Fact or Fiction: Mike Tice deserves more blame

What do you think?

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LINK to the article

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http://assets.espn.go.com/i/nfl/fh/4thdown_55.pngFact or Fiction: Mike Tice deserves more blame for the Bears' collapse than Lovie Smith.



Jeff Dickerson: Fiction. Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, Tice likely will not be the Bears' offensive coordinator in 2013. How can he be? The Bears rank No. 29 in total offense, No. 28 in passing offense and have scored one of fewer offensive touchdowns in six games this year. That is outrageous, and Tice certainly deserves his share of the blame, along with the players who have routinely let down their offensive coordinator by failing to make plays. But there is a reason Smith is paid the big bucks. Smith has a defensive background, and the defense always performs at a reasonable level. But if a head coach doesn't know offense, he better find a coach who does. Four offensive coordinators later, the Bears still can't score touchdowns. How much more time does Smith need to fix the problem? That's why he deserves the bulk of the blame.

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http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2012/0826...ce01jr_200.jpgJonathan Daniel/Getty ImagesMike Tice's Bears offense ranks 29th in total offense this season.

Michael C. Wright: Fiction. The blame seems about equal from this vantage point. It's fine to put some responsibility on Tice for the shortcomings on offense. But what about the defense? The Seahawks drove 97 yards at the end of regulation on Dec. 2 to tie the game and send it into overtime, before marching another 80 yards on 12 plays to win it during the extra period. That's on the defense. Did we forget San Francisco scored 30 of its 32 points on the defense in addition to racking up 353 yards of total offense? To be honest here, injuries have also played a major role in this late-season collapse, and are probably just as culpable for what's transpired as Smith and Tice.

Scott Powers: Fiction. Tice deserves some blame. It's his offense failing out there, and he's had some questionable play-calling. But Smith deserves much more of the blame. At the end of the day, it's Smith's team. He oversees Tice and everyone else. If coaches aren't doing their jobs, it's up to Smith to do it for them.

Jon Greenberg: Fiction. The Bears' problems on offense are endemic. It's not like Tice has drawn a mustache on the Mona Lisa. Tice got this job, which he's never had before, because he was here. In retrospect, it was a little foolish to think Tice would be better than Mike Martz, even if Martz's slavish devotion to his beliefs put Cutler in harm's way. As offensive line coach, Tice was given a lousy hand. But this goes on Smith for never figuring out how to be more than a defensive head coach. If the Bears miss the playoffs, both should be fired. But the blame for the firing should go to Smith.

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I'm going to go with "heavy and equal blame" for both. Tice runs the day-to-day operation of the offense. He's been directly responsible for play mis-calling, game mis-planning, and player mis-management. We can all cite many examples of each.

Lovie hired him and is responsible for overseeing the OC. This isn't the first time in screwing that up too. Like the article said, if the HC isn't "offensively skilled" then he better do a damn good job of hiring an OC who is.

They both need to go.

4 out of 4, but honestly nothing we haven't said before. Several times.

Hopefully being in the papers will add some pressure to HH to do it right.

idk man Lovie should get some blame for choosing Tice as his OC. He also hasnt dropped him despite an inept offense even for the last two games to see if things would be different with Bates

on the flip the offense has stunk it up to the point making many wish Martz was back lol

Martz offense again this season plus Lovie=no collapse as long as no injuries. So yeah probably is on Tice but F Lovie too for hiring him

At some point we need to have some continuity on offense. Same scheme for more than just a year or two. And the same OC. And have the KEY players in place for awhile. This year we had new scheme, OC, players. It's pretty difficult for a team to do anything good in a situation like this.

It's not just the offensive line woes (can't believe I just said that).

Acknowledging that there is a problem is the first step to a solution...



Now if we could just get HH to realize these things.....

Honestly, unless Tice had more of a say in playcalling last year and/or was the play caller in Minnesota during much of his tenure as HC, this just simply falls at the feet of Lovie for choosing a guy who is both new to running an entire offense and calling plays, knowing that the D had a very good chance of showing its age (esp. with the D's heart and soul undergoing 3-4 procedures in the offseason) and having no choice but to rely on the offense more often than almost every point during Lovie's stay here. Granted, this is partially a "hindsight 20/20" post, but is it really wise when the o-line had players swithing/learning new positions again, and one of the more important members is just a rookie.

I really wanna believe that Lovie wasn't as ignorant as many of us fans were, with thoughts like "It was all Martz", "Cutler audibilizing = guaranteed pro bowl qb" and the like. We're allowed stupid thoughts like that, because no matter how closely we follow the team, we aren't privy to the inner workings, but he is. I want to believe he has SOME idea of what to do with the offense, but after the Shea debacle, not benching Grossman in '06, not benching him much earlier in '07 and for 3 straight years now, allowing a disturbingly disproportionate pass to run ratio, and only putting his foot down when it starts losing us games and finally, having that same unit manage having only one year with an average ranking, i really don't think he has a clue and if he stays here, his nepotistic approach to hiring assistants better have ended with Tice's promotion.

As a side note, I believe it would be very wise for management to be willing to drop some decent money on proven playcallers like Norv Turner or Ken Wisenhunt, and allowing them to pick whoever they want as their assistants. Honestly, the more autonomous we could make the next guy, if he's already established, the better.

Edit: Didn't really sleep last night, hope that post made sense, but:

TL;DR, It's lovie's fault for gambling on an unknown commodity when the rest of the team was already looking like they weren't as capable of carrying the weight, as they had in the past. Not Tice's fault because this coaching position is new to him and he likely didn't realize how overwhelmed he was gonna be.

Fiction. For all the reason's everyone's mentioned. If we can see it, have to believe so can Emery, and he's the one being paid to make these evaluations.

Tice is what he is,a rookie playcaller.
This is on Lovie and anyone else that had input into the decision.
This is the result of "not doing things the right way,but the half assed Halas hall way".
Tice was an unknown as an OC,Lovie's job was riding on that gamble;
how's that working for ya Lovie?

Does Tices head look like a giant penis with ears?

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