Lovie Smith has a 49-38 record as the head coach of the Chicago Bears. In his first five seasons, he guided the Bears to two division titles and one Super Bowl. The Bears are currently in the 2009 playoff race at 4-3. Yet, among fans and Chicago-area media, Lovie is just as maligned as the pathetic offensive line. The complaints range from Lovie's penchant to avoid showing any emotion on the sideline to his not properly preparing players for games to his almost scripted non-answer answers in press conferences. Regardless of the reason, Lovie is not particularly loved, at present, in Chicago ... except by his Bears.
"I was here when coach Smith wasn't here," veteran defensive end Alex Brown said. "So, I remember how it was. Not to say anything bad about coach (Dick) Jauron, but it's a lot different now.I agree with that, but is it really a great vote of confidence to say someone is a better coach than Jauron? The only winning record of Jauron's career came in the fluky 2001 season where the Bears received more gifts than a spoiled toddler at Christmas. If you toss out that season, Jauron is an abysmal 31 games under .500 ... in nine seasons! That's some futility. Anyway, I digress. There is more support for Lovie Smith in the locker room from Desmond Clark and Charles Tillman.
"Lovie, as a coach, is what this team needs," Clark said. "We need that steadying force. ... To have that steadying voice with the same message coming every week is good for this team."I don't doubt that one bit. You can tell the players all have the utmost respect for Smith as a coach and as a man. And that's important, because -- in theory, at least -- it should mean the players will always do whatever it takes to win for their coach. Look at the Browns with Eric Mangini as the antithesis of this theory.
"The thing about coach Smith is that I trust him," Tillman said. "I trust his decisions. I have faith in him, I have confidence in him."
But the Bears didn't appear to play hard in Cincinnati. They've made tons of mental mistakes in losses to the Packers and Falcons. They weren't sharp at home against the hapless Browns, in a game following the embarrassing loss to the Bengals. The Lions played with them, in Solider Field, mind you, for a half.
This is why many of the fans are clamoring for someone who shows a little fire on the sidelines. To some, Lovie Smith just seems too nice to be a great football coach. These are fans who haven't seen real fire from their head coach since Mike Ditka (Dave Wannstedt and Jauron were the others between Ditka and Smith), a man still legendary in Chicago for his leadership of the 1985 Super Bowl Shufflin' Crew.
Smith doesn't have to behave on the sidelines like "Iron Mike" would have (I mean, could you ever picture Lovie doing this?), but he does need to win. No one was calling for his job following the 2006 season, after he led the Bears to two straight NFC North titles and their first Super Bowl since Ditka's '85 crew. Since then, though, the Bears are only one game above .500 and haven't really capitalized on all the expectations for the new Jay Cutler-era.
As far as the fans are concerned, you can't rest on the laurels of the 2005-2006 seasons. There is no time like the present for Lovie Smith, for as much as his players might love him, the only thing the fans -- and management -- love are wins. A few more important losses and the cries of fans begin to become much more intriguing to the front office, especially with such a talented crop of head coaches waiting in the wings for 2010.
If the players love Lovie so much, they'll start playing better, because missing the playoffs for the third straight season just won't cut it. Not for fans, not for the media, not for Jerry Angelo and most certainly not for Lovie Smith.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wow! I'm going to focus on one phrase in this article. Forgive me Matt, but I'm astonished that someone noticed the offensive line! Radio, announcers and writers have been more focused than ever this year on quarterbacks. Bad team = bad coach + bad quarterback. Good team = good coach, good quarterback. Rising or struggling teams in the middle are some mixed combination.
Great quarterbacks come around only every couple years and I'd argue there are only 2-3 in the league right now. The remaining good quarterbacks owe a lot to their offensive lines. Sanchez might be struggling now, but he owes his good start to a fantastic offensive line.
The reason the Bears have had jack for QBs since McMahon and mediocrity or worse in RBs since WP is that the line is miserable. Do you want to know why anyone knows Olin Kreutz's name? It's because his finger wiggling is obvious on camera and the announcers feel that by talking about it they've done their duty in terms of line play discussion for the day. Have you ever watched him during a play? He gets absolutely BLOWN UP on every play. I wouldn't even know if he can pull because the rest of the line is so weak they don't have time to run a slow-developing play that would showcase it.
Lovie needs to SERIOUSLY fix the line. Unfortunately given the Pace signing I think it's necessary to add that, yes, Anthony Munoz IS too old and wouldn't be of any help.
Just think of how much the players AND fans are going to love Mike Shanahan next year.
Oh, and Lovie could throw the red flag and challenge each of my statements but I think we all know what the result would be.
Dan:
Thanks for the comment. I've been on the line for a while now. Here was the latest:
http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/11/01/win-hides-bears-offensive-line-woes/
Lovie Smith has been living off the super bowl year for three years now. Ron Turner is awful. Jay Cutler being a Bear has made it so obvious that Lovie is too loyal. Cutler being here should convince Lovie that Turner is outmatched almost every Sunday. The defense is on the field too much. They always break down in the game. Remember Houston on the last Sunday game last year. A win and we are in the playoffs, and who knows what can happen when you get there. With Turner you know you are going to be outcoached. Lovie has to make the change next season or we will never see a the playoffs again. Don't be stubborn Lovie. Loyalty is okay, but Turner is just no good.
uhhhh welll,
it's too late to get someone in there on the O-line at this late date---the only way to do it would be to have a bunch of guys come and audition---that's actually not a bad idea, except for how it might affect the team's moral
but UNTIL the O-ine is upgraded in a MAJOR way, things are NOT going to change---Cutler is going to keep getting hurried, and we won't be able to run
turner is awful week in and week out.get him out of here. for once i would like to hear smith admit to a single mistake on his part.his coaching for the last couple of years has been abysmal at best. its time to clean house. but that will never happen with the bears because they dont have a person anywhere that will fall on the sword.the team is making money every week so they dont care about results,