Bears Blitz

Published by Gene Chamberlain on January 5, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

LAKE FOREST, IL—Not only will Bears coach Lovie Smith be back, but so too will the cover-two defensive scheme that has been his trademark.

“We haven’t played it as well as we need to,” Smith said. “But as long as I am the head football coach here, that is something that I believe in and we will keep continuing to make our scheme better, but we will be running some form of that.”

It just won’t be Smith calling the defensive plays like this year. Nor will Ron Turner be calling offensive plays as he’d done since 2005 after being the sacrificial lamb offered up Tuesday to appease Bears fans angered over the third straight non-playoff season.

Turner and offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, offensive line assistant Luke Butkus, tight ends coach Rob Boras, quarterbacks coach Pep Hamilton, and wide receivers assistant Charles London all lost their jobs as Smith used a press conference at Halas Hall to voice a need to get fresh ideas on offense suited to quarterback Jay Cutler’s skills.

“Offensively, right now, I’m pretty much open,” Smith said. “You (media) guys know what my philosophy is as far as being able to run the football. I still want to be able to run the football.

“We realize we have maybe some of our best weapons at the receiver position so we’ll be looking to of course expand on that. But we’re not happy with where we are. We realize it has been three years since we have been to the playoffs.”

Team president Ted Phillips insisted the decision to keep Smith on as head coach had nothing to do with the two years and $11 million remaining on his contract. But it’s quite apparent team ownership expects a winning—if not playoff—season in 2010 following three seasons of 7-9, 9-7, and 7-9.

“One thing we’ve never had with coach Smith has been back-to-back losing years,” Phillips said. “There’s a fine line sometimes between winning and losing, but we expect to win now in 2010.”

Now Smith faces the difficult task of finding suitable coordinators willing to come in facing the possibility they might be done after only one year.

“How are we going to convince someone to come here to coach the Chicago Bears, our offensive positions, defensive positions?” Smith said. “Believe me, people will want to come here.

“Coaches don’t deal in long-term commitments and things like that. It’s about getting the job done right away. There will be a lot of candidates that will come and want to be a part of what we’re going to do next year.”

Names have been bandied about, although General Manager Jerry Angelo said no contact has yet been made with potential candidates. Coaches with ties to Smith naturally come up, like his former boss in St. Louis, Mike Martz, who told Chicago ESPN radio Tuesday that he would be interested in the position. Former Buffalo Bills interim head coach Perry Fewell would be another with ties to Chicago, as Smith’s defensive backs coach in 2005.

“We have a good nucleus of players here that they all see,” Smith said. “I think an offensive guy would want to come here and have a chance to work with a Jay Cutler, and have a chance to mold some of the young receivers and get the offense back on track.

“I think a defensive guy would want to come here and coordinate a defense with a guy like Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs, and guys like that, and fix some of the third downs. I think he is going to look at and he’s not going to see a lot of big holes, he’s going to look at us tightening up a couple bolts to get back. Somebody will want to do that.”

The Bears finished 27th stopping third down conversions this season (41.2 percent) and 17th in total defense. They were blown out of games with Minnesota, Arizona, Cincinnati, and Baltimore.

“I’m concerned that there were games this year that were over at halftime,” Angelo said. “All right. Part of that, a big part of that, was our defense. I’m concerned about that. We have issues that we have to deal with on defense: scheme, personnel. Yes. We don’t have as many dominating players on defense to do what we did in past years.

“Are there some things that maybe we could do from the scheme perspective to maybe help better the players that we have? I’m sure Lovie and the staff are going to look at that hard. So it’s probably a combination of the two.”

Angelo thinks the team can find the talent needed to get back into the playoffs. Even though the Bears lack a first and second-round draft pick, and the free agency pool might be dry because of an uncapped year approaching without a collective bargaining agreement.

He also said there could yet be changes in his own scouting and administrative staff.

“I’m not going to sit here and make any determinations right now,” he said. “We’re still going through our evaluation process. Our calendar works differently than the coaches’ calendar, so everything will be addressed at its proper time given the evaluation.”

The personnel calendar usually runs through the April draft and ensuing rookie camp.

Angelo himself was closely scrutinized. Angelo said Phillips gave him a “vote of confidence” and then gave one to Smith.

The one who didn’t get the vote of confidence was Turner, whose offense finished tied for 19th in scoring (20.4 ppg) and 23rd in yardage (310.3 per game).

“I’m not going to sit here and say everything that went wrong with this football team was because of how we ran our offense,” Angelo said. “No. That’s not accurate either. It’s a combination of a lot of things here and nobody has 100 percent the answer. Nobody. There’s no guarantees on anything.

“Everything evolves. These are decisions. There are a lot of grays in these decisions. You (media) have opinions. I listen to your opinions all the time. If you were held accountable, some of you on some of the opinions you give, you would have a crayon in your hand.”

Smith and Angelo have to hope the decisions they make this year are right.

Another losing season would be the first consecutively since Smith became coach and most likely signal the end of a regime that started in 2004, after Dick Jauron was fired by Angelo following two straight losing seasons.

“I know some may disagree, but I believe that the fastest way to improve is to keep the continuity that we’ve had with both Jerry Angelo as our general manager and Lovie Smith as our head coach,” said Phillips.

The Bears’ president has a stake in this now, too. Even though his contract runs to 2013, he has now put his chips firmly on Smith and Angelo.

2010 promises to be a high-stakes season for the Bears.

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