The woman you don’t have is always more appealing than the one you do have. How many times have you seen some poor smuck going through midlife crisis, trade in his wife of 20 plus years for a newer, younger, sexier model? Never works, ask them, most of them would kill to go back to their wives.
The Bears fired Lovie Smith today, despite a Super bowl appearance and a career 56% winning percentage. The Bears fell into the same snare men across the ages have. The grass is not greener.
But… But... everyone else is firing there coach..... we could get Nick Saban, or Chip Kelly, what about the Broncos coordinator? Odds are the Bears won't get any of those gentlemen; even if they do there’s no guarantee any of them will be successful in the league. Saban was mediocre, Kelly is a college coach and their success rate in the pros is a coin flip and the newest batches of offensive geniuses are all unproven.
In his 9 years with the Bears, Lovie finished with a record of 81-63, 18 games over 500. Lovie’s distractors and no doubt the Bear brass would point to his failing to make the playoffs 5 out of the last 6 years. Good point but there are several mitigating factors at play.
Lovie Smith is a defensive coach; the Bears defense has always been among the best in the NFL during his tenure, the offense not so much.
The Chicago Tribune offers this helpful nugget:
"Since Smith took over in 2004, the Bears have ranked higher than 23rd in offense only once. They have ranked 28th or lower four times"
From 04-08 the best Qb to take a snap from center was Rex grossman. The Bears have gone through four offensive coordinators since Smith arrived in the Windy city. The Culter and Marshall signings are a step in the right direction but from a personnel standpoint the Bears are not a Super Bowl caliber team, especially on offense.
As far as I know, Lovie Smith had very little say in the bears personnel decisions, offensively the Bears have never had the weapons to become a legitimate super bowl contender.
Here is a list of the leading receivers for the Bears over the last six years.
2012: Marshall
2011: Matt Forte
2010: Forte & Jonny Knox (tie)
2009: Greg Olsen
2008: Matt Forte
2007: Bernard Berriman
Hardly a murders row of great receivers, and when your running back leads your team in receptions 3 out of 6 years there's a systemic problem with your team’s offense.
Now let's take a look at Lovie with Cutler under center. Since Cutler arrived in 09, Smith is 36-28. Including 2010 where Culter was injured for a significant portion of the season.
If today is Black Monday then there will undoubtedly be a Black Friday where owners and GM’s going on a shopping spree hiring the hottest offensive coordinators and college coaches on the market. The Bears already appear ready to pounce on Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Mike Mcoy.
Is he the answer? He coached Tim Tebow up to a trip to the playoffs and a win but if Tebow doesn't get credit for that why does Mcoy? He also coached Peyton Manning this year, but does anyone really “coach” Peyton?
NFL teams constantly trade in the devil that they know for one they don't. Mcoy is unproven as a head coach while Lovie has proven that he's a competent to above average NFL head coach. Never forget that the Cleveland Browns fired Bill Bellicheck. There are many reasons coaches don’t succeed. Sometimes they aren’t given the freedom or the tools to succeed, sometimes they aren’t up to the job, sometimes it’s just bad luck. In Lovie’s case he wasn’t given the tools to work with and when he was given them, the Bears were contenders.
Is Mccoy going to stop Cutler from forcing the ball into double coverage and throwing picks? Is he going to keep Forte, Alshon Jeffery and Brian Urlacher healthy? Lovie isn't perfect but I'd take him any day of the week over these flavor of the month types, at least I know what I'm getting.
Bears GM Phil Emery hosted a press conference today explaining his decision to give Lovie the boot.
“Our No. 1 goal always has to be to win championships, and to win championships we have to be in contention on a consistent basis, and to be in contention we have to make the playoffs on a consistent basis. We’ve had defensive excellence, but during the course of coach Smith’s years here we’ve had one offense that was ranked in the top 15.”
If he doesn't have a good offense that's on the GM, not Lovie.
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