After 9 years and 3 playoff wins, the Bears have fired Lovie Smith.
To start, I'd like to say that I don't think Lovie Smith is a terrible coach. Smith led the Bears to a record of 81-63 from 2004 to 2012, and a winning percentage of .563 is 9th of 32 franchises during his tenure. He was also 9-3 in MNF games, for what it's worth (little). There's no doubt in my mind that Lovie Smith will be a head coach in the NFL again, and likely be a successful one. He is a fine defensive mind, and if given an offense wherever he lands, he may even have some postseason success.
However, there was a reason he was fired, and it was his complete inability to cultivate an offense.
Here is a sampling of stats from the Lovie Smith Era:
Bears were 7th in games with 14 or fewer points scored, with 49.
Bears were 1st in games with under 150 passing yards, with 57. Second place was miles away, with 50 (Jets).
Bears were 4th in games with 5 or more sacks allowed, with 21. There were, comically, 5 games in the LSE where the QBs were sacked 7 times or more.
Bears were 1st in the league in games with 3 or more turnovers, with 46. They were merely 2nd in the league in turnovers, total, with 280.
There are definitely complaints with the talent his teams has been given. I'm not going to argue that he's failed with great offensive units. I will say, though, that Lovie's offenses have consistently been either the worst or very close to the worst units in his 9 years. He's had exclusively awful offensive coordinators. His offensive units have never improved. Jay Cutler is seemingly the only quarterback who has to wait until 15 seconds are left on the play clock to get a play in. There are myriad reasons why the Bears have been abysmal offensively, and Lovie Smith is the first one. You've got to field at-least a below-average offensive squad to have serious hopes at a deep playoff run, and many years Smith has failed to do that.
The Bears have essentially squandered one of the best defensive runs in NFL history. They lead the league in takeaways during his era by a comical margin (310 to 283 – the distance between 1 and 2 is greater than the distance between 2 and 8) and games with 3 or more takeaways (again, 49 to 42, the distance between 2 and 15). To hear that a team that had a defense as good as the Bears did only won 3 playoff games (including a team that finished the regular season 7-9 and beating a dome team at home) in 9 years makes it pretty clear that something had to change. Today, something finally did.
Lovie Smith will be a head coach again. He'd be a fantastic defensive coordinator if he'd take the demotion. It's best for Smith and for the Bears to part ways.
Comments
If only Lovie’s team had better pitching and guys who could get on base…
#wrongsport’d
Best of luck to Lovie, offense was definitely not the strong suit.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I agree, I liked him, but he at first didn’t seem to care about the offense, then when he started to care, he didn’t seem to be able to put anything solid together.
joshQuote Reply
While I give Lovie a lot of credit for the defense, some of the things on offense were baffling. I don’t see how he didnt make some kind of executive decision to make things run more smoothly in terms of calling plays because it can’t be that hard. Watching the packers last night having to root for them I was expecting a delay of game every play, because with how the bears run their offense, after 2 seconds at the line, they have to snap the ball whereas Rodgers has time to you know adjust or change the play at the line. Obviously the Pack are one of the best offenses so its hard to compare, but it just seemed like there was so much administrative inefficiency with getting routine plays called all of lovies tenure.
AndrewQuote Reply
Also, thinking Hester could be a #1 or 2 receiver was really silly. Hester did great things as a returner but he was never anything more than a silly gimmick on offense
AndrewQuote Reply
Andrew wrote:
It’s incredibly hard.
Aisle424Quote Reply
@ Aisle424:
(dying laughing)
GWQuote Reply
I’m not sure what’s worse, having a head coach who essentially scoffed at the offensive revolution in the NFL, didn’t understand point maximization and fourth down strategies, or the fact that I’m sad to see him go and think it’s likely that the next regime will be worse.
GWQuote Reply
Didn’t see this about Hester, though after all the times he’s run in the wrong direction in the hopes of making a big return (all for naught), I guess some of you guys probably don’t care.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/bears-return-man-devin-hester-pondering-retirement-lovie-204613266–nfl.html
Rice CubeQuote Reply
The youtube embed thing isn’t resizing things right. Noticed it last week. I’ll look into it sometime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OekWK7LorMw
dmick89Quote Reply
Aside http://obstructedview.net/major-league-baseball/hall-of-fame-ballot-updates-on-btf.html
dmick89Quote Reply
I’ll be sad to see him go for two reasons:
1. He knew what he didn’t know and wasn’t good at, and was humble enough to admit it. As bad as this offense has been at times, it would have been 100x worse having a defensive coach like Lovie calling all the shots. A huge part of leadership is delegation and getting out of the way. If only he had someone remotely competent to delegate to…
2. He’s been coaching the team for almost a whole decade, and I’ve seldom seen him angry. In a league filled with clowns who yell and scream and pout and cry, he was collected, calm, classy. I liked seeing that in a head coach.
EdwinQuote Reply
Edwin wrote:
2 very salient points. On the one hand, it’s incredibly frustrating with the lack of information and emotion that Smith has given over the years. He’s probably the best coach in the league as far as not giving any information out to anyone. On the other hand, it’s pretty evident that players love him, and he’s managed that without any real problems out of the clubhouse (as in, players behave).
MylesQuote Reply
These Bears fans are sad to see him go.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
Those images are weird.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ dmick89:
thanks
Suburban kidQuote Reply
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/01/phil-emery-makes-clear-lovie-smiths-failure-was-building-the-offense/
Forgive me for being naive…but isn’t it the job of the GM and the offensive coordinator to give the head coach the pieces he needs to succeed on offense? I can understand a guy not being imaginative enough on offense with the right parts, but if you have a leaky O-line and receivers who don’t run good routes or can’t catch…that’s kind of a recipe for disaster.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
You’re welcome
dmick89Quote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
No decision regarding acquiring a player went without significant input from Lovie Smith, and the same applies to hiring the OC. While yes, the OC and GM have sucked, but they’ve already been fired. The next head coach will choose a new OC and help decide who we draft. If the OC sucks and the draft sucks, a lot of that blame will fall on the head coach
AndrewQuote Reply
@ Andrew:
That makes sense, though I would’ve thunk that a GM would take less input from a coach who wasn’t that good at evaluating offensive talent. But then again, that’s probably why they’re all fired now.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
I think, after listening to that press conference, that the thing that really sunk Lovie was the hiring of Mike Tice as the OC. Reading between the lines, I think the promotion of Scott to starting RT might have come from the front office. Likewise, there was some criticism on how Matt Forte and Earl Bennett were used.
Think of it this way, the Bears were a much stronger offensive unit in 2011 (pre-injuries) than they were in 2012. And in 2012 they had Jeffrey, Carimi, Scott, Bush, and most importantly, Marshall added to the roster. That they regressed despite those additions is pretty damning. And as far as I can tell, it was Smith’s call to fire Martz and replace him with Tice. And that’s why he’s out of a job now.
Tough? Yeah. But as they say, it’s a tough business. I was against firing Lovie before the press conference, but now that I’ve seen it I’m pretty excited about the direction of this team. I think you’ll see an offensive “guru” come in as the head coach, and a “system” guy get hired to run the defense. I wouldn’t be suprised to see Marinelli come back, or to see them pursue Ron Rivera as a new DC if he gets fired from Carolina as expected.
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
The hiring of Rivera (EDIT: as a defensive coordinator) would be a particularly strong move. He’s capable of winning with the current system/players, but is also flexible in coaching a 3-4 scheme if the talent ends up evolving in that direction. Plus, the veterans from 2006 still on the roster seemed to love him, so bringing him back may help soothe any wounds they still have over Lovie’s dismissal.
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
I’m a big Rivera fan, and if he’d take a job as DC for the Bears again I’d be thrilled. I just hope we get someone who can run an offense. If Bruce Arians was 20 years younger, I’d definitely give him an interview.
MylesQuote Reply
shawndgoldman wrote:
how many of those guys are still on the roster? there has already been some speculation that urlacher will be gone.
GWQuote Reply
@ GW:
Enough of the “leaders.” If Urlacher, Tillman, and Briggs all approve I think they’d bring the rest along with them.
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
Woah, this would be awesome:
https://twitter.com/DavidHaugh/status/286278050172239876
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
@ shawndgoldman:
I suppose. My preference would be to avoid making decisions for the sake of three guys who will all be out of the league within three years.
GWQuote Reply
@ shawndgoldman:
Doesn’t McCarthy control that offense, though, all the way down to the play calling?
GWQuote Reply
@ GW:
I’m sure Clements at least has the same philosophies as McCarthy, or else he would have been replaced with someone who did. Considering the holes in the packers O line over the past couple of years yet have still managed an elite offense, I think they may have some ideas that will translate well in chicago (although Cutler is no Rodgers). I’d like to see Marinelli stay although he might want to try to find a head coaching job elsewhere and he might have a chance.
AndrewQuote Reply
The only coordinator I’d be too sad about losing is Dave Toub. Marinelli is fine, but I can’t imagine he’ll stay with the team. He’s got a real shot at getting another HC gig, or a DC gig somewhere else if he wants it.
MylesQuote Reply
@ Myles:
Myles,
I’ve heard Mike McCoy’s name come up. Do you know anything about him, what type of offense he might want to run?
EdwinQuote Reply
New (small) Shit
MylesQuote Reply
Edwin wrote:
I’m a pretty big fan of McCoy, actually. He did good things with Kyle Orton, back in the day, and he’s a pretty versatile guy, too. He’s obviously an offensively minded coordinator (and in fact was a QB for Utah. He also developed Jake Delhomme with his time at Carolina (and Delhomme regressed HARD after McCoy left).
McCoy and Cutler/Marshall have a (brief) history, too. McCoy was the OC at Denver for a month or so before Cutler got traded. Marshall had all of 2009 with McCoy (he had a fine year, if unremarkable).
Part of me wonders who McCoy would choose as a DC (if he gets that opportunity). If Marinelli stuck around as DC, that would be awesome. I also wouldn’t be surprised if McCoy takes David Magazu (Broncos OL coach) with him (as OC); they both spent a ton of time with John Fox at Carolina (and when McCoy does get hired, I wouldn’t be surprised if Magazu isn’t just promoted to OC at Denver anyway; only in the case that he isn’t promoted do I think it likely he’ll follow McCoy wherever he goes).
I haven’t done a ton of diligence on the options for HC (honestly, I didn’t think Smith was going to get let go). I don’t have a ton of info for you on McCoy other than what I’ve just said (gleaned from maybe half an hour of research after I first heard about him). He does seems like the prototypical “hot OC” but that’s definitely not a bad thing.
MylesQuote Reply
Edwin wrote:
And to answer the actual question (on what he’d like to run), he’s pretty adaptable (as evidenced by 2011 and the Tebow packages). He’s obviously tended to be a little more reliant on the pass (Orton was 13th and 7th in yardage in his two primary years with McCoy), but he actually gave the ball to DeShaun Foster a TON in Carolina, and was nearly always in the top 10 in team rushing attempts during his tenure there (Delhomme was a good quarterback, though, so he got nice yardage in fewer attempts).
I will say that McCoy loves to use his RB when they are good, and he’d have a very good one in Forte.
MylesQuote Reply
new shit: http://obstructedview.net/commentary-and-analysis/muskat-work-in-progress-but-cubs-aim-to-be-competitive.html
dmick89Quote Reply