Yeah but can they coach?

[shadevtx]

It's interesting to read and post about current players and potential new additions, but the coaching staff lifted my eyebrows more this year than any, and I've never been a Lovie fan...(but that's another story)

 

Any rookies that have made an impact made it immediately. We haven't developed anyone. Our team was one of the least disciplined team on the field every week. And all this after the season of off-the-field incidents last year. It seems to me that the coaches are just Lovie's buddies, and not necessarily talented football coaches. With the exception of Toub, would any of these guys have a job outside of the Bears? I think not...

[azbearsfan]

It's interesting to read and post about current players and potential new additions, but the coaching staff lifted my eyebrows more this year than any, and I've never been a Lovie fan...(but that's another story)

 

Any rookies that have made an impact made it immediately. We haven't developed anyone. Our team was one of the least disciplined team on the field every week. And all this after the season of off-the-field incidents last year. It seems to me that the coaches are just Lovie's buddies, and not necessarily talented football coaches. With the exception of Toub, would any of these guys have a job outside of the Bears? I think not...

 

 

ummm... I'm not sure that Turner is Lovie's "buddy". He and Babich would have an NFL job for sho.

 

Not sure where you are going with this.

[jlarimore]

I agree that the Bears do a poor job of developing players. Mainly on the offensive side. Defense we've done pretty good. The only guy on D who has really been weak developing is Manning. He got thrown in earlier than they wanted, I'm sure. On the offensive side, I think that the coordinators are not the problem. Their job is to manage the offense. It's the position coaches who sucked. We've drafted a bunch of WRs over the past 10 years, but how many have fully developed? As much as some of us like Berrian, he's the only one you could really claim and he still has a lot of holes in his game. Most of our best offensive players were FAs we picked up. The only O-lineman we drafted and worked out was Kruetz. QB? Our most successful guys have been Jim Miller and Erik Kramer. They were dumped by other teams who didn't exactly have superstars at the position. Rex is probably the most talented QB we've had in recent years. Nothing seems to be happening in the brain area though. Can't throw the fly pattern on every down, but sure seems to want to. Running back, I think the rest of the league has shown how little importance development is for this position. The biggest thing that effects RB success is talent, and overall offensive capability. People were down on Thomas Jones before our passing attack showed life. Now we're down on Benson, even though there were no holes to run through for most of the year. I didn't agree with drafting a RB so high back when we got him, but now we're stuck with paying him.

[kyyle23]

ummm... I'm not sure that Turner is Lovie's "buddy". He and Babich would have an NFL job for sho.

 

Not sure where you are going with this.

 

Agreed. It isnt as if Turner and Babich didnt have prior experience in the NFL and Lovie just called them up and asked if they wanted to throw their hat into the ring.

 

 

No, they most certainly would have had jobs in the NFL this season. Now the question is, after the 2007 season was over would they be able to retain their jobs if they were employed by other teams and they had the same sort of result? To that question, I think the answer is no.

[adam]

I don't care what you say about coaching, they are not the 11 players between the lines missing tackles and dropping balls. Could they have been better, absolutely, but I would not put the majority of the blame on the coaches. All those positions are over-rated IMO.

[Connorbear]

I don't care what you say about coaching, they are not the 11 players between the lines missing tackles and dropping balls. Could they have been better, absolutely, but I would not put the majority of the blame on the coaches. All those positions are over-rated IMO.

I generally agree with this statement, however, I think this past yr puts everyone on notice (coaches and players). We must see improvement across the board.

 

Peace

[adam]

I generally agree with this statement, however, I think this past yr puts everyone on notice (coaches and players). We must see improvement across the board.

 

Peace

Absolutely. I am not saying they don't have a hand in the success or failure of the performance of the team, but they seem to get too much of the credit and blame.

[Pixote]

Babich - Jury is out....... I know every team has to fight through injuries. However, when comparing 2006 to 2007 defensively, we have to remember how comparatively healthy we were on D in 2006 and how outrageous the number of injuries were on D in 2007. I want to see this team return healthy and then see how they play under Babich. Then we can start comparing his D against the Ds Rivera coached for the Bears.

 

Turner - Jury is out...... The old chicken & the egg question. I really think Turner was handcuffed with an OL that all of a sudden began showing their age after playing at a very high level for years. This caused our running game to suffer because it seemed half the time our RB was making 1st contact with the opposing D on our side of the ball. This in turn hurt our play action, the protection of the QB, and the passing game in total.

 

I believe the major regression of our O this year was do to the OL and that caused the domino effect mentioned above. Now, if you get an up graded OL that opens holes for our RBs & protects the QB and gives him time to find an open receiver, we will, IMO, be far improved. At that point we will see how Turner does when he has more options to incorporate in the game plan and play calling.

[azbearsfan]

Babich - Jury is out....... I know every team has to fight through injuries. However, when comparing 2006 to 2007 defensively, we have to remember how comparatively healthy we were on D in 2006 and how outrageous the number of injuries were on D in 2007. I want to see this team return healthy and then see how they play under Babich. Then we can start comparing his D against the Ds Rivera coached for the Bears.

 

Turner - Jury is out...... The old chicken & the egg question. I really think Turner was handcuffed with an OL that all of a sudden began showing their age after playing at a very high level for years. This caused our running game to suffer because it seemed half the time our RB was making 1st contact with the opposing D on our side of the ball. This in turn hurt our play action, the protection of the QB, and the passing game in total.

 

I believe the major regression of our O this year was do to the OL and that caused the domino effect mentioned above. Now, if you get an up graded OL that opens holes for our RBs & protects the QB and gives him time to find an open receiver, we will, IMO, be far improved. At that point we will see how Turner does when he has more options to incorporate in the game plan and play calling.

 

You know what Pix, i agree with you here. The first time Turner was here with a good oline, he made Kramer and Conway into a bad azz tandem. So I will give a pass here.

 

Babich... the defense really stepped up in the last couple of games in the year so it makes me think that the focus was not there from the players.

[DrunkBomber]

Its true you can only put so much blame on the coaches for what the players are doing but at the same time these coaches dont seem to be getting the most out of them. Look what Jeff Fisher did with not a great team this season. Also, look at the play calling in certain situations.

[azbearsfan]

Its true you can only put so much blame on the coaches for what the players are doing but at the same time these coaches dont seem to be getting the most out of them. Look what Jeff Fisher did with not a great team this season. Also, look at the play calling in certain situations.

 

 

Yes but Jeff Fisher had a good defense, good running game and a suspect qb.

 

So one and done. Thats not that great.

[DrunkBomber]

Yes but Jeff Fisher had a good defense, good running game and a suspect qb.

 

So one and done. Thats not that great.

Im just saying he doesnt have the most talented team and he still had success. I know our team has a lot of holes but the coaching staff is as guilty as anyone.

[AZ54]

Coaching is one thing but accountability is another. If guys like Berrian kept dropping passes and never got benched then there was no accountability. Guys like Miller kept getting false starts and whiffing on pass rushers yet again no accountability. Nobody on this team got demoted when we were playing poorly, or at least get sent off for a few plays here and there to make a point, except Rex and probably too often Ced who was often pulled in the middle of games after 12-15 carries. Now I realize you can't swap Olineman from play to play but still overall the coaches.

 

We swap out Rex thinking he's the issue and no change. We swap out Ced for AP's (at the time) 3.8ypc and watch AP get 3.1 ypc the rest of the season. We keep using Hester on static routes like WR screens for most of the season for no gain until the end when we finally just send him on a fly pattern and he gets a TD. Ruben Brown plays with one arm for 8 weeks and what do you know he is still better than Metcalf but the coaches put Metcalf in his place anyway, then move to St Clair after Metcalf fails.

 

On D we get the Mark Anderson experiment and when he's not performing we keep him as a starter over Alex Brown. On the other hand when Vasher goes down we move our starting FS to CB and he fails there then we move him back and insert McBride, who the coaches had said good things about in camp.

 

We all have opinions here on the board but the coaches get to watch these guy every day in practice and on film. It seems clear that they can't accurately decide who their best players are nor can they decide how best to use our players to play to their strengths. Injuries definitely played a part in our struggles this year but so did our coaches decisions.

[nfoligno]

I disagree w/ that.

 

Sure, often individuals get too much credit or blame for things. No argument there. At the same time, I think our coaching staff absolutely deserves a massive amount of the blame for 2007.

 

I am no problem ripping players for missed tackles (for example) yet at the same time, our coaches flat out said that we do not practice tackling. I would point to D.Manning as an example. We have watched the kid time after time go for the ball and not the tackle. That is not how he played in college! That is what he was taught in the NFL. He didn't teach himself, and thus, while you can blame him for the missed tackle, I think you also have to blame the coaches for how they have handled the concept of tackling in general.

 

I'll throw another exmaple out there. The DL and pass rush. In our scheme, our DEs AWLAYS rush outside w/ wide angles. The DTs shoot the inside gaps. Garay said himself in an interview that we do not stunt. Due to coaching, was predictable and easier to blcok. Ex-bear players have talked about this. You can have the best pass rusher in the NFL matched up against an average OT, but if that OT knows exactly how the DE will rush, it is easier to block him. We didn't allow our DEs to either stunt, or even use the edge speed to get the OT off-balance and then move inside. Due to coaching, we negated too much of our DEs talent. It is like having a pitcher who can throw 98 mph, and telling him to only throw fastballs and never use a change up or curve. As good as the fastball is, he becomes easy to hit because you always know what is coming.

 

That is coaching. I could so easily go on. On both offense and defense, our coaches flat out failed this year. There is PLENTY of blame to go around for the players, but if the players are not put in a good position to win, it is difficult to blame them too much for their failures.

[nfoligno]

Regarding Babich, no question he had to deal w/ a lot of injuries, but his adjustment to such was non-existant. Also, and I have said this before, but even w/ the injuries, we still had a lot of talent on this defense. Far too much talent to be ranked among the worst defenses in the NFL.

 

If we had an average talented defense, and suffered the injuries we did, I could understand. But we had a top tier defense, and even w/ all the injuries, still had a lot of talent. So while injury was an issue, I simply do not buy it as an excuse.

 

Further, how we dealt w/ those injuries to me was a huge problem as well. Example. The cover two only works when you can get pressure w/ your front four. If your front four can not generate a good pass rush, then it becomes easy to find holes in the zone. Due to injuries at DT, as well as other reasons IMHO, we didn't get a great pass rush up front, and thus made the zone easier to beat. Yet we did little to counter this.

 

During the Jauron years, one of the top complaints was our inability to adjust. A scrub would replace an injured starter, and we simply asked the scrub to step up, rather than realize the play of your 4th or 5th DB is not equal to a pro bowl starter, and thus adjust. To me, this staff did the same thing.

[nfoligno]

Disagree.

 

First, Tenn didn't have a great team heading into the year. You say they had a good defense, but I don't think it was expected to be that good heading into the year. A big reason why they were good, IMHO, was due to solid coaching.

 

As for one and done, I think injuries were a big part of that. Did you see their injury list heading into the playoff game?

[Mongo3451]

Regarding Babich, no question he had to deal w/ a lot of injuries, but his adjustment to such was non-existant. Also, and I have said this before, but even w/ the injuries, we still had a lot of talent on this defense. Far too much talent to be ranked among the worst defenses in the NFL.

 

If we had an average talented defense, and suffered the injuries we did, I could understand. But we had a top tier defense, and even w/ all the injuries, still had a lot of talent. So while injury was an issue, I simply do not buy it as an excuse.

 

Further, how we dealt w/ those injuries to me was a huge problem as well. Example. The cover two only works when you can get pressure w/ your front four. If your front four can not generate a good pass rush, then it becomes easy to find holes in the zone. Due to injuries at DT, as well as other reasons IMHO, we didn't get a great pass rush up front, and thus made the zone easier to beat. Yet we did little to counter this.

 

During the Jauron years, one of the top complaints was our inability to adjust. A scrub would replace an injured starter, and we simply asked the scrub to step up, rather than realize the play of your 4th or 5th DB is not equal to a pro bowl starter, and thus adjust. To me, this staff did the same thing.

 

 

I think it is a combination of bad coaching, arrogance and injuries.