His terrible "coaching" almost got us to a super bowl. The only difference this year was that the injury bug spread quickly through our roster this year. I'd rather have Lovie than a loser coach like Rex Ryan.
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His terrible "coaching" almost got us to a super bowl. The only difference this year was that the injury bug spread quickly through our roster this year. I'd rather have Lovie than a loser coach like Rex Ryan.
We dont hate Lovie this season. We "hate" the idea of clearing the decks, but leaving Lovie immune from being fired. When heads roll, it usually starts from the bottom up, not the top down. i.e. they start with the assistant coaches (been there, done that), THEN the HC, then the Gm and finally President. Except in this case they skipped over Lovie entirely, secured his job, and went after JA. GMs have to be in charge, so firing your GM and hiring a new one that cant get rid of the HC is pretty ridiculous...handcuffing the GM before they even start the job.
So yeah...we dont hate Lovie, we hate this circus going on. If we fired JA, then Lovie's job should be in jeopardy as well. Im not saying the new GM HAD to fire Lovie, but that decision should be the new GM's, NOT decided before he even starts the job.
I think those who favor firing Lovie too are advocating throwing the baby out with the bath water. The fact that the team crumbled when it virtually had the playoffs made has far more to do with the quality depth Angelo didn't supply and the stubborn refusal of Mike Martz to properly prepare and game plan for a QB he never liked in the first place. Before Cutler went down we were headed for a second 11-5 season and another showdown with the Packers.
Despite his many past failures on game day even that improved this year and for the very first time in my recollection accountability overruled blind loyalty. Guys who didn't produce to expectations were benched or cut. I've typically been one of Lovie's biggest detractors but even I have to admit his overall approach to the team was better this year than in the past. He also scores major league points for a willingness to once again admit to a mistake by firing Martz who never obeyed him anyway.
Like I've said all week what can be done has been done. When you operate to remove a couple of tumors you take as little healthy tissue as you can. So we got rid of the two biggest cancers we had and left the team pretty much intact for another run at a championship next season. To have done more would have required an organ transplant because getting rid of Lovie and his staff would also have meant getting rid of a lot of players for draft choices and starting over again.
The initial operation is over and the patient survived. If we missed a portion of the cancer we operate again next year at this time and be far better prepared to do it than we are now. Another operation now and the patient dies. JMO.
In Lovie's defense, I doubt seriously that he would have gotten fired by whomever the new GM is simply because of his track record and the circumstances that led the Bears to not making it to the playoffs in 2011. Apparently, Jerry Angelo had it out for Martz and did everything in his power to sabotage him by not getting him the veteran QB he wanted to run his system in case Cutty sustained an injury. The only thing wrong with this is that it worked a little too well. Angelo not only sabotaged Martz, he sabotaged the season and thus cost the Bears a spot in the playoffs. Martz had his fuck ups too, and that led to his ouster. But Lovie is mostly absolved of the wrong doing in this scenario as his hands were largely tied and he was forced to work with the group he had.
I'm just waiting for your red light nose to go crazy when I try to remove a bone from your body. lol:laughing-019::drinking61:Quote:
Originally Posted by soulman
I wouldnt say he "sabotaged" the season...when you lose your top 2 offensive weapons, its difficult for ANY team to bounce back from that, and even so...we were a couple of fumbles and possibly a FG from winning 3 more then we did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dagan81
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dagan81
LMAO!!! I haven't played that game since my kids grew up. But I hope you all get my point. You can only remove so much before you risk killing the patient. The patient is the Bears team not the front office so despite the fact that this isn't usually the way it works in this instance I think they went about it the right way.
You are so right on that. I know that I was giving you hell on Jeff Fisher, but I think the Bears did right by standing by Lovie Smith. The truth is that their defense is year-in and year-out one of the tops in the NFL at points allowed and fewest rushing yards. All we need now is to get either another DE to compliment Peppers or a ROLB who can bull rush blockers and sack opposing quarterbacks. I've been reading more and more on Lawrence Taylor, and the more I read about him, the more I see of him in Bronco's ROLB Von Miller. We need a player like that, if not on the right side, than on the left side and then use Izzy as a run stopper and almost as a blocker in order for the LOLB to get through. This may be against Lovie's philosophy, however, as he tends to like it when his linebackers drop back into coverage.Quote:
Originally Posted by soulman
Neither would I. If anyone sabotaged this season it was Martz. Since he never liked Hanie to begin with he spent little if any time preparing him yet he told everyone he could do it. Then he gave him difficult gameplans and playcalling that pretty much invited the disaster. Hanie looked anything but confident out there as Martz went right back to his 7 step drop passing game all the while saying he wasn't giving Hanie enough. Bullshit! Hanie did fairly well with the pared down offense the Bears needed to go to in the NFCC game last January. When McCown took over magically the playcalling changed and McCown got more to work with. And as you say, despite all that mistakes by the Dallas connection cost us at least two and maybe three of those AFCW losses, not Hanie.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmors
I'm not implying that McCown wasn't a whole lot more comfortable out there or that he wasn't a better choice. The very fact that he'd started 30 or 40 games in his career and had run Martz's offense before assured that. Martz has been getting into Hanie's head ever since camp and he did the same when Hanie got the nod to start. I think at the time Martz figured he might be back and he wanted to do everything he could to insure that Hanie wouldn't be. If his boy Enderle was such a wunderkind how come he wasn't the backup that last game instead of Hanie. Mike Martz did far more to hurt the QB situation in Chicago than he ever did to help it. Cutler had no problem whatsoever with saying sayonara to him.
Angelo's failures in free agency these past two years coupled with his mediocre to poor draft record was his undoing. What I'm happiest about is that ownership listened to the fans wishes for the first time I can remember. The fire Angelo campaign started early and never let up even when they were winning. The same old crap year in and year out is why I stopped posting. I could no longer find anything positive to say and I didn't want to keep posting the negatives that I thought would never end. Happily at least some of it has ended so there is some hope and a light on the horizon.
I don't know how long some of our members have been following the team but for me it's been 40 plus years and I can honestly say that this is the first time since the old man died that I have seen the McCaskey family do something so totally out of character. Jerry Vainisi, the last GM before JA, was fired because Mikey wanted his authority over personnel not because he was doing a shitty job. He was also a Ditka crony and Mikey had already made his mind up to rid himself of Ditka just as soon as he could too. Ever since the McCaskey family took over I have seen them do some of the dumbest things anyone could ever imagine and ride dead horses all the way into their grave and pull the dirt over on top of themselves and their fans.
This is truly the first time I've seen them take the smartest approach they could towards turning this team around very quickly.
I'll agree with you and Jimmors that Martz sabotaged this team, but what I will never be able to fathom or understand is how Angelo did NOT, in effect, sabotage the team. It's well known apparently that he wouldn't go out and get Martz his veteran quarterback in free agency until it was far too late, and that Angelo and the coaching staff were apparently at odds for a while. Maybe he was out to get Lovie Smith fired and thus wipe the slate clean to hire someone else for him to push around since Lovie had such a strong foothold in Chicago by the time of Angelo's firing.Quote:
Originally Posted by soulman