Chicago Bears’ Myths by Lovie Smith.
The Bears get off the bus running. This just seems like an accident waiting to happen. 53 large men running the second they get off the bus. That’s a lot of risk for million dollar assets. I suggest you just walk off the bus like the rest of us. On a serious note, just because you say running the ball is important, doesn’t mean that it is important. I love how Lovie likes to wear his offensive coordinator hat sometimes when it seems clear he never touches the offensive side of the football. Turner is the coach of that offense and his motto is more like “we get off the bus and fall flat on our asses”.
“Rex is our quarterback” or “Kyle is our quarterback” and we’ll look at the video tape before we make any conclusions about their play. Lovie Smith is the king of deflection. He refuses to comment on any players poor performance until he “reviews” the video tape. As if he didn’t notice the 4 interceptions and 2 drop snaps that Grossman had during a game. Lovie, you don’t need video tape to tell you when one of our QBs or players has a shitty game.
The QB will determine whether the Bears are good are not. I hate this myth. It’s the Chicago f’in Bears for goodness sake. We’ve never had a good QB. We win because (a) we can run the rock or (b) we play great defense. This depends largely on our OL and DL play. So can we just cut it with the QB bashing? History suggests we will never have a great QB, so let’s just move on. Let’s just get an OL good enough to give our average QB time to make a few throws, while our running game dominates and our defense holds opponents to low scores. I’m not saying that we will never have a great QB. Its entirely possible. But, empirically history suggests a .1% chance of this occurring.
Special Teams will win games for you. This myth is somewhat true in that special teams can win a few games for you. But, this is no way should be a strategy for a football team. If you have to rely on your special teams to win games, then you are a bad football team. Lovie Smith relies on his special teams to win games. This is not good.
Athleticism is the only indication of whether a player is a good football player. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Just because Danieal Manning (for some reason I always feel dirty spelling his first name) is athletic, it doesn’t follow that he is a good football player. Safety and corner are also very much about anticipation and reading the QB. DM has neither of these qualities.
You can take a 30 plus has-been WR and make him into your #1 receiver. Let me make this straight Jerry and Lovie, Mushin Mohamed was a disaster free agent acquisition. We paid him #1 receiver money and he gave us 4th stringer production. So why do you think the same can happen with Marty Booker, Lloyd, etc.? Why must you continue to employ strategies that consistently backfire?
Players from “division 3 like” schools or unknowns make perfect early round draft selections. Dan Bazuin 2nd rounder, Danieal Manning 2nd rounder, Garret Wolfe 3rd rounder, Michael Okwo 3rd rounder, and Roosevelt Williams 3rd rounder. All of these players either (a) were driven out after 2 or less years and/or (b) still haven’t lived up to their draft status. Why do we go after these types of players? Someone please shed some light. I get it, maybe R. Williams, Dan Bazuin or DM, are sleeper picks. But why not take them in rounds 5-7 like normal thinking people? Why do we consistently take large risks on unproven players in early rounds? Do Lovie and Jerry Angelo honestly think they are smarter than the rest of the league? Oh yeah, we just cut Zack Bowman our 2008 draft pick. At least he was a 5th rounder.
The Cover 2 worked before, so it must work now. This is a partially true statement. The Cover 2 has been proven to work (Bucs and Colts). However, just because the Bucs and Colts won SBs with the Cover 2, doesn’t mean that the Bears can do it as well. First, the Colts have Peyton Manning. Secondly, the Bucs are the Kings of the Cover 2. Each team has different players, so it’s difficult to gage whether it’s the Cover 2 that works or the players that made it work. I am not saying that the Cover 2 is terrible and we shouldn’t use it. I’m just pointing out that the Cover 2 does not guarantee our defense will be great. As an outsider with admittedly lower football IQ, it’s just my impression that the Bears with their players would be just as good if they played a different defensive system (ala 2001 and pre Lovie). So, I guess what I’m trying to say to the Bears is-don’t be afraid to mix things up, we don’t have to be a Cover 2 defense, we can likely do other things just as well.
What’s important is that we beat the Packers. Sorry, I still never understood why we Chicagoans have this rivalry with Green Bay. Have you seen Green Bay? Why do we lower ourselves to this armpit city? Okay, you say its about football not cities? True, but the teams are never good at the same time. Its always been a lopsided rivalry. To me the Vikings are our toughest rival. But absent this discussion, beating the Packers doesn’t really matter. Beating the other 14 teams on the schedule means more.
Player X is hurt, but we think he will be fine and ready to go. If you hear this from Lovie or the Bears, this certainly almost always means the player is gone for at least 4-5 games or is seriously injured. Examples you ask? Chris Williams, Mark Bradley (repeatedly), Mike Brown, Terrence Metcalf, etc. and most recently, Tommie Harris, who’s knee is somehow “more serious than we thought” according to the Tribune. Agh. Why can’t we have a competently run franchise?
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