The Bears will Never Win a Superbowl with Lovie Smith at the Helm.

Lovie ain't no Belichick

No, that headline isn’t an attempt at shock journalism or as I like to call it, Mariotti journalism. In fact, the statement shouldn’t be too shocking. With the departing of Holmgren, Shanahan, and Dungy, only 3 out of the 32 present head coaches in the NFL have won a championship (that’s only 9% of the league). So this isn’t to totally blame Lovie Smith (surely the players and Jerry Angelo are also to blame) for the Bears’ lack of Superbowl victories. But ask yourself this question: Is Lovie Smith in the top 9% of current NFL coaches (i.e. in the top 3, or 5, or even 10)? The answer of course is no. Lovie Smith’s alright. But, alright doesn’t win you championships in the NFL.

Lovie Smith likely won’t win a Superbowl title because he is not a great coach. It’s true that Tony Dungy wasn’t a great coach either. But Dungy had Peyton Manning and friends. The Bears have Orton. With the even talent level of the current NFL, coaching becomes an even larger element of winning football. It’s no coincidence that Bill Belichik, Shanahan and Mike Holmgren won Superbowls. They are great coaches. They not only could lead men, but they also had the smarts and systems that could out maneuver opposing coaches. Sure Belichick had Brady. But before Belichick, Brady was a bench player at Michigan. Even after Brady’s knee injury, Belichick made a high school QB, Mat Cassell, into a good passer and led the same team to an 11 win record. Think about that for a moment. The Bears who have been grooming both Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton for 4 years only mustered 9 wins this season (7 wins the previous year). Belichick coaches a team with a QB who never started in college to an 11 win season. That’s great coaching.

To be fair, Smith did lead the Bears to a Superbowl appearance. They lost of course. And in my book 2nd place doesn’t mean anything. More persuasive is that the Bears reached the final game more so because of talent than Lovie Smith’s great coaching. Remember how Lovie Smith failed to adapt during the Superbowl game when it was clear that Peyton Manning could rip apart our Cover 2 defense? The Bears’ defense sat back like they were old retired men at a street side coffee shop.

But the media argues that Lovie’s a great teacher. Really? Daniel Manning still can’t play safety. Mark Anderson and Nathan Vasher have regressed. Have Orton and Grossman taken real steps forward? Hasn’t our D-line regressed? Aren’t former receivers Berrian, Justin Gage, and Mark Bradely doing better on other teams? It doesn’t seem like Michael Okwo or Dan Bazuin (two project players) got better under Lovie’s tutelage. But maybe Brandon Ayanbadejo said it best when comparing his new coach to Lovie, “{Harbaugh} ''is a lot more hands-on than Lovie'' and that his coaching style ''is more personal and a lot different than Lovie.'' This seems to infer that Lovie isn’t a hands on teacher. That’s right. He really is the deer in headlights guy on the sidelines that we comically joke about.

Want more evidence that Lovie isn’t the guy to lead the Bears to a Superbowl title? Why did it take the off-season for Lovie Smith to realize that Babich isn’t a good play caller? It seems to me that a great coach would recognize that Babich couldn’t handle the duties during the season when things fell apart (i.e. your once great defense performing like the Bengals). But, it took Lovie two years to figure this out. Even worse, what’s the point of having a defensive coordinator if you don’t trust him enough to call the plays? So now with Babich demoted to linebackers coach, Lovie is our sit-in defensive coordinator. On offense we still have Ron Turner. So who exactly is our head coach? Lovie’s buddy from college?

I sincerely hope I’m wrong about this. Again, I’ve always made it a point to be fair in my writings. And maybe I am being overly critical. However, I can only write what I see. And what I see is coach, who can’t make a good team great.