Mongo3451 Posted October 6, 2009 Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 Impressive accomplishment: Smith registered his 50th victory in his 88th game as Bears coach Sunday (including playoffs), reaching the milestone quicker than Bill Parcells (89th game), Bill Walsh (91st), Chuck Noll (94th), Bill Belichick (111th) and Tom Landry (119th). http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=6177 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madlithuanian Posted October 6, 2009 Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 Props indeed... Now, let's win a SB! Impressive accomplishment: Smith registered his 50th victory in his 88th game as Bears coach Sunday (including playoffs), reaching the milestone quicker than Bill Parcells (89th game), Bill Walsh (91st), Chuck Noll (94th), Bill Belichick (111th) and Tom Landry (119th). http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=6177 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Very impressive stat. The odd thing is, it doesn't feel like he has dominated like the other names on the list. I think it probably has to do with Lovie's passive style of coaching and the manner in which the Bears have employed his strategies with the passive cover-2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madlithuanian Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 The biggest issue will always be the SB... I wonder at what point in those other mentioned coaches' tenure for those wins did they win a SB? I just hope Smith can win the big one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defiantgiant Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 Yeah, for whatever reason, people (myself included) tend to forget how many games Lovie's won, relative to the other coaches in the league. Giving him a pass on the rebuilding year in 2004, when he was basically just trying to repair Jauron's old team, he's had an impeccable record. From 2005-2008, he's 40-24 in the regular season, with two division titles and a conference title to show for four postseasons. Only one team in the NFC (I think it's the Giants?) won more games in that span. If he'd won the Super Bowl, I have no doubt that we'd be talking about him as one of the top 5 or 10 coaches in the NFL. EDIT: Basically, I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt. Let him get back to the playoffs, let him get another shot at a Super Bowl with a quarterback who won't give the game away singlehandedly, then we'll see how good a coach he is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azbearsfan Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 Yeah, for whatever reason, people (myself included) tend to forget how many games Lovie's won, relative to the other coaches in the league. Giving him a pass on the rebuilding year in 2004, when he was basically just trying to repair Jauron's old team, he's had an impeccable record. From 2005-2008, he's 40-24 in the regular season, with two division titles and a conference title to show for four postseasons. Only one team in the NFC (I think it's the Giants?) won more games in that span. If he'd won the Super Bowl, I have no doubt that we'd be talking about him as one of the top 5 or 10 coaches in the NFL. EDIT: Basically, I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt. Let him get back to the playoffs, let him get another shot at a Super Bowl with a quarterback who won't give the game away singlehandedly, then we'll see how good a coach he is. Great points all. I've made a similar case in the past, but we simply have people on the board who refuse to give credit where credit is due. They have made there minds up for whatever reason and it cannot be changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
selection7 Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 It's not like we got beat by the Raiders in the SB. This isn't exactly water tight logic...but Peyton was going to win a Super Bowl at some point, he was very much in his prime when we played him and he played it smart in wet conditions, so it was his time. I don't blame Lovie for the loss. Furthermore, in the entire time Lovie's been coach, only 4 teams have won the SB (Pats, Steelers, Colts, Giants), while 28 teams have failed. If Super Bowls is your only measuring stick, for all we know, Lovie is the 5th best coach in the NFL over that span. As an aside, the Bears have won 6 of their last 7 games lately if you haven't noticed, which you might not have since I'm counting preseason in that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrizzlyBear Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 Very impressive stat. The odd thing is, it doesn't feel like he has dominated like the other names on the list. I think it probably has to do with Lovie's passive style of coaching and the manner in which the Bears have employed his strategies with the passive cover-2. I think it has more to do with how the fans in each area are. We are looking for the 15-1 type team, never happy unless we dominate. He has been an excellant coach fo us but we as Bears fans seem to always know more then coach. Its been that way Since Papa Bear was coaching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfoligno Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 In my opinion, If you take a step back, and look at it from afar, you just see the win/loss record and Lovie looks pretty damn good. As fans, we see the details far more though. One. I think many, myself included, simply are not fans of the cover two which Lovie brought. While our defense by large part carried us to a SB, many would argue Rivera was in charge of the defense, and it was more his than Lovie's. Since Rivera left, our defense has been pretty bad. Not saying Lovie should not get credit, but saying more than Rivera likely got more credit. Two. I think Lovie really damaged his reputation when he allowed Rivera to walk and promoted his BFF Babich. He also said at the time "trust me" and that trust was paid w/ an awful defense. I think that move right there went a VERY long way toward Lovie losing respect w/ many fans. Three. Beyond just Babich, I think it is partially the BFF and loyalty hires that damaged Lovie. Fans had been down that road before w/ Jauron and Shoop. Then we get a DC that leads a great defense to the SB, but Lovie pushes him out the door in order to promote his BFF who has never run a defense before. Argue if you want the pushed out the door comment, but I think that is the perception most took away from it. But while Babich was so known, other coaches were viewed as similar. The DL coach that took us to the SB also left after the SB, and Babich hired someone he was connected too, and our DL had sucked since. He also had other coaches, including the DB coach he was close with. I realize coaches often want to hire and surround themselves w/ people they know and trust, but I think many felt Lovie did so to the point he was taking friends over better qualified talents. A coach comes in an has to build up his reputation. I would argue that Lovie did much to build up a reputation by taking us to the SB. His style never enamoured him to fans, but our team won under him and went to the SB. He went a LONG way in terms of respect working up to that SB game. But as much as he did to earn respect to that point, he did nearly as much to damange that same respect starting immediately after the SB. Now, I think he is in a position to again be building up his respect level. He put friendship to the side (for the most part) and removed coaches who were considered friends, and made moves fans knew were necessary. While he didn't fire Babich, he did remove him from the playcalling role and didn't allow friendship to blind him. While he did hire his old friend Marinelli, I think many fans feared that friendship would lead to giving Marinelli the DC job, a role he had never performed before. But instead, Lovie kept Marinelli as the DL coach and took a big risk by assuming defensive playcalling duties himself. Fans often respect boldness, and Lovie did just that w/ this move. He also hired a DB coach, and as best as I know, didn't hire a college roomate for the job. While I would not agree Lovie deserves the benefit of doubt, at the same time, I do agree he has done much to repair the damage of the last two seasons. While I do not give him the benefit of doubt, at the same time, I do not simply walk into each discussion w/ the pre-planned assumption Lovie screwed the pooch. Numerous games, I have actually defended Lovie and said execution was the issue, where as the last two years, I think I would normally just blame Lovie and Babich. Gotta remember something. Respect takes a long time and a huge effort to build, but can be destroyed in one moment. Lovie built up respect for several years leading up to the SB, but lost much of that respect the 2 years since. He now is in a position to again build up that respect, but it isn't going to happen over-night. Yeah, for whatever reason, people (myself included) tend to forget how many games Lovie's won, relative to the other coaches in the league. Giving him a pass on the rebuilding year in 2004, when he was basically just trying to repair Jauron's old team, he's had an impeccable record. From 2005-2008, he's 40-24 in the regular season, with two division titles and a conference title to show for four postseasons. Only one team in the NFC (I think it's the Giants?) won more games in that span. If he'd won the Super Bowl, I have no doubt that we'd be talking about him as one of the top 5 or 10 coaches in the NFL. EDIT: Basically, I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt. Let him get back to the playoffs, let him get another shot at a Super Bowl with a quarterback who won't give the game away singlehandedly, then we'll see how good a coach he is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearFan PHX Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 Lets keep in mind that we were in the Super Bowl well into the 3rd quarter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfoligno Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 I realize that, but it doesn't change what I said. IMHO, many fans gave Rivera more credit for the defense that led us to that SB. Thus when Lovie let Rivera walk in order to promote his BFF, while saying "trust me," he lost credit w/ a lot of fans. Love went out on a limb when he let Rivera (a fan favorite for numerous reasons) walk in order to promote his BFF, and further went out on a limb w/ the trust me statement. Well, that limb was saw off and Lovie fell due to that. Now he is working on climbing back up the respect tree. Lets keep in mind that we were in the Super Bowl well into the 3rd quarter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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