The Return of Lovie Smith... thoughts?

[JoeyTourettes]

I know that this game would be a different animal if both teams were more successful. I am just a little shocked that the board hasn't mentioned it yet.

What are your thoughts on his return? Mean anything to you?

I get that the team isn't very good. I get that expectations have not been met and that Trestman hasn't solved the problems that Lovie and Angelo created. What I don't understand is the Love of Lovie I'm hearing and seeing now. (Is anyone else hearing this? comments on radio, interviews with players, comments from talking heads on ESPN and sports shows have reiterated they don't know why Lovie was fired 2 years ago...

When Lovie Smith was fired. It was time to move on. (regardless of who they hired to replace him) He had 3 playoff appearances in 9 years. And had only ONE playoff team in his last 6 years. One.
He had the chance to change 8 coordinators. Eight! And none of them worked out... If retained for that next year he would have had to replace Tice as well. (Turner, Shoop, Martz, Tice, Rivera, Babage, Lovie, Marinelli)
Lovie is now the head coach of a team that has won 2 games. When did the nostalgia of Lovie Smith become what I have been hearing?

"The 10-6 TEAM!!" That's what I've heard for a week. "WHY did they fire a 10-6 coach? Why?"
I get that people are pissed... with the current issues. But really who did that beat that year? What really happened?

Of those 10 wins: 2 finished with winning records
Colts finished 11-5, Lovie's Bears beat Andrew Luck in his first Pro start- he threw 3 picks.
Vikings finished 10-6. (lost to them in the other game)

That's it. They also lost to the Packers twice. They had a 1-5 stretch. Needing wins against the 5-11 Cardinals and 4-12 Lions in the final 2 games to get to those 10 wins.

Colts 11-5
Rams 7-8-1
Cowboys 8-8
Jags 2-14
Lions 4-12
Panthers 7-9
Titans 6-10
Vikings 10-6
Cardinals 5-11
Lions 4-12

(I would love a schedule like that this year! 5 of the 6 teams we have lost to currently have even or winning records.)

I know the bears should win. They have to... With this lost season, I really want this one. I want to win big. I want the offense to be spectacular. I want to show Lovie what he could never get right.
Beating a 2 win team isn't going to swing the feelings we all feel of this season, but it will/should temper some of the "Why did we fire Lovie Smith" questions.
Go Bears!

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

I think Lovie will run a cover 2 and Jay will make bad decisions and throw multi picks. I was a Lovie fan and still respect him. I was OK with moving on but did not like the guys we replaced him with. It would be fitting for TB to destroy us and end this staff. Lovie can still help us that way.

 

[nomoreshoop]

We will put mesmerizing things on the Jumbotron and Lovie will use all 3 of his timeouts in the first minute of each half, and we will defeat the Succaneers.

 

[JoeyTourettes]

Agenda's a plenty among Bears fans for this game:

Lovie wins= See I knew we shouldn't have fired him. He was 10-6!!

McCown out plays Cutler= 1. Internet implodes 2. Look at what we could have had!! Should have kept him and dumped Jay! Can we get him back and dump Jay? That guy McGowan is pretty good can we get him next year?

Bears Win: Eh... the Bucs suck.
Bears Win Big on offense: Eh... the Bucs suck.
Bears Win in close game: Eh the Bucs suck...but look at how Lovie's got that team working hard!

 

[Dirk]

I was fine with Lovie getting shown the door.

He was never going to get a top half of the league offense going consistently, and his linchpin on D was on his way out of the league shortly. Except that they would have kept him around and we'd be treating him like Lance now. Used to be great, now a liability. Maybe they could have gotten a replacement for Urlacher, but nothing in the past 5 drafts have shown me convincingly that they would have.

Meh. They win, they should have. The bucs are not a good team. Same as last week.

They lose, par for the course. They'll probably make McCown look like the next coming and Tampa's D look like the 2006 bears D.

Trestman's Squint > Lovie's jumotron gaze.

 

[Wounded Bear]

As I said on another board, I'm forever done with Lovie. If Trestman doesn't work out, it's still a progression in the process of finding a better coach.

We saw Lovie's ceiling and quite frankly his teams' defenses feasted on the mediocre teams of the league, but when it came to the NFL elite teams, they looked like little kids playing with a Rubik's Cube.

When it comes to McCown....yes I think we should have kept him while showing Jay the door, but the only reason we should have kept McCown was IF we were going to draft a QB in the first or second round as his successor. So the only reason I covet McCown is because of his contract and my personal belief that he would be a decent mentor. The latter is based on nothing other than him being a high school football coach....

Quite honestly, this game, whether we win or lose, will not prove anything to me. Just two sh!tty teams occupying a field on a Sunday vying for a higher draft pick on 2015.

 

[anotheridiot]

Figure this is a seed of drama waiting flower, pretty sure thats why the board steered clear of any lovie and Josh threads. No matter what happens sunday, it does not answer whether the correct moves were made if those two were with this current team or not.

 

[antone112]

I will openly weep as he loses in Chicago for the final time.

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

Figure this is a seed of drama waiting flower, pretty sure thats why the board steered clear of any lovie and Josh threads. No matter what happens sunday, it does not answer whether the correct moves were made if those two were with this current team or not.

I think no one chimmed in because both teams blow. If we were a winning team, this would be a much bigger deal.

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

Quite honestly, this game, whether we win or lose, will not prove anything to me..

If we lose it will prove something. It will prove a lot.

 

[Beengay fudgepackers]

Honestly, I think Lovie knows cutler really well, and I could see this going sour for the bears.

 

[richig07]

We saw Lovie's ceiling and quite frankly his teams' defenses feasted on the mediocre teams of the league, but when it came to the NFL elite teams, they looked like little kids playing with a Rubik's Cube.

I would highly dispute this. Lovie's D had more success against Rodgers than probably anyone else in football.

In 05 and 06 that defense dominated good offenses throughout the year. Even in the super bowl against Peyton, they easily did enough to win if the offense was competent. Surrendering 22 points. They dominated New Orleans the game prior to that.

Outside of the disaster against Brady in the blizzard in 2010, in 10, 11 and 12 I have a hard time remembering many offense's beating up on the Bears. At all.

 

[richig07]

If we lose it will prove something. It will prove a lot.

Not really. The Green Bay game was already rock bottom. IMO, losing to Lovie/McCown is not any worse than that. The team is basically finished barring a miracle 6-0 finish to the season from here on out. I don't think a loss here really turns up the frustration. Just keeps it stagnant.

 

[NCChiFan]

What is the over/under on Lovie and Trestman staring at each other with the patented "stares" each has during the game? Could end up a stare off... ??

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

Not really. The Green Bay game was already rock bottom. IMO, losing to Lovie/McCown is not any worse than that. The team is basically finished barring a miracle 6-0 finish to the season from here on out. I don't think a loss here really turns up the frustration. Just keeps it stagnant.

It will prove this team quit on this staff for me. It will prove things HAVE to be blown up. For me it's already been proven but someone above me needs more proof. Now if we win then bla. I like winning, I like early draft picks too. I hate being in the middle.

 

[JoeyTourettes]

I would highly dispute this. Lovie's D had more success against Rodgers than probably anyone else in football.

In 05 and 06 that defense dominated good offenses throughout the year. Even in the super bowl against Peyton, they easily did enough to win if the offense was competent. Surrendering 22 points. They dominated New Orleans the game prior to that.

Outside of the disaster against Brady in the blizzard in 2010, in 10, 11 and 12 I have a hard time remembering many offense's beating up on the Bears. At all.

Whoa... hang on. The Defense gave up 191 yards rushing & a 53 yard TD pass to Reggie Wayne in the SB... Peyton was never under any pressure all day. And they held the ball for over 38 minutes. Turnovers suck and I get it, but I hate that the defense always gets a pass for that game. They were NOT good enough to beat Peyton Manning. Simple as that.

 

[Wounded Bear]

I would highly dispute this. Lovie's D had more success against Rodgers than probably anyone else in football.

In 05 and 06 that defense dominated good offenses throughout the year. Even in the super bowl against Peyton, they easily did enough to win if the offense was competent. Surrendering 22 points. They dominated New Orleans the game prior to that.

Outside of the disaster against Brady in the blizzard in 2010, in 10, 11 and 12 I have a hard time remembering many offense's beating up on the Bears. At all.

I think you do have a point if you are just talking about the 2006 (Super Bowl) season and prior during Lovie's rein. But after that I would have to take issue with your stance. I'm not certain of this, but I think Lovie posted a winning record against the Pack in his first couple/three years of his tenure with the Bears.

But considering that Jay Cutler owned a 1-7 record against the Pack under Lovie, I don't think we've exactly dominated them in the recent past.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

I went through this a few threads back, game-by-game, and in my opinion (as I tried to show with the game-by-game), most of the games were games the Lovie Bears lost to the Packers were offensive failures, not defensive failures. There were one or two exceptions, but mostly the Bears did a better than average job containing Rodgers during the Lovie years.

 

[richig07]

I think you do have a point if you are just talking about the 2006 (Super Bowl) season and prior during Lovie's rein. But after that I would have to take issue with your stance. I'm not certain of this, but I think Lovie posted a winning record against the Pack in his first couple/three years of his tenure with the Bears.

But considering that Jay Cutler owned a 1-7 record against the Pack under Lovie, I don't think we've exactly dominated them in the recent past.

I understand this, but at almost no time were the losses due to the defensive performance. The vast majority of the time, I'm pretty sure it was in spite of a great defensive performance. Like I said, the defense performed very well against GB on a consistent basis. The Bears used to "have Rodgers number" as well as visa versa with Cutler. In 2010, those games were 20-17 (the lone Cutler win), 10-3, and 21-14 (14 offensive points for GB). It's hard to ask for anything more against Rodgers and Green Bay. Surrendering 34 points in three games to one of the league's top offenses and eventual SB champs. 11.3 PPG, and you go 1-2? Near impossible to say the defense didn't perform at a high level.

Just saying that the D did perform well against Rodgers.

In 2010, they also halted a Philadelphia offense in their tracks that some thought were unstoppable. In 2011, I don't really remember a poor performance… a lot of ugly offensive games, but the defense was great. In 2012, all I can think of is Kaep's debut game on Monday night with Campbell starting.

 

[averagejoe]

I'm sure some will look at Cutler's stats (and the rest of the offense) and lament Lovie's departure.

As for me, seeing Lovie in action Sunday brought back memories of poor clock management, questionable challenges (particularly the 4th-down play at the 2-minute warning, where he eventually lost a timeout as well), and conservative play. I appreciate everything Lovie did here. But I'm glad we moved on.