-off head coach and backup quarterback are floundering in Tampa Bay, and our freshly dismissed head coach is palling around with the two of them on the beach. The conjecture in this primary universe is that McCown and Trestman will rekindle their relationship and prop up the miserable Buccaneers offense.

Keep in mind that this dream team racked up a mediocre 3-2 record in Chicago. Despite his high passer rating and record-breaking performances, it's situational plays that have always eluded Chicago. My guess is that less-than-killer instinct will find its way to Tampa, too. (See what I did there?)

I wish McCown the best. Seemed like a good guy with medium skill and extraordinary personality - the kind of guy radio audiences would like to see at the helm. Until he loses, of course - then you need a gunslinger. Where would we find one of those?

Finally, word on the street (network?) is that Rex Ryan is all but hired for the Atlanta head coaching position. I'm not sure he's the answer here, but he's universally seen as the best candidate currently available. They haven't even talked to him yet.

My level of hope is significantly lower than it was this time last year. Maybe I'll check back in for the 2016 season. I think the slogan has to change from #beardown to #bearit.

A Bitter Bears End

Well, the Cubs and Hawks have been able to revitalize their franchises. I'm very much hoping that they Bears can do the same. Everyone (myself included) thought they had enough talent on the roster to be competitive this year. I still think that's true on the offense.

I'm a little surprised that they got rid of the GM. I had trepidation about the head coach, but there were pieces that needed to be put into place and the GM got them, mostly. I guess there was never as meteoric a shift in the defense, though. That was a difficult position, with all of the aging pro-bowl players trying to play out their contracts under a new defensive scheme.

I think they have to hold Cutler (and anyone else) until there's a new GM and head coach - especially since they're on the hook for so much guaranteed money - but draft a future QB.

Regarding Cutler, it's hard to ignore his numbers - he's the best QB for stats in my lifetime, but this is the worst Bears team I can remember. That might become Cutler's legacy. He performed well individually in Denver, but almost never got to the playoffs. The intangibles (leadership) are missing, and could be the difference between a Jay Cutler and a Brett Favre.

When Lovie got fired, the goal was to put the staff in place to give Cutler the chance to succeed he hadn't yet gotten since choosing to come to Chicago. It sure looked like they did that. The expected attrition in the defense also occurred, but when the offense floundered, there was essentially nothing left on which to hang a hat.

When the search for a head coach to replace Lovie was underway, I really hoped they would talk to Dave Toub to fill his shoes. I still believe that moving Toub to HC and somehow holding on to Rod Marinelli would have meant that Urlacher could have played another year and retired on his own terms. I think there wouldn't have been the drop off in defensive play that we saw last year, and then Toub and a new OC could have focused on updating the line and the overall offensive scheme.

In fact, with Toub as HC, they still could have hired Joe DeCamillis and there probably wouldn't have been as much of a drop in production. Instead, Toub has continued his thorough coaching style in Kansas City. Just a thought - Mike Ditka was a special teams coordinator before taking the reigns with the Bears.

One more thought - the Bears might want to find a GM, coach, or coordinator from Boston. Tom Thibodeau and Theo Epstein seem to be working so far...

Bye Bye Briggs (Redux)

I won't lose any sleep over the departure of Lance Briggs. He was a great individual player, but benefited from playing next to one of the all-time greats in Brian Urlacher. He was fast, nimble, and a sure tackler, but also pretty selfish. And that's not new: http://fledglingtimes.blogspot.com/2007/03/bye-bye-lbriggs.html
In a nutshell, he was a rookie phenom and held his own next to Urlacher in what was probably the best linebacker tandem in the NFL for quite a while. He existed in a system that was focused on the defense, so aside from Ulacher, he also had pro bowl-quality support on the line and in the secondary. His play spoke for him, which became an issue when Urlacher retired and the coaching staff he had been with for many years was ousted.

As a fan, I expected him to be the de facto leader and take the reigns in the locker room. Even if his play or ability to stay healthy was diminished, he could still lead. Turns out he had no interest in that. He had enough interest in starting a restaurant in California that he missed time with his team to attend the opening. This is not new for him; in 2007, he announced that he would not play another snap for the Chicago Bears because he didn't like the offer they gave him on a new contract. He demanded to be traded. The illusion of any kind of allegiance to the Bears or their fans was out the window way back then. (For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Briggs)

In the meantime, his agent couldn't find him a better deal anywhere else (surprise, surprise) so he came back to the table more amenable to nearly the same offer he got the previous year. So, $33 million over 7 years, if I recall correctly. Nothing to sneeze at, but I think his ingratitude toward the Bears was not only ill-conceived, but also helped to cement a reputation that the organization was cheap and didn't value its players. In the case of Lance, I side with the organization. He was good, but Urlacher was the great one.

A quick aside: don't forget that the first thing Lance did when he finally got the big contract was to buy a Lamborghini and wrap it around a telephone pole, leave the scene of the accident, then call police and make up a story about his new car being stolen. What a colossal waste of money and resources. Read this article to see the kind of sway the Chicago Bears had over city infrastructure, too: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/bears/2007-08-27-briggs-car_N.htm

In 2011, he asked to be traded again, and again was offered an extension. That runs out at the end of this season, and on top of all the other negativity this year has brought, if management re-signs him or extends him again, it better only be ceremonial (so he can retire as a Bear) or fans will respond.

All told, I'm glad Briggs was a Bear. I wish he would have been more of a team guy and a leader - especially once Urlacher left the building. The Bears are the oldest team in the league right now and it's time to start correcting that stat. My hope is that they draft more players like Urlacher and less like Briggs.

Whipped and Gassed (2014 Bears)

This past summer, I bought a new Bears cap and shirt. Last year, I put the shirt that lasted through most of the Lovie Smith era out to pasture (too many holes) and was excited to see the promise from last year's inaugural season in the Trestman era take the next step. My assumption was that the newly contracted QB and the hand-selected offense around him would put the Bears into the playoffs for the first time in a while, and they'd have a shot at advancing for a change.

What I got for my investment was two embarrassing games against the rival Packers. They were not only terrible games on the field, but a very clear display of two different methods of running a football organization. I'm not convinced the Bears can win another game this season, and worse, they're locked in with a number of components. Rebuild is not an option, so we'll see the same futile micro-adjustments (Mel Tucker as sacrificial lamb, for instance) that don't address the fundamental organizational issue. 

I'm not sure what the core issue is, honestly, because in the off-season, I thought they made some decent acquisitions again. It wasn't a total transformation like the offense in 2013, but they got a good corner and brought in a number of safeties. One or two of them should have converted into good players. I believe they still could be, but I think the biggest issue is a lack of clear leadership on the team. 

It's exacerbated by the lack of a permanent captain. The Bears rotate the "C" on the jerseys; they say it's to show how many leaders they have, but I get the impression that it's more about a dearth of actual leadership. In the past, it was pretty clear who the leaders were. Not now. And that extends to the coaching staff. 

Defensively, I've never seen a Bears unit less prepared. There's talent on the roster, but also some significant deadwood. At two very important positions lie failed experiments. Chris Conte runs very quickly, but it's always late and he can't finish a tackle. He's the safety - his job is to make sure nothing bad happens, but everything bad happens. Then there's Shea McClellan: another "looks good on paper" player who either doesn't have the drive or the smarts to be either a defensive end or a linebacker. Athletic? Sure - so is Conte. Running fast is like doing all your homework. You ultimately get graded on your tests, though, and these two are consistently failing on Sundays. 

I want to like Phil Emery, but he might be a big part of the problem. I can't blame him - I was excited about most everything he's done, except for the extension of Cutler, where even Cutler seemed nonplussed by it on his radio show. I still think the players he's amassed represents a lot of talent and upside. What he might have missed is the killer instinct. It's more than just leadership - it's a fearlessness and a willingness to do anything to win, including holding people accountable. Brandon Marshall has it, but his history and position marginalize his leadership potential, whether that's fair or not. 

Even if the Bears win out this season, there's virtually no way they could make it into the playoffs now. 2014 is a disappointment after so much excitement. The pundits shared fan enthusiasm and ranked them pretty highly before the first regular season game. Going into week 11, at least one outlet ranks them at 28 of 33. I think that's generous at this point.

The worst part of it is wearing my new Bears cap in Wisconsin and being pitied instead of jibed. Painful stuff.

TCB (Those Craptacular Bears)

What I didn't see coming was the defense playing better than the offense this year. I was so used to that under Lovie Smith, and when the new management team took over the Bears front office, the word on the street was that they were going to build around Jay Cutler and become more of an offensive-minded system.

They brought in a coach with a killer pedigree (for quarterbacks, anyhow - not sure how he became the head coach), then did a pretty amazing job of getting top-flight receivers and solidifying the offensive line with an odd mix of rejuvenated castoffs and newcomers. On paper, this offense should be scoring on every drive. There should be a much better mix of plays available. It's not like it's everyone's first year together anymore, either.

I used to joke around about Lovie's "Prevent Offense" which would come into play the second they got a lead. It wasn't politeness or sportsmanship, it was a fear of failure. And when you focus that much effort on something (failure), you set up blockades for yourself. Then the other team shows up.

There's been wishy-washy coaching decisions, play calling meant to keep Jay Cutler upright (interspersed with plays meant to gain yards), and a defense that's gassed by the end of the 3rd quarter. I'm not sure where Matt Forte ranks with rushing yards, but as of this morning, he led the league in passing receptions. He's the running back, but this is nothing new for Bears fans.

There's the possibility that the issue is the turf, but opposing teams seem to be able to adjust. What I'm more concerned about is that we're stuck with another coach that would have been better off as a coordinator under someone with a more killer instinct. We didn't get the inverse Lovie Smith - we got another Lovie Smith. The scores end up being pretty much the same despite the shift of emphasis to offense.

After the game today, the twitterverse and sports media machine churned up some dirt about the Bears locker room, saying guys were sniping at other guys, and turning on the fans. I'm not sure it's fair to make headlines out of the stuff being said in semi-private after a loss like that; I'm not surprised the players weren't singing Pharrell songs, either.

I do wish that when they have 8 minutes to score 21 points, they'd go into some kind of "hurry up" offense. I've never seen a team (the Bears or otherwise) with such a lax approach to crunch time. Forget controlling the clock. You can worry about that once you're in the lead by a few scores (although the Dolphins didn't relent for 60 minutes).

Maybe it's time for Trestman to stop worrying about his team being better men and start focusing on getting them to be better at football. Maybe he needs to get a little Ditka crazy. Maybe yelling would help. Hugging hasn't.

State of the Bears - Four Games In

Here's the problem - I have no idea what to expect going in to week five. I have a pretty strong feeling that Jay Cutler will bounce back, and if Brandon Marshall is able to recover at all, he'll have some touchdown catches. I'm also sure that Matt Forte will run a solid ground game and Martellus Bennett will make some tough catches in traffic.

On the defensive side, I can predict that we will not get a sack, our high-end draft pick might get an interception or he might not, and that's about it. Oh, the other team will score basically at will. I guess it was a little less humiliating when I could rest easy knowing that the defense would hold a team down; there weren't such lopsided scores, usually. But now, if the opposing team has a decent defense, the game can get out of control pretty quickly, as evidenced last Sunday.

I don't know what Mel Tucker has done that would warrant another year of questionable preparation and poor execution. His squad is inconsistent at best. Losing Tillman and Allen sucks, but they can't play forever. If there's no depth, that's hard to fathom considering all the movement in the off-season.

The common thought going into this season was that the defense didn't have to be great, just good. They have to be able to stop some drives cold. So far, we've only really seen that in one game. Willie Young and Kyle Fuller show flashes of great, but they remind me of the wide receivers we had before Marshall and Jeffery - good, but not great. Level two players.

Unfortunately, upgrading to great doesn't guarantee wins. My biggest concern in bringing in Marc Trestman was that we'd have an inverse Lovie. Even then, I thought it would be nice to be able to score touchdowns and possibly get into a shootout and win.

I was reminded that Trestman was an offensive coordinator candidate while Lovie was here, but we ended up with Mike Martz instead. Talk about a night and day difference in styles. The idea of Smith and Trestman together is interesting, but there was also the old GM in play, and he had been misfiring on draft picks and free agents for years. I think Trestman and Marinelli would have been even more intriguing, especially since that might have changed the negotiations with Brian Urlacher.

No sense crying over spilled milk, though. Can't let the ghost of Urlacher affect the present. The defense is still in flux - no identity and depleted. The offense has equal or better upside than any other team in the league, but no real rhythm yet, and so the outlook for the rest of the year remains the same - the defense needs to be serviceable, and the offense needs to become automatic.

The Panthers are a similar team with lots of upside but lots of obstacles. The Bears have plenty of tools to stop them, but if they let a broken QB (or his backup) walk all over them, then my hope for the remaining 11 games will be dashed. However, if they contain the Panthers and start scoring, I'm already on the bandwagon - just need to adjust my seat.

GO BEARS!

Taking Applications for a Backup Team

The Chicago Bears might end up being what I hoped they would not be after all. Maybe they are what the pundits thought they were. I've been letting them off the hook. I've been crowning them. But, that hopefulness was as on paper as the upside of the 2014 Chicago Bears.

I expected to see some excellence, or at least improvement, during training camp. They say that they don't play those games to win, but rather to determine the ultimate composition of the team. They might try a few new plays, but they go vanilla and worry more about avoiding injury. That said, they were 2 for 4 in the pre-season and only scored more than 20 points once.

Yesterday against the Bills, they came out strong in the very first drive, and I thought it was going to be a quick, decisive win where the biggest concern was how much the defense could keep the Bills from scoring. Turned out to be a struggle through the end of regulation. From there, it was the opposite of the Lovie Smith era, where he'd defer on the coin toss and let his defense get the ball back in OT. Mentally, that had to be crushing for the opponent when it worked.

Unfortunately, when the Marc Trestman offense gets the ball, it's less of a sure thing that they'll drive enough to hit a field goal. And even if that was the outcome, the new rule would allow the Bills a chance to match. Based on what we saw yesterday, I'm fairly certain they would have scored.

Lovie's old coaching philosophy seemed to be "don't let their offense beat us" and the new Trestman philosophy appears to be: "we're playing to not lose". This has to become more mercenary if the Bears are going to get into the playoffs at all. The offense has to be able to score at will. There need to be more plays like the first drive. If it worked once, they should keep doing it until the other team can stop it.

Overall, I know it's just the first game and probably a little early to panic, but the next seven games should be more difficult than the one they just lost at home, at noon. They fly to SF for a Sunday night game this week, to NY for a Monday night game the following week, then they face the Packers, Panthers, and Falcons before facing the Dolphins (the next game they should be able to win). Then back to NE to face the Pats before the bye. Tough stuff.

Just to leave on a positive note, I saw some great stuff from Willie Young on defense and the replacements on the o-line. No real drop in production there after the starters went out with injuries. And, as usual, Matt Forte was consistent and excellent.

2013 Bears Post-Mortem

Basically, the thing I was concerned with most has come to pass: the Bears got Lovie Smith back, but in an offensive guise. One side of the team did a great job while the other side floundered. I could argue that Smith had 1.5 sides intact if we include the stellar play of Dave Toub's special teams units, and that's actually an advantage over Trestman. The mitigating factor, of course, is that Trestman is brand new as head coach, with an entirely new group of coordinators and position coaches. To get an entirely new system in place, along with a completely new offensive line, and be as effective as the Bears were (regardless of which QB was at the helm) was impressive. On the other hand, to watch the formerly consistent defense completely flop was deflating. Like the offense with Coach Smith, the defense is what needs to be the measure of Coach Trestman. If the defense was merely mediocre, they could have knocked out the Packers a week before facing them. He was brought in to fix the offense, just as Lovie came to shore up the defense. So far, the Bears exited before the playoffs despite some outlying hope near the end of the season. I can stomach losses, but I can't stand watching the conservative play of what's supposed to be a powerhouse offense. Turn those horses loose. Learn the unstoppable plays and run them at 4th and 8. Much, much worse is the sloppy, unprepared play of the defense that was #16 overall just two years ago. It's possible that the stars are too old and injury-prone now. It's possible that the guys with remaining contracts are just playing them out with little or no verve. Either way, no Lovie Smith defense would have let a live ball sit there on the turf. The defense needs someone other than Tillman and Jennings at corner (to relieve them and eventually take over), they need a whole pile of safeties (clean house), not sure what to do about linebackers, and the line sucks, too. It's hard to tell how much of it is a talent deficit, and how much is a coaching deficit, though. Jon Bostic looked unstoppable in the pre-season, and could still be a great player, but he sure looked like a rookie in games later in the season. Urlacher looked like a world-beater in his rookie season. We'll see, but unless they get a new coordinator and a phenom or two in the draft, I'm not sure how long I'll stay engaged in 2014. All the bluster about who should be quarterback is wasting valuable time.

What the Hanie?

Football is a soap opera for men (as evidenced by the ridiculous Dr. Pepper 10 ads). Tebow's magic meets Belichik's discipline, Orton and Jones put one on the Packers, and Johhny Knox gets folded in half on his first catch of the last meaningful game of the season.

For the Bears, they're basically out of contention for post-season play, but with Hanie at the helm, it wouldn't have mattered if they made it. I'm not sure if it's that he's that bad or if he's just never gotten any practice time with the first team, but he's not capable of running that offense. Seems like a nice enough guy, but he's yet another indictment against Jerry Angelo.

Winding the clock back, Lovie fires Ron Turner, looks for a new offensive coordinator, and after all of the quality options get snapped up by other teams, he gets down to one guy - his former boss in St. Louis - Mike Martz. Martz is known for being a great coordinator, but that's based on the seasons he had in St. Louis, with top-tier talent at nearly every position. In Detroit, he put up tons of yards with a mid-grade QB and overrated WR (now on the Bears) but didn't win many games.

Since he's the last man standing, Lovie hires him to be the OC, likely knowing the team doesn't have the components to fill out Martz's system. The second year in, the Bears get rid of their prized draft pick in Greg Olsen and pick up the aforementioned Roy Williams as a veteran receiver. The idea was to replace Olsen with a blocking TE (Spaeth) and add a real WR (Williams), but they only got part of that deal done, and the cost was losing a sure thing for pass plays. The Bears would have been much better off moving Olsen to WR and NOT HIRING WILLIAMS.

They also got Sam Hurd, but you may have seen something about him in the news this past week.

It's time for the Bears to abandon their old philosophy (all we need is defense and a running game) and to adopt an offensive mentality. Yes, it means they'll have harder choices to make at draft time, but it also means that they'll finally have depth at key offensive spots for a change.

Uncoordinated

Disclaimer: Bears talk.

The big mea culpa at the end of the season sends the offensive coordinator on his way, and removes Lovie from the defensive coordinator position. We all know now that Lovie has an iron-clad lock on his defensive scheme. He's passionate about it to get rid of Ron Rivera over it and defended it yet again at this most recent press conference. Two problems here.

First, all we know about Lovie's offensive scheme is "we get off the bus running the ball." This statement came about when we had Thomas Jones, who could actually run the ball, and a line who knew how to block for the run. Since then, what have the Bears done to support that game plan? Hire Jay Cutler. Hm. The new offensive coordinator will have to have a complete, balanced plan in place, I think.

Second, Lovie's defensive scheme is old. The "Tampa 2" wasn't even being used by Monte Kiffin AT TAMPA by the time he left. The problem with this scheme is that you need key players with the right mindset to pull it off. I still believe that Tommie Harris could come back and have a few good years up front, but if not, that's a difficult position to fill. If we get Urlacher and Briggs back, that's a stout middle with plenty of solid backup. The safeties we had this year were okay, but it seemed to be a rotating cast. Definitely no standout there, although I'd be interested to see Charles Tillman move to safety. It makes sense on a few levels - he's smart, athletic, and knows the system.

It's pretty obvious that money did matter to the Bears in this decision. The offensive and defensive coordinators would, presumably, be operating under Lovie's schemes and overall game plan. Firing them (himself included) indicates that it was the coordinators who didn't get the job done this year. With that in mind, I still don't understand how he continues on (defiantly, even) as head coach. If everyone in my group at work gets fired for poor performance, you better believe the manager will come under fire, too.

There's a lot of hypocrisy coming out of Halas hall these days, but his remaining contract is the only reason I can imagine why he's still the head football coach. For that bold-faced lie alone, Ted Phillips should be removed from his post.

I'm not a Lovie hater, I just don't think he's an effective head coach. I wonder if he'd be successful as a defensive coordinator anymore, either, if that was his only job. Reality is, his defense wasn't prepared this year, and the whole team seemed flat going into every game. The games we won seemed like the flukes, not the other way around, and that's the main problem.