4th Phase takes a stand: Time for Bears coaching change
November 30th, 2009 | by BearsSTH |Bear fans have made it perfectly clear. After the Bears have loss five out of their last six games, three of them being complete train wrecks, the 4th Phase wants change. No matter what you see, hear on the radio, or read on Twitter, there are two trains of thought.
Some think a change at offensive coordinator, will be enough:
ginidietrich tweets, “I want to see the Bears get a new offensive coordinator.”
Others want to simply start with a clean slate:
mohalen tweets, “Fresh start, get rid of the entire staff. Bring in Cowher/GM, or even Shanahan. Build O-line, D-line, DB, WR, and offensive game plan.”
Given the Bears ineptitude, change will happen. The McCaskey’s realize the investment they’ve made with Jay Cutler and know that the team will have to be built around him or they risk a decade of disappointment. What makes the rumors of a potential coaching change realistic is the fact that the Bears don’t have any early round draft picks they need to pay for. The salaries that would be used on unproven rookies can be used to pay for a proven coach.
We wouldn’t be talking about this kind of seismic shift in the Bears’ philosophy if they weren’t this bad. Over the past 2 ½ years since the Super Bowl, the Bears haven’t competed against the good teams in the league and this year, they’ve been absolutely destroyed against the good teams.
Credit: Chicago Tribune
This season has been by far been the most disappointing in Lovie Smith’s tenure. In 2004, Smith’s first season as head coach, the Bears finished 5-11. They were a young team that had yet to realize their potential. Their worst lost came against the Colts, 41-10. Every other game was competitive. This year, the Bears have been mauled three times, not in an entire season, in the past six weeks. This time, the Bears are an older, more veteran team with their window of opportunity closing fast.
If Smith keeps his job, Ron Turner will most likely take the fall. After Smith’s his first season, he fired Terry Shea. After last year, he demoted Bob Babich back to his old linebacker coach job after being promoted as a defensive coordinator.
If Smith gets fired, the Bears will have their choice of the top coaching candidates, Bill Cowher and Mike Shanahan. Cowher’s associates have already been contacted by a senior ranking Bears executive to gauge his interest and Shanahan has not ruled out the possibility.
Last week after the loss to the Vikings, Brett Favre said that the Bears didn’t mix anything up, didn’t show anything new and occasionally called a Cover 2. Even though the effectiveness of the Cover 2 is starting to wear out, not all can be blamed on the coaching staff. Lovie’s Cover 2 depends on the health of Tommie Harris and Brian Urlacher’s range in the middle of the field. The Bears have had neither.
Because of the Bears inability to stop anyone on defense, the offense suffers from having the pressure put on them to perform. Given the youth of the wide receivers, the absence of a reliable target for Cutler and the lack of creativity on the offense, the Bears are simply doomed from the start.
This week, the Bears play an even worse Rams team. If they don’t dominate the game, we can only expect the protests to get even louder.
Tags: 4th Phase, Lovie Smith, Twitter
By TJ on Dec 1, 2009
That’s the best point I’ve heard so far – with no number 1 last year and no numbers 1-2 this year, the Bears are indeed likely in a good position to negotiate salary with a new head coach. I know the top two names bandied about (at least by the media) are Shanahan and Cowher, both of whom would be excellent candidates for a number of reasons. While either one makes for an intriguing fantasy match up, my only concern is that the Bears likely won’t be willing to part with both Angelo and Smith in the same year. Consider, then, that both aforementioned coaches are highly seasoned veterans and will likely demand a larger share of the managerial pie than J.A. is used to sacrificing and that might make for an extremely awkward hiring process. We can hold out hope that someone from upper-upper management might swoop in and save the team, but quite frankly, this is not an ownership that has endeared a lot of faith over the past two decades. We all remember the embarrassing saga that resulted in The Hiring-of-Dick-Jauron, right? Of course, this is a vastly different era and a vastly different bears team and such things are behind us…I hope.
By RamsHerd on Dec 4, 2009
Rebuilding sucks … we know it all too well. But is a coaching change going to make the difference? If you have a historically weak offensive line, then you need more than coaching to patch it up — and the lack of high draft picks might hurt more than it helps.
The Rams O-line sucked (even with Pace playing decently) in ‘07, so we spent big bucks on Jacob Bell, with absolutely no effect. After sucking through all of ‘08, we cut Pace and drafted his replacement #2 overall, and signed a true-blue center off the Ravens. The line play has really improved this year, until the last few weeks when we lost three starters.
Now it’s the D-line that must demand the Rams’ attention this offseason. Get both lines functioning and you have the basis for a true rebuild. Whether you have Cowher or Lovie (or Spagnuolo or whoever) at the reins is kinda beside the point until you get that figured out, right?