What 3 teams have been essentially the most ineffective teams in the NFL the last few years?  If you guessed Lions, Rams, and Panthers, you would be correct.  I’m not sure why that fact is appealing to the Bears front office, but they have essentially signed 19 players since 2004 that played for one of those 3 teams.  Oh and in case you forgot, our entire coaching staff is a Rams/Lions redux.  Awesome.

Check out Windy City Gridiron for the complete list of Bears that played for those 3 great teams.

The greatest show on grass?  I highly doubt it.  But apparently that’s what the Bears think Mike Martz can bring to the table.  And when I say that the Bears think he brings that to the table, what I really mean is that the other 17 crappy candidates they interviewed turned them down.  What is really going on is that Lovie is bringing in his old crew (first Marinelli, now Martz) and Angelo has no choice but to capitulate since not a single other candidate was even remotely interested in this job.

Which brings us back to where we were in the first place: having to make do with the crap we’ve got.  So what did Martz have to say in response to critics that claim his style is ill-suited for the Bears personnel?

“You know, (I’m) very pragmatic in the approach. And I think that you have to analyze your personnel, the circumstances and situation like Soldier Field, and look at what you have with the conditions and then proceed from there.

“Really, it’s about winning games and just doing whatever it takes to take advantage of your strengths.”

Okay fair enough.  If he even shows any flexibility in his stretch the field type of offense, that will be way more flexibility than Lovie has shown in his devotion to the Cover 2 in the last 5 years.  He has to understand that he doesn’t exactly have the same tools to work with as he did in St. Louis though, right?

[On Bears Wide Receivers] “Well, they’ve got some speed. And that really is kind of a diamond to me. When you look at that group, it could be a real strength of this football team. With (Devin) Aromashodu — I hope I pronounced it right. (Johnny) Knox is really a diamond to me. And Hester, with what he can do whether he’s outside or in the slot. The matchups on these guys are extreme.

“When I went to St. Louis from Washington, Isaac Bruce was too skinny. They weren’t too happy with him. He was always hurt. Had this little guy, Az Hakim, and they didn’t know what they were going to do with him. Rick Proehl, slow white guy. This is three-quarters of the Greatest Show on Turf.

“And really, what we’ll do with these guys, I think there’s plenty of talent there. I’m really excited about their speed and the potential. And what we’ll do is give them every opportunity to explore that and not make a definition on what any one of those guys can do, but let them prove to us and put no limits on them.”

[On Matt Forte] “There’s so many thing you can do with him. He has the same kind of multi-abilities as (former Rams star) Marshall (Faulk). Soft hands. Change of direction. Good route runner. He’s a very unselfish pass-blocker, so he’s willing to stick his nose in there. He’s the complete package. And the formation to get him matched up inside on linebackers and, on occasion, safeties will be a good part of what we do.”

Oh boy.  I’m having trouble suppressing my instincts here that tell me this is going to be a disaster, but let’s try.  If you think about what he said, and how his system works, he does have some speedy wide receivers.  The one thing he forgot to mention about that St. Louis team was a young guy named Tori Holt.  No one on the Bears is remotely close to that skill level.  Forte does have some Faulk-type qualities and could thrive in the offense, but what about Olsen?  Will he be wasted, as it’s common knowledge that Martz is not fond of giving tight ends touches?

This one is going to be interesting, but it might not turn out all bad.  Cutler could be a good fit if everyone on the offense can get on the same page this season.  Still don’t see anyone doing anything about that offensive line…

h/t: Chicago Breaking Sports

There is one thing that the Tennessee football program and Lovie Smith have in common right now: they are both under fire.  With Lane Kiffin jumping ship to head to USC and all the insanity that has swirled around him and the Vols program over the last 14 months, it should come as no surprise that they are reaching out to some of the people they reached out to in the past before hiring Kiffin.  Apparently one of those people was Lovie Smith, although back in 2008 he quickly declined the job offer.

That brings us to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, who seems to think Lovie should consider taking the job now that it has re-opened:

Frankly, it might be in everyone’s best interests for Smith to pursue the opportunity, unless he has no interest in leading a college program.  The Bears undoubtedly would have cleaned house at Halas Hall but for the buyout obligations to Smith and G.M. Jerry Angelo.  With Smith’s ability to stick around for 2011 riding on the performance of quarterback Jay Cutler and mounting uncertainty regarding a work stoppage after next season, heading to Knoxville makes plenty of sense, especially if his compensation from the Volunteers would be enhanced by a partial buyout from the Bears.

In all honesty, I do not know how good a college coach Lovie would be.  It seems like he would be a good recruiter, which is about 75% of the job of a college football coach.  His stoic demeanor and respect-inspiring personality would serve him well.  If he thinks he could handle that part of the job, why not take the position?  Everyone knows he is going to be on the hot seat all this coming year and it’s not like the Bears prospects this season are looking all that good.

On the Bears end, it would be a godsend.  Although Phillips and McCaskey have come out and said they support Angelo and Lovie and its not about money, the reality of the situation is too glaring to ignore.  With the almost inevitable work stoppage after 2010, getting Lovie’s multi-year deal off the books would be ideal.

Will this happen?  Probably not since Lovie has given no indication that he is interested in any other job than the one he has.  Regardless the possibility is there and Coach Smith should seriously consider it.

This is an interesting interview with Tommie Harris that took place in the last few days since the season ended:

He seems like a good guy and has an understanding of how this game works: If you don’t perform, it doesn’t matter what kind of person you are, the fans will get frustrated with you. Obviously the most disconcerting thing here is his sense that the organization “hung him out to dry”. He makes a good point. If he was really playing through injuries, where were Lovie, Jerry, or anyone else saying that he was hurt? I mean for the most part we knew he wasn’t 100%, but without knowing more we understandably just thought he wasn’t as good as he used to be.

I’m not sure what this says about the Bears organization or Tommie Harris, but its definitely not positive.

h/t: Mouthpiece Sports

The Cover 2, also known as the Tampa 2, was all the rage in the NFL for most of this past decade. It is a simple defensive scheme masterminded by Tony Dungy and his friend Lovie Smith. The Tampa Bay Bucs employed it from the mid-1990s through the early 2000s with great success. It is a very basic scheme as you can see in the picture below.

The system itself resembles a smiley face.  The 2 safeties cover their respective deep halves of the field.  The 4 down lineman and the linebackers must stop the run, while the middle linebacker must also be able to drop into coverage on passing plays.  The corners are supposed to press the receivers at the line of scrimmage and defend the sidelines up to 15-20 yards down the field.  The defense requires speed, the ability to create turnovers, a four-man front that can get pressure on the quarterback, and a middle linebacker that has the speed and agility to defend the pass.

Unfortunately for our friend Lovie Smith, a variety of internal and external factors has caused his smiley-face Cover 2 defense to go from trendy to useless in a few short years.  Now the Cover 2 resembles something that reflects our feelings about it pretty well.

What has happened here?  A few things.  First off the rest of the NFL has caught on to this defense.  There are huge seams that can be exploited at will, no matter how well the scheme is executed.  For instance, the wide receiver slant across the middle is almost indefensible, and NFL teams go to it frequently against Cover 2 looks.  It pulls the outside linebackers up a bit which then requires the safeties to cheat up some.

While those outside factors are huge, the real problem has been personnel.  With Urlacher being hurt and the secondary being unable to do anything they are supposed to, the cornerbacks have been forced to back off and provide the opposing receivers with greater cushions.  At the same time, the front four have been completely inept at putting pressure on the quarterback or stuffing the run since 2006, and the safeties, who suck anyways, are forced to cheat even further up to help stop the run.  As you can see from the picture, it is a rather sad looking situation.

Will Lovie and the Cover 2 be kicked to the curb?  Seems unlikely considering the current economic climate of the NFL and the Bears desire not to take on any long-term commitments past the end of the current CBA.  If the Bears wish to have any success while refusing to ditch the Cover 2, they will have to completely overhaul their roster and hope that Urlacher makes a miraculous recovery.

It seems almost certain that Lovie will be fired at the end of this season, barring some sort of miraculous win streak or something equally unlikely.  Whoever the Bears bring in to be head coach after him will probably get to hire his own staff, which includes offensive coordinators.  That being said, Charlie Weis was recently fired from Notre Dame (if you haven’t heard).  Following his firing, he expressed interest in Ron Turner’s job:

A source close to Charlie Weis confirmed that the former Notre Dame coach would be interested in the Bears’ offensive coordinator position if it were to become available after this season.

Ron Turner has to go, even if somehow Lovie keeps his job.  While it is undisputed that Weis was a terrible college coach, his NFL resume is far different.  He was the offensive mastermind of three Super Bowl champion Patriots teams from 2000-2004.  The only real question is, was that a result of Bill Belicheck, or was it truly Weis’s own genius?  A lack of success as a head coach at any level, college or pro, does not necessarily mean that the person would be a bad coordinator.

What do you think?  Besides of course the old “anyone but Turner” refrain.

Well, so much for discretion and class.  As I discussed last week when management went behind Angelo and Lovie’s back to test the waters on Mike Shanahan to coach the Bears, this is a backhanded way of getting a new coach.  As much as we all think and know that Lovie’s day is done, you never want your team to be the one’s that shadily fire a coach mid-season without communicating with the coach at all.  That being said, bring on Cowher:

The Bears have reached out to an intermediary for former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher to gauge whether he would have any interest in coming to Chicago should the team decide to fire Lovie Smith, according to Hub Arkush, publisher of  Pro Football Weekly and an analyst for the radio station.

The Bears are denying this report, just like they denied the Shanahan rumors.  After watching last night’s fiasco, however, and the Bears epic meltdown the last 6 weeks, it is clearly time to kick Lovie to the curb.  As bad as the offense has been, the defense is what is costing Lovie his job.  When he came in and implemented the Cover 2, it worked perfectly.  But then Rivera walked and Babich failed.  Lovie took over the defensive play-calling, putting the onus for the defense’s performance squarely on him.  If you watched pretty much any 5 minute stretch of the Bears defense in the last 6 weeks, you know that the Cover 2 (or maybe just the personnel), is unable to stop anyone in this league anymore.

Be it Cowher or Shanahan or anyone else, Lovie’s inflexibility with his failing defensive scheme has doomed the Bears’ season, and his job.

h/t: Ethan

To all those screaming for Lovie Smith’s head (I’m one of them), there is some good news out of Halas Hall.  Or at least good rumors.  According to Hub Arkush at 670 The Score, the Bears are putting out feelers for a new head coach:

Someone in the Bears’ organization at a level above general manager Jerry Angelo has begun surveying options for changing the coach or general manager, or both, according to Hub Arkush, a football expert on WSCR-AM 670 and publisher of Pro Football Weekly.

“Inquiries have been made, feelers have been put out,” Arkush said on the radio station today regarding the initial step of gauging interest and affordability of some of the big-names candidates available.

Arkush specifically named former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who groomed Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and helped him earn a Pro Bowl berth in Denver; former Steelers coach Bill Cowher and former Buccaneers and Raiders coach Jon Gruden. All three have won Super Bowls.

Asked about the report, a team source said, “There’s absolutely no truth” to the report.

Hub is a great guy and I am inclined to believe he heard that.  My guess would be that someone at the McCaskey level is reaching out behind Angelo and Lovie’s backs to see what options are available.  As much as I want a new coach, this is no way to treat Lovie and a backhanded way to conduct a new coach hunt.  Hopefully everyone up at Halas Hall gets on the same page.

h/t Pic: WCG

The Bears stand at 4-5 and without a winning streak of some kind, they will likely be out of the playoffs.  Hell, Lovie and Jerry Angelo will probably be out of a job.  That being said, the media, fans, and pretty much everyone connected to the league in any way is down on the Bears.  As such, Lovie, Jerry and Jay have gotten pretty sick of answering questions about their terrible team.  So sick in fact, that they will no longer be answering those questions.  Not for NBC at least:

In a sign of how difficult things have become in the Bears’ world, the beleaguered team stunned a network giant Wednesday by rejecting NBC’s request for prime-time access to coach Lovie Smith, quarterback Jay Cutler and general manager Jerry Angelo.

Smith and any requested players, including Cutler, will be made available to NBC for standard pre-production meetings Friday with announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. Such sessions always are off-camera. But no Bears personnel will be on-camera for NBC’s pregame show.

I’m not sure what this is meant to accomplish.  As the article points out, an opportunity to talk to Costas is usually a chance to put your own spin on the story.  That being said, I’m sure the frustration of the last month or so is difficult to deal with and having to explain to the media over and over again what’s wrong can’t be good for anyone’s confidence.

Or maybe the Bears are just hoping that if they don’t talk about how bad things have been, those things will just go away.

I have one simple request.  Can everyone stop emailing, instant messaging, texting, and calling me to talk about or ask what I thought about last night’s Bears game please?  I don’t feel like talking about it.  You can all expect one or both of these 2 posts next week: Does Cutler Suck? And should the Bears fire Lovie?

Until then, here is a video from the telecast of the game last night.  It is the Micro Machines guy listing every Bears quarterback from McMahon to Cutler.  It’s a combination of sad and hilarious.  Enjoy!

h/t: Bear Goggles On

Yesterday I posted a series of questions about the Bears game after I was unable to watch it on Sunday.  While we can all agree I was spared from a horrifying afternoon, I was left wondering what the hell happened.  I asked all of you to send in your comments and observations and I am going to post them here today.  If anyone wants to add anything in the comments, I will be happy to update this post with your additions.  Here goes:

Tampa Bo: I wish our fans were as crazy as soccer fans. Ron Turner would have been killed by now.

Noam: This Cedric Benson business is joke, how can the national media be blaming the Bears organization for “giving up” on this bum. Here was his career before this year in a nutshell: Holds out, speaks out publicly against the organization, alienates team mates, under performs on the field for ever year of his career and then has multiple off the field incidents related to alcohol and police enforcement.

Now he has put together 6 decent games and all the sudden he is the second coming of Emmit Smith. Its being treated as if the Bears organization has made the biggest blunder of the Decade and Benson has gotten revenge for being wronged in some way.

What a joke.

Rule 5 Draftee: I do not believe Tommie Harris played. He said it had nothing to do with his health, Jerry Angelo said it had nothing to do with his health, Lovie Smith said it had everything to do with his health. Among the players, coaching staff, and front-end office, nobody is on the same page. Nobody is giving uniform information. The entire organization is a disorganized mess and they had better get their act together if they expect to salvage this season. At least the schedule should look favorable for the bears, and more difficult for the 2 teams they’re now looking up to in the standings (and this is coming from a Packers fan).

Ethan: Tommie Harris didn’t play b/c of his knee that has been injured for about 3 years. The team sucked because of the horrendous play by both the o-line and d-line. Palmer had all the time in the world to wait for his receivers to get open because bears put zero pressure on him all day. Cutler had no time b/c the o-line is horrible (also why forte can’t run), and was hit waaaaaay too much yesterday.

Matt Clapp: Everything went wrong. Everything.

To answer your questions though…

Cutler: He had one bad interception, two of them I thought nothing of. One he tried to squeeze through about 10-15 yards out(and he usually does). Hit the hands of a Bengals guy, bounced way up in the air and then you knew it would be picked. The second one was on a fourth down at like their 40 something. It looked like a screen was called, play was busted up as their entire d-line was in Cutler’s grill immediately. Instead of just taking the sack(remember, it’s 4th down and the Bengals would be getting the ball at about midfield then), he threw it up in the air downfield, picked. Bennett did a terrible job of trying to make a tackle there… otherwise it’s a pretty good punt basically at around the 10 yard line. I’d rather see Cutler just throw the ball up for grabs like he did there than take the sack or throw it away, especially since they were already down like 21 at that point. Take a chance. He wasn’t very good, but he wasn’t nearly as bad as people will make it out to be.

Forte… He got like 10 yards on his first couple of carries between the tackles, looked pretty good I thought. But the game was getting out of hand… Turner was basically forced to call pass plays. It was 21-0 very, very quickly. Couldn’t afford to just hand the ball off to comeback with how bad our defense was, and remember the Bengals’ pass defense allowed over 390 passing yards from Matt Schaub the week before. Passing was the way to go.

Benson… Benson ran hard and had some nice runs, but so many missed tackles, and Lovie did a bad job with the playcalling. In his defense, the pass defense was so brutal that he was forced to keep a safety back for example. But then they’d creep one up, and then Carson would throw with ease. Give Cedric some props, but he wasn’t as good as the numbers say. And he wouldn’t be averaging 4 yards per carry with our o-line.

Palmer/Bears d: Palmer was terrific without question. Schefter pointed out(and correctly so) on Twitter that there wasn’t a quarterback throwing the ball better than he was yesterday. A lot of that surely had to do with absolutely no pass rush like you said though, and their receivers were -always- open.

Brad Biggs keeps saying it’s the most pathetic Bears game he’s seen in his nine seasons covering the team. It’s the worst I can remember watching. Just awful in every way. The only bright spot was Hester, and he even had a crucial fumble lost to kill what was a pretty good drive going.

Bitternutz: We need to abandon the Cover 2. Our personal does not currently mesh with the system.

Some Musings on the Bears from NQTC Reader/Contributor Gavin:

We'll find out if Marinelli is really an Autobot or a Decepticon soon enough

In honor of the much anticipated opening of the latest in the summer blockbuster franchise, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (due out on Wednesday night, June 24th) the Bears have been attempting to perform their own Revenge of the Fallen at Halas Hall this summer. Unfortunately, from the looks of it, new Defensive Line Coach, Rod Marinelli, has taken the Transformers theme a little too serious. As you can see, Rod’s arms have completed their transformation and his left leg is almost complete.  Sadly, the goal post to the left of Jarron Gilbert in this picture is former Defensive Coordinator Bob Babich.

On a more serious note, there is encouraging news from those covering the Bears’ OTAs. It appears that under Rod Marinelli’s supervision the defensive line is actually transforming into a unit capable of generating a pass rush throughout the 2009-2010 season.  Given the injuries to the secondary last year, putting more pressure on the opposing quarterback will be essential to the Bears’ success this year. Hopefully, the Bears have realized that utilizing people in roles that allow them to focus on what they do best is the best route. Rod Marinelli, largely known as the defensive line coach in the league will focus on our mix of young guns and more established veterans. Lovie Smith will finally return to handling the defensive playcalling, rather than just being the inspirational head coach that allows his defense to be picked apart by 6- and 7-yard slants the entire second half. And Bob Babich, will return to what he does best, being Lovie Smith’s inexplicable best friend in coaching.

OFFENSIVE MEANDERINGS

A brief note on the offense: I’m only half sold on Jay Cutler’s assurance that the Bears don’t need a No. 1 receiver in Plaxico Burress, Brandon Marshall, or some other option. If Devin Hester is the Bears’ No. 1 receiver, then can the Bears get someone who will step up as a quality No. 2?  The Patriots’ No. 2 receiver is Wes Welker. Who would you rather have: Wes Welker or Devin Hester? As long as other teams have No. 2’s that are as good as the Bears’ No. 1 receiver, why can’t the Bears’ acquire or develop another receiver that is just as good as Devin Hester, say a 1B receiver. Right now as I see it, we have a No. 1.5 receiver in Devin Hester, and then a bunch of No. 3’s and 4’s in Rashied Davis, Earl Bennett, Brandon Rideau and Juaquin Iglesias.

While it’s nice to hear that Hester is building chemistry with Cutler, I would much rather hear that Iglesias or Bennett is finding a home as a reliable split end or slot receiver for the Bears. I’m not getting my hopes up for Iglesias (the 99th pick in the draft), but I’m more optimistic about Earl Bennett. Not only is he getting his college quarterback in Jay Cutler, it seems the Bears learned that asking a rookie WR to learn the playbook for all three receiver positions might have been a mistake. Hopefully they follow the approach I mentioned with the coaching staff; let their personnel focus on a single discipline they do best, and allow them to excel at it. In this case, I’d love to see the Bears have Bennett focus on starting opposite of Hester, with Brandon Rideau pushing him in camp. While it won’t solve all of the offensive problems, it is a step towards developing more capable weapons on offense.  That would leave Iglesias and the stone-handed Rashied Davis to fight it out for the slot position.  Should be fun to see all of these guys running their routes, seeing Jay Cutler check down and then hit Greg Olson over the middle for 15-20 yards, 5 or 6 times a game.

• The Cubs Spring Training opener is today at 2:05 pm!  Samardzija is getting the start. [ChicagoCubs.com]
• The Bulls murdered the Magic last night 120-102.  The new guys look great. [Tribune]
• Is there some subterfuge up at Halas Hall?  It looks like Angelo is hanging Lovie out to dry. [Windy City Gridiron]
• Zambrano is now signed up for the World Baseball Classic.  No one (except Venezuela and the Brewers) can be too happy about that. [Bleacher Nation]
• Charles Barkley is going to jail.  Does this mean he now has “street cred”? [TMZ]
• The Brewers cannot be serious about having a DVD to commemorate their amazing second place finish. [Wrigleyville23]
• Apparently Paul Konerko would be open to being traded.  How about he hits better and stays healthy instead? [Chicagoist]
• Indiana basketball has another recruiting violation?  One IU fan is pissed.  I agree with him and I am so sick of IU apologists (that’s you Judd).  All I heard about from IU fans last year was “it was just a text message”, or “it was just a phone call”.  At some point someone needs to start taking responsibility for breaking the rules. [Midwest Sports]
• Pole Dancing in the Olympics?  I could get on board with that. [HHR]
• Assuming Milton Bradley will snap this season may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. [Another Cubs Blog]