From Here on the Season Rests on Lovie Making a Change Offensively....

**soulman** · 11-20-2012, 12:45 PM

Bears’ offensive discoordination falls on Mike Tice

BY NEIL HAYES Twitter: @bynhayes November 20, 2012 12:06PM

Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler (6) talks with offensive coordinator Mike Tice on the sidelines in the first half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Chicago, Monday, Oct. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Updated: November 20, 2012 12:08PM

Mike Tice is Yogi the Bear with a whistle. In Lovie Smith’s world, where nothing meaningful is ever said, he brings much needed levity. He tells it like it is, which means he would be the first to tell you he has been as overmatched as the Bears offensive coordinator as Gabe Carimi and J’Marcus Webb have appeared at their respective tackle positions.

The only thing Tice has done since being promoted to offensive coordinator is make Mike Martz look more competent by comparison. After 10 games, his offense has failed to establish an identity. What do the Bears do well offensively besides throw the ball to Brandon Marshall? When Marshall is taken away Tice has no answer.

They have one of the league’s best one-two punches at running back but they don’t run enough. Using Matt Forte out of the backfield was a matchup nightmare for opposing teams before Tice scrapped the practice. There are glaring holes at tight end and along the offensive line, but this unit has too much talent to be ranked 30th in total offense.

In fact, about the only offensive category in which the Bears rank among the league leaders is sacks allowed, which can also be blamed on Tice since he’s the person most responsible the glaring weakness that is the offensive line.

At least Martz had a plan. You may not have agreed with it but you knew what he wanted to do and why he wanted to do it. It made sense. Monday night’s 32-7 thumping at the hands of the 49ers was the latest glaring example of Tice’s inability to devise a successful game plan.

He can’t call a game, either. There’s a gift to calling plays that puts players in position to succeed. Tice clearly doesn’t have it, which is why Lovie Smith should give play-calling duties to quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates while Tice focuses on shoring up a line that appeared to be playing on ice Monday night.

The one thing everyone felt confident Tice could do is coach the offensive line but now even that should be called into question. There is much to be upset about is your last name is McCaskey. At the top of the list is all the money the family has paid to coaches and general managers who keep insisting J’Marcus Webb is the answer at left tackle.

First it was Jerry Angelo, now Phil Emery. Tice has been Webb’s greatest advocate from the beginning and has remained in his corner when it became obvious that he cannot play left tackle at this level.

He was also the person most responsible for drafting Gabe Carimi, who has assured the Bears have two tackles that can be tossed around like chew toys. The sad truth is, the Bears offense was better with Martz calling the shots and without Marshall than it is with Tice and perhaps the best receiver to don a Bears uniform.

Jason Campbell should have given the Bears had a distinct advantage against the 49ers. The backup quarterback had started 71 NFL games compared to zero for 49ers reserve Colin Kaepernick. 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh offset the experience gap with an imaginative game plan and brilliant play calling.

Knowing the Bears would expect the run, he called play-action passes to start the game. His confidence in Kaepernick was obvious for all to see and the kid responded by delivering passes to open receivers all over the field against an overwhelmed Bears defense.

Tice’s game plan, meanwhile, may as well have been chiseled on a stone tablet. His quarterback had more experience but was shackled by predictable play calling: Run, run, pass, punt.

In case you’re wondering, that’s why the 49ers have a rich legacy at the quarterback position while the Bears feature an endless conga line of forgettable names. Cutler could soon be added to the list. To have a quarterback with Cutler’s ability for four years and to have an offense that still comes completely undone against quality opponents is almost shameful. The defense has masked the fact that the Bears haven’t even been able to consistently move the ball against inferior opponents while Tice has been calling the shots this season.

Most frustrating is the fact that until Monday night the defense has played at such a high level that the offense doesn’t have to be prolific for the team to be successful. All Tice’s unit needs to do is find a way to score 17 points and the Bears are going to be dangerous down the stretch. They’ve scored a total of 13 points against playoff teams the past two weeks, which is why it’s time for changes at Halas Hall.

Any hope the Bears have of making a deep playoff run is dependent on the offense coming together and under Tice it keeps falling apart.

**bearsinhouston** · 11-20-2012, 12:57 PM

Boy, that article echos my sentiments.

My concern going forward is that to date Lovie has never understood the realities and the depths of where we really stand. I am worried that as we leave our two toughest opponents behind and we start to look better against the still tough, but not as tough teams that loive will once again be inclined to say we are making progress where we really haven't. Therefore the problems won't be addressed. Even if Lovie does decide that we have real issues and decides to go after them, I am not convinced he knows how. He has been here before and we have really not fixed anything. Even worse, we have more talent than we have had in a very long time and we don't know how to use it to win against good teams.

At this point, I am really hoping that Emery is big enough to be really objective no matter how he feels about anyone and be able to decide who knows what they are doing and who doesn't. Further, he needs to be able to replace those he decides has to go with better people. His job is not an easy one right now.

**soulman** · 11-20-2012, 01:27 PM

I have very little to say about the team in general right now and anything I did have to say wouldn't be very nice or very appreciative. So I'll let this article do all my talking for me since Neil Hayes says exactly what I would have said anyway. So I'll just emphasize this one main point.

Mike Tice needs to be relieved of his play calling duties NOW and Jeremy Bates should be the one to replace him. The majority of input into the game plans should also be entrusted to Bates. It's a shame we didn't get him two years ago when he opted to go to Seattle instead but now that he's here having him as a second in command to such an obviously inept OC as Mike Tice is almost criminal.

This paragraph says it all;

They have one of the league’s best one-two punches at running back but they don’t run enough. Using Matt Forte out of the backfield was a matchup nightmare for opposing teams before Tice scrapped the practice. There are glaring holes at tight end and along the offensive line, but this unit has too much talent to be ranked 30th in total offense.

With the QB and other offensive weapons this team has to have not performed better than this. To have not even been able to mount an offense that can score 20 points a game consistently is just plain old malfeasance an complete and total ineptitude on the part of Mike Tice. He plainly has no idea of how to design and run an offense. We all gave him 5 or 6 games to get it rolling and not only does it nothing improve, they get worse with each passing game.

If at the very least he's proven to be a competent OLine coach then the line still suffers because he can no longer focus on just that. Webb is becoming a joke again. If we thought giving up 3.5 sacks to Jared Allen was bad what to we make of giving up 5.5 to Aldon Smith? Talk about out OTs being dominated and having a pass rush shoved right up our asses. Stop running the entire offense Mike and start fixing the line. That's the principal reason this offense has and is going nowhere fast. That and of course your remedial game plans and predictable play calling.

I'm getting a little sick and tired of watching this team get severely out coached everytime we play a good team. The Packers did it, Houston did it and last night a second year pro coach made Lovie and his staff look foolish both offensively and defensively. The Bears were so under prepared for that game on both sides of the ball that they should have just mailed in a loss to the NFL office and saved traveling expenses.

We spend $$$ on a backup capable of winning if Cutler went down but hand him an offensive game plan along with a line he can't even stand up behind long enough to complete a pass of more than 10 yards! Despite the return of Cutler and Jeffery this offense is sick and it's getting sicker every week. By now I'm sure Tice doesn't know what to do and the entire offense is looking like it's losing what little confidence it ever had in itself to win a ball game on it's own.

There should be no question in anyone's mind right now. We need to make a change in how that offense is being run and if Lovie won't do it willingly then it's time Phil Emery and George McCaskey stepped in and demanded a change. Without that we're all gonna watch another potential championship season get flushed down the shitter just like we saw happen last year. In 2011 we didn't have a competent backup QB to take over after Cutler got injured. In 2012 we don't even have an OC whose competent enough to field an offense that can consistently score points even though he has a Pro Bowl QB, a Pro Bowl WR and a Pro Bowl RB not to mention a damn good Power Back, one of the best Slot WRs in the NFL and a kid who was in the running for Offensive Rookie of the Year before he got hurt!

To have that kind of talent at your disposal would make most OCs salivate yet Tice can't do a fucking thing with it! Even the line has some talent but they can't seem to figure out or execute his blocking schemes and it looks like a Chinese Fire Drill out there. I'm tired of listening to Garza just keep saying they have to "get better". Then get better God damn it and stop just talking about it or call the whole mess out for what it is.

Neil Hayes says this;

The only thing Tice has done since being promoted to offensive coordinator is make Mike Martz look more competent by comparison. After 10 games, his offense has failed to establish an identity.

True as to the first statement but not the second. They do have an identity. I'll tell you what it is. It's called the Chicago Bears/Mike Tice "CLUSTERFUCK OFFENSE" and it's so confusing that we can't even run it ourselves. How's that for being deceptive? Well that's my take on it at any rate. If anyone has a better name for it just chuck it into the hat.

So the bottom line is this. We may only have three losses but without an offense there will be more. Maybe quite a few more and even if we do manage to scrape by with 10 wins we're going nowhere in the playoffs with that offense. If Lovie doesn't make a change and/or Phil Emery doesn't demand one you can kiss this season goodbye right now too. I've had it with this bullshit. I've turned the last two games off early. Last week in the 3rd Q and last night right after the 1st Q. I've got better things to do than to watch a pathetic display like that.

If a Bears fan can speak that way by simply refusing to watch on TV let alone spend any hard earned money on game tickets or souvenirs then I guess I've spoken. It's time for the front office to stick their noses into that mess Tice calls his offense and see that something is done about it this week. I'm done watching them stink up the field every week depending on the defense to score points and put them in position to score. Thirteen fucking points in two games is shameful. They need a change in whose running that show and they need it NOW!

**motownbear** · 11-20-2012, 01:35 PM

I have a few things to say

1. how do we know Bates was given a legit shot at OC two years ago? For all we know he was offered qb coach job while ja and lovie did the dog and pony show to hire martz which was the predictable hire

2. I miss Martz. Flame me I dont give a shit he was a trillion times better then the shit we see now. Sorry if some of you are too stubborn to admit being wrong.

3. When was the last time Lovie made a personel decision in season? If he does it I would give him credit cause it will show a change to his stubborn ways

idk what else to say should we be surprised the offense sucked balls yet again? which is a season long problem. The defense surprised me with their gutless performance but I have seen other top defenses shit themselves from time to time just check out the points jacksonville put on Texans

**bearsinhouston** · 11-20-2012, 01:48 PM

The only other thing to add is that GB is now even with us -- well, actually they have the tie breaker, so getting into the post season is a little cloudier now than it was. But if we get there we can't game plan like we did for this game. I think the plan was, "They have a rook QB and we have Cambell, let's go beat them"

**JustAnotherBearsFan99** · 11-20-2012, 01:52 PM

He was also the person most responsible for drafting Gabe Carimi

That looked about as bad as a Bleacher Report article. I'm not sticking up for Tice at all, but a lot of that article is pure crap. A position coach was not pulling the draft trigger. Jerry Angelo, our GM, was responsible for drafting - not a position coach.

I'm probably being too simple here, but we have a fatal failure - the offensive line. We have the worst oline in the NFL. Dead last at #32. There are no plays to call that are magically going to make that sad group good. Campbell looked like a pedestrian getting hit by a speeding car last night - all night long. QB roadkill.

At one point last night, we had a 6th offensive lineman AND E.Rod trying to block last night. 7 blockers. And we STILL couldn't block.

Our oline is THAT bad guys.

**short faced bear** · 11-20-2012, 01:54 PM

I think the only hope we would have in Lovie making a in-season change is Emery. But even that would be a long shot.

**JustAnotherBearsFan99** · 11-20-2012, 01:57 PM

I just figure the time for changing was before training camp. The plane is in the air. We're not going to see engines replaced in flight. Unfortunately, THIS is our team for 2012.

**bearsinhouston** · 11-20-2012, 01:59 PM

Yeah, I agree. We do the best with what we have. Give it our best shot and see how far we can go.

Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

I just figure the time for changing was before training camp. The plane is in the air. We're not going to see engines replaced in flight. Unfortunately, THIS is our team for 2012.

**short faced bear** · 11-20-2012, 02:05 PM

It's going to go to 10 wins and a early playoff exit if lucky. The team isn't going to magically catch fire any more than the pixie dust did for the OL. It is what it is. I'd rather see Tice de-powered and a reforming of the offense in 2013. Where a difference can be had.

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