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.

Lovie’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.

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* – Lovie Smith photo credit: VolBall

One thing that Bears fans aren’t thankful for is this year’s season.

With the signing of Jay Cutler during the off-season, many Bear fans thought this was the end of the QB woes that have plagued Chicago since Jim McMahon.

That has not been the case.

The Bears are a dismal 4-6 with almost no chance of making the playoffs. So-called “Savior” Jay Cutler has thrown 18 interceptions and has shown no leadership qualities at all. If this happens again next season I am not afraid of calling the Cutler signing a terrible waste.

It’s not all Cutler’s fault. What I don’t like is he doesn’t have show any leadership qualities. He doesn’t look like the guy who can lead his team to the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl.

Worst of all, the Bears may have delayed roster progression for years to come. Without a first or second round pick in this season’s draft, the Bears will be forced to try to find a late round sleeper.

Yes the Bears are bad, and they could be this bad for a while.

Management’s ignorance in failing to improve the O-line has finally shown through. Even signings of 1st round draft pick Chris Williams and the free agent signing of Olrando Pace couldn’t help this struggling, high school-playing, O-line.

It seems the hype around this Bears team was was over calculated. Even Peter King fell for it! He picked the Bears to win the Super Bowl! Being a Bears fan I even thought that was a little too much, but I can’t say anything because he IS Peter King and I really do respect him a lot.

The Bears have defiantly been a disappointment this year. Something needs to change, and if that means hiring some new coaches so be it. I think the Bears do need some new coaches, and that they would benefit greatly by getting rid of offensive coordinator Ron Turner.

So have fun this Thanksgiving. Enjoy some turkey and some good old classic Thanksgiving day football. I have certainly not enjoyed this year’s Bear’s football season, nor has anyone else in Chicago.

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Jay Cutler / Greg Olsen photo credit: Bears Backer

A second NFC east beast was toppled on Sunday. No one thought that coming out of this weekend that the Cowboys and Eagles would see losses from the Redskins and the Bears. The old adage, however, “Defense wins championships” proved true. The Skins held the Cowboys offense off the field, keeping the football in Jason Campbell’s hands for 38 minutes. The defense came up with big stops in the second half batting down balls directed at TO and getting a timely INT from Romo. They controlled the game, then grabbed a break when Sam Hurd couldn’t handle a well placed onside kick. The Skins showed a lot of good stuff and played a perfectly executed game and got the ‘W’.

Well, the Bears got the W. There was some good stuff but there was some bad stuff, too.

They survived on big plays in the first half and made the Eagles play from behind. The Eagles didn’t look like the same team that was jacked up for Dallas and Pittsburgh. After two tough weeks the squad was a half a step behind Bears’ receivers and the offensive line missed working for Brian Westbrook desperately. They played at a deficit the whole night after Orton tossed three TDs in the first half.. They could have taken a lead with a few field goals. Akers, who is usually automatic, missed two chances, though, and kept the Eagles behind.

With the lead, the offense had a chance to step up and try to toss a nail at the coffin after a Kevin Payne interception put them on the Eagles’ eleven yard line, in the third quarter. Orton didn’t want to stray too far from the heart pumping gameplan, though. So, he gave the ball right back to the Eagles on a terrible second down pass to the end zone. Then, Kevin Jones and Orton decided to try and throw the game completely by botching a handoff, giving it to McNabb again. The offense finished with 4 turnovers in all and any football team knows it’s tough to win when your team is guaranteed to give the ball up at least twice a game, like they have in the last three games.

The Eagles got their big chance in the 4^th quarter but the Bears’ defense did their part, again, but the offense had to step up to finish the game in order to get the win. Without that first down, there was a good chance that McNabb and the Eagles would be jacked up to get back on the field and steal one from back from the Bears. They produced a huge goal line stand shutting down the chance for a winning touchdown. Madden got a boner, from this thing of beauty that stuffed Buckhalter 3 times. With the pride of the Bears D on the line, the boner was the most startling part of the whole incident. It was a big stop but the follow up was the key.

The reality is that the stop wouldn’t really mean anything if the offense handed the ball to Brad Maynard in the endzone 3 plays later. Then, the Eagles would have gotten back on the field with 3 minutes and a short field, playing against a defense that has not shown the endurance to make big stops late in the game. My faith would have been slim and my heart rate rising. Instead, Ron Turner and the offensive line showed what could have been the most inspiring play of the game. On 3^rd and 4, I sat watching skeptically, saying to my buddy, “Well, Reid isn’t that upset. Orton has to convert this 3^rd down. He knows he’s getting the ball back.” Andy Reid would be upset, in fact, because Ron Turner went with what works. Instead of trying to make Orton find someone in the face of a pass rush, he gave the ball to Matt Forte. With all of the second level of the defense looking pass Forte popped through the line and stumbled across the 15 yard line, getting the first down.

That was the play. That was the Bears’ team finishing the game.

The offensive leadup to that fourth quarter third down conversion made Bears’ fans real scared. There was no reason to think that Orton would get the job done. No one in the country was thinking, “You gotta put it in Orton’s hands.” So, we didn’t. Turner made the right choice. We gave the ball to Matt Forte and it worked. He is the most reliable offensive weapon we have had to date, and it was certainly the right call.

Orton under center leaves a lot of questions for the Bears but to get through September 2-2 with wins over Indy and Philly you begin to think, if the Bears get a few breaks, step up on defense and run the ball when they have to, they could win a few more games than expected. Better than expected is better than nothing.

[tags]chicago bears, nfl, philadelphia eagles, football[/tags]