jason

I wish people would quit perpetuating the falsehood that this D has been consistently good. You can't say they've been good under Lovie then couch it with a "but Babich" comment. Besides that, both Rivera and Marinelli had mediocre/subpar years as well. 2004 - Rivera - 13th points / 21st yards 2005 - Rivera - 1/2 2006 - Rivera - 3/5 2007 - Babich - 16/28 2008 - Babich - 16/21 2009 - Babich - 21/17 2010 - Marinelli - 4/9 2011 - Marinelli - 14/17 2012 - Marinelli - 3/5 I agree players like Wooten and Melton have taken steps forward, but I don't give a damn about what ex-players say. They're damn near crying over the Lovie firing, and I don't think he's a great HC by a long shot. If the Bears wanted coaches with which the players are comfortable, then they should have kept Club Med Lovie. Regarding this year and the elite status you bestow upon them, I think it was a lot of luck in the beginning of the season. No team gets that many turnovers that consistently and that quickly. On top of that, in their first five games they started out with Luck's first pro game, got the Rams, as well as the Jaguars. I expect they'd look good. It's possible the team takes a step back, but I don't think it will be difficult to replace Marinelli. Maybe his reputation, that'll be hard to replace. But, then again, Tice is supposed to have a reputation as an OL genius, and that has proven utterly false.

Sold.

It's definitely odd, but perhaps the person/people perpetrating this hoax acted as family members and forwarded along letters she had already written? It wouldn't be uncommon for people to pour out their heart and soul while withering away in a hospital bed from a terminal disease. It also wouldn't be unheard of for a family member to deliver such correspondence postmortem. Maybe the perpetrators said to him, "She would have wanted you to have these." Based on the concept of "do the eyes tell the truth," (which may or may not be BS), he moved his eyes in a way that would suggest he's remembering something that actually happened. And that could support the concept that he was duped.

Huge huge issue? Why? I think any competent DC could have done what he did in the past three years with the talent available. Urlacher is one of the best MLBs in history, Tillman is one of the best at creating turnovers in history, Peppers is one of the best DEs in history. None of them are #1 at their position, but they are in the upper echelon. Add in a few other very good players like Briggs, Melton, etc., and I can see the same production, if not better production, from another DC.

Agreed. What's more, I was running at the gym on two different occasions, and the ticker said something about the Chicago Bears and Lovie Smith was coming up next. Two different times that story just basically got bumped from the lineup. Chicago football is always overlooked unless there is an opportunity to dog it.

My first thought when reading your post was, "I wonder who was protecting Gannon's immobile corpse while he was throwing for 4600+ yards?" As it turns out, they had a pretty good OL. A very odd collection of guys who just gelled that year. Kennedy was just like when the Bears squeezed the last drop out of Reuben Brown and John Tait. Barrett Robbins was a pro-bowl Center who turned out to be bipolar and basically missed the Super Bowl. Barry Sims was an undrafted guy who has turned in a solid career. And Mo Collins was a first rounder who had a shortened career due to injury. An offense with a decent QB, an average RB, and two aged WRS excel when with a pretty good OL. Whoda thunk it?

Marinelli? Meh. I never really thought he did that great of a job. I still believe the DL's attack, and the blitz packaging, were both elementary and easy to stop. Of course, that could just be guilt by association to Lovie. Maybe Marinelli turned Wooten and Melton into the monsters they are becoming?

I'm normally the most cynical person I know, but there are reasons to pause and believe Teo is actually a target of fraud: 1) Why did he need more sympathy when his grandmother already died the same day? 2) The verb "met" is often interchangeable for younger people today. 3) For a devoutly religious person, it's possible communicate for quite some time before worrying about the intimate, the physical. 4) I doubt flowers would be returned from any funeral home. 5) Highly elaborate schemes like this happen frequently enough online that the word catfish has become a verb, and has spawned both a movie and a TV show. 6) No way Notre Dame goes all-in supporting Teo if they don't have at least some evidence. 7) Many families whose loved ones die do not seek notoriety or publicity - it's just that we expect differently a lot of times because of the type of society we have eroded into. Having said all that, the one issue I have is with the communication is...no Face Time? No Skype? Teo is a college senior raised in the information age. Surely that would have come up.

Hahaha! Awesome.

Perfect! Now the Bears can draft him in the fourth! Huge upside from that perspective. I don't give a shit about what he does off the field. Give me ball players.

I didn't read up. I watched games and highlights. Lots of deep drops. But I'll defer to CanadianBear, who has undoubtedly watched more games up there. He says it's a lot of 3 and 5 step drops. I'll believe it. But from tape it sure looks like there are deep drops and even a few shotguns with 3-5 step drops.

This is my favorite thread in Talk Bear history. Thanks for the update CanadianBear! Sounds like my kind of coach on both offense AND defense.

Wow. This feels like the offseason when the Bears landed Cutler. I couldn't believe we could finally watch a legit offense. Of course, Lovie/Tice/JA ruined that, but maybe, just maybe, we get a second chance.

Ever since Jimmy Johnson leaked the name Marc Trestman, I've been watching every highlight I could from his time in Canada. And I'm sure of the following statement: The majority of this board will be upset. Why? To make this offense work, either he'll have draft a ton of OL OR He's going to have a very unbalanced, semi-productive offense that relies on a lot of deep drops, has minimal rushing, and will get the QB drilled Judging from history, either scenario is going to make most of this board unhappy.

All I really need to know about the guy to get my approval: 1997 - Guided Scott freaking Mitchell to 3,484 yards passing 1998 - Guided Jake freaking Plummer to 3,737 yards passing Dude knows offense.

But at the same time, if he's not given some of the same latitude Lovie was given, and he doesn't win a SB in four years or less, it will be upsetting to me if they fire him under a "win a SB or get fired" condition.

He'll yeah! I liked that guy!

This is almost exactly what I'm thinking.

As BT said, I don't think Urlacher is going anywhere. Hence, a first rounder would be on the bench. The Bears have a TE, it's Rodriguez. I want him to be used as such since that's where all the excitement about his selection was directed. As for FB, who gives a damn? Those dudes can be picked up off the scrap heap. Vonta Leach - BAL - Undrafted John Kuhn - GB - Undrafted Bruce Miller - SF - 7th RD DL James Casey - HOU - 5th RD Denver - I don't think they really use a FB The Bears could just draft a 7th RD FB, or look for an athletic DL prospect who played RB in HS (ala Melton).

Agreed completely. It was implied, but not clear. It's one of the main reasons why I have advocated for that type of blocking scheme for some time; it permits lesser OL talent. Something the Bears have had for quite some time.

DELETED Echo AZ54 & BowlingTwig

Odd, because I see where a defensive change would help them tremendously. A DC who does the following could easily improve the defense: Make it unpredictable. Year in and year out we have heard about the Lovie-2's strengths and weaknesses, and one of the latter is the fact that absolutely everyone knows what's coming from the Bears' D. Whether they stay in the cover-2 shell X% of the time is nearly inconsequential because opponents' players and coaches have said the Bears just line up in what you know they will do and dare you to beat them (i.e. "They are who we thought they were!"). A new DC could implement a few things (e.g. DL stunts, DE flexibility for inside rushes, LB blitzes, DB blitzes, lessened frequency of the MLB being 20 yards deep) that could maximize the aging talent on the defense. If Marinelli is up to the task, then it's not big deal. But my impressions of him adjusting (during the game, after the game, during his tenure with the Bears) aren't great.

I think your post is intended to advocate for the cover-2, but the key to what you said is, "The current teams remaining in the playoffs".

Excellent post. Out of that group, the only OL that's not primarily built through the draft is Houston. They have a 7th rounder, a FA 6th rounder, a 4th rounder, and a FA 3rd rounder. That's not drafting or signing well, that's hitting the lottery. Why is it that this OL history lesson has to be done every year? When is everyone finally going to realize the OL has been sorely neglected for multiple years? This has been broken down by draft round as well as draft pick value, and it's plain to see for anyone not getting a Jerry Angelo Christmas Card that this dude simply didn't draft OLinemen with anywhere near the urgency as he drafted DLinemen. Whether or not this is a Lovie Smith influence is inconsequential, because, ultimately, the GM is the HC's boss.

"I'm with Skip Bayless" is not usually a comment that makes a lot of sense. It may in this specific instance, but generally agreeing with Skip is a losing proposition.