Chicago Bears Making a Mistake Keeping Lovie Smith

January 6, 2010 By 13 Comments

It was big news on Tuesday when the Chicago Bears fired six coordinators, including offensive coordinator Ron Turner, but decided to keep head coach Lovie Smith.

It has been up the air the past few weeks whether Lovie would rejoin the Bears or be let go after a terribly disappointing season.

He will be back. Things will just be a lot different around him.

love-smith-chicago-bearsLovie’s staff will be very different next year as the Bears fired Pep Hamilton (quarterbacks), Rob Boras (tight ends), Harry Hiestand (o-line), and two assistants, Luke Butkus and Charles London. Lovie will not be calling the defensive plays as the Bears said that they will be looking for a defensive coordinator.

I really like the descion to get rid of Lovie calling the defensive plays and agree with the firing of the rest of the coordinators, but I thought Lovie should have been fired too.

After taking the Bears to the Super Bowl in 2006, it has been pure mediocrity since. Lovie hasn’t led the Bears back to the playoffs since that year, and his record over the last three years has now dipped under .500.

Besides what the numbers say, Lovie has never shown any excitement or anger on the playing field. Lovie has always been the cool, calm, and collected type coach, but is that really what this team needs?

I don’t think so.

It doesn’t seem as if he pumps up the players or motivates them to play well on a week-in, week-out basis. He doesn’t motivate them at all. The Bears, with all their troubles, need a motivating head coach.

They have the talent, as seen in the last two weeks; what they lack is a coach with the motivational fire to make them harness and use that talent.

By keeping Lovie, the Bears are stating they are content with mediocrity. The Bears have never had a truly terrible team under Lovie, it’s just that he has never made the players reach their potential, and the fans are starting to get frustrated.

After the Super Bowl year, even though the Bears lost, fans were hoping their team and coaches would come out better prepared the next year. That never happened. The Bears went 7-9 in 2007, and since then have never won over nine games.

Clearly these past few years have been a huge disappointment to fans as they saw their teams’ potential wasted.

It was a right step in getting rid of the ever predictable Ron Turner and the other staff members around him, but the Bears failed to give what a lot of fans wanted.

We’ll just have to see how this all works out. More coverage on coach hirings will be coming soon.

Did the Chicago Bears make a mistake in bringing back Lovie Smith for another season?

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* – Lovie Smith photo credit: VolBall

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Filed Under: NFL Tagged With: chicago, Chicago Bears, Love Smith, NFL, Ron Turner
About Tyler Juranovich

Tyler Juranovich is an Indiana native and is an avid Chicago Blackhawks and Bears fan who occasionally dabbles in obsession with Jay Cutler, Conor Oberst, and Pearl Jam. He's also a fan of literature and film. Unfollow him on Twitter (@tylerjuranovich) or email him at tyler.juranovich@gmail.com

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/KVB KVB

    The obvious reasoning here is the year left of Lovie's contract. At least you know he will be gone if next year is another mediocre year on his expiring contract. The Urlacher injury was also something that effected the team and was out of his control.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/JerodMSF JerodMSF

    They should have hired Ozzie. And then let Buehrle play QB. He'd be like Phil Simms. Wouldn't blow you away with arm strength, but accurate and not many INTs.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/bearsbacker bearsbacker

    I think they made the right decision by keeping Lovie. A lot of change is sometimes overwhelming and for them to bring new offensive and defense coordinators is a start to success. The OC should be Jeremy Bates and the DC should be Perry Fewell. I don't mind Lovie, sometimes he repeats himself too much in press conferences, but he is a guy who led us to a super bowl with Rex Grossman, so I think we can do with Jay Cutler, he just needs to be coached up. Everyone in Chicago is way to negative about everything Bears football right now, they just need to relax and let the organization do their work.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/KVB KVB

    Hahaha. We've talked about this before. Frank Thomas (in his prime) at TE. Ron Karkovice at center. Joey Cora as that Steve Smith type wideout. I have a weird feeling Jerry Wunsch would be a great kicker too. Oh and Don Cooper would be a great QBs coach.

    But I digress for more relevant comments.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/KVB KVB

    I forgot about Clayton Richards and Josh Fields QB backgrounds, but then again Chicago doesn't own them anymore. Either way Cutler is still a tool and falling into Grossman status.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/JerodMSF JerodMSF
  • http://intensedebate.com/people/tylerj TylerJ

    The only reason the Bears went to the Super Bowl was because of Ron Rivera. After they canned Rivera the defense has slowly declined. I was optimistic about seeing Lovie call the defensive plays, but that too didn't work out. It just angers me that they got rid of Rivera since he was the sole reason the Bears even had a chance.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/tylerj TylerJ

    I can see where your coming from on Urlacher's injury. That fact doesn't overshadow the fact that I just don't think he's that good of a coach. He had one lucky year because he had Rivera calling the shots. I am just sick of his same old speal that they will try harder and play better next week.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/bearsbacker bearsbacker

    I have heard many people say that it was mistake firing Ron Rivera because of the failures of the defense the last couple of seasons. I think the one difference with the defense in 2006 from the last three seasons was the secondary was much better with guys like Chris Harris, Mike Brown and Brandon McGowan. I thought it was good move getting rid of Rivera because of he coached up the defense in the Super Bowl against the Colts. I feel like the Colts played the game that the Bears wanted to play. The Colts ran the ball down our throats, they played great defense and they simply beat us up. I really thought we were going to win that game because of Hester's opening kickoff for a TD, but that's besides the point. Ron Rivera coached them up and made them play the bend or dont break defense where you allow the little pass here and there and not the big pass, the problem was the Colts running game was so good that the Bears didn't know when they were passing or running a lot of the times and when they finally got a big pass play Manning found his guy wide open. Rivera was good for a couple of seasons, but to be that conservative in a big game like that ticks me off. He isn't that great with San Diego. The Bears will be better next year with a new defensive coordinator coming in.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/tylerj TylerJ

    Those are some very good points. The wide open Marvin Harrison also made me mad. It always sucks when you see a receiver that wide open, but it wasn't Rivera's fault. The safety came in instead of covering the seep ball, a mistake that cost the momentum to shift towards the Colts. If the Bears had a better offense that year I think they would've won. I just think being mediocre for 3 years after a run that took you to a Super Bowl deserves some overhaulin. The Bears just did some light cleaning.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/bearsbacker bearsbacker

    they have the players I just think there not being coached up. The year after the Super Bowl was really the only year where I thought we were really bad and we weren't very close in a lot of games but last year and this past year, there were tons of games where I said if we just didn't make one mistake we could have one, I think if we didn't make those mistakes we could have been talking about back to back playoff appearances and Lovie looks like a good coach. Mistakes have been killing this team. They just need identity, leaders and discipline. Getting Urlacher back next season should be a big help. I hope we improve a lot next season because I picked them to go 12-4 this season and next season there schedule looks even tougher

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/tylerj TylerJ

    As a Bears fan I am also hoping for a better year next year. They have the talent. They just to need execute better both offensively and defensively. I always try to stay optimistic, and I see hope in the team so maybe it won't be some blind fan love. I think the Bears can make the playoffs next year. We'll just have to see what happens next year.