The 2010 Chicago Bears…Looking from the Rear View Mirror
The 2010 Chicago Bears won the NFC North and lost by seven points in the NFC Championship game to the Green Bay Packers. Anytime a team makes it’s division’s title game, it’s a good season. But how good was this team in relation to its success?
Throughout the season, no matter how well the Chicago Bears played, there were many doubters and critics of the team’s success. Trent Dilfer and Bill Cowher regularly hated on this team. And yet, the Chicago Bears kept winning.
Of course, after beating heavy favorites Dallas in week two, the Cowboys weren’t any good despite being a Super Bowl contender. When the Chicago Bears defeated the Philadelphia Eagles and shut down Michael Vick, it was the turf at Soldier Field. A win over the New York Jets was a fluke as well. Might I also remind you that the Chicago Bears defeated the Green Bay Packers in week three and damn near knocked them out of the playoffs. The championship game helped prove how incompetent Lovie Smith can be at times.
Now, I take nothing away from the Green Bay Packers, but if the Chicago Bears actually would have had a respectable backup quarterback, perhaps the Super Bowl would have been a different game. In baseball, there’s always the belief that the baseball finds your worst defender when you’d least like it to…so the same thing happened during the championship game. How could Lovie Smith and company not recognize how horrible Todd Collins was? Why in the world wasn’t this addressed? The baseball found Collins, and the Chicago Bears were left holding their private areas.
Brian Urlacher is a beast. He had one of his best seasons and almost won the championship game for the Chicago Bears. Julius Peppers struck fear in offenses. These two really helped the Chicago Bears become a strong defensive unit. Devin Hester scares every opponent. He’s potentialy a big-play whenever the ball is in his hands.
Jay Cutler had his good and not-so-good moments. He’s a talented quarterback that does make mistakes. Matt Forte established himself as a legitimate NFL halfback. Devin Hester scares every opponent. He’s potentialy a big-play whenever the ball is in his hands.
So looking back on this team, what do I think? I believe that every NFL team that’s successful has a little bit of luck (see Detroit game and Calvin Johnson), some talent, catching opponents at the right time and intangibles. The Chicago Bears were guilty of all-of-the-above. And yet, a few bounces here and there may have been the difference of a trip to the championship game or a high draft pick. It’s always been my belief that good teams create their own breaks, and the Chicago Bears are just that…a good football team.
I enjoyed this season. The Chicago Bears made the final four. With a few tweaks here and there, I do not see any reason why this team couldn’t do it again. But this is the NFL, and things can change very quickly.
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Was the Chicago Bears Losing in the NFC Championship Game to the Green Bay Packers A Bad Season?
Several Green Bay Packers fans have suggested to me that the Chicago Bears losing in the championship game was a disappointing season. It’s their way of taking their boring lives of milking cows and eating brats and trying to ruin the lives of us that live in a cool city and can actually read. Besides the Packers, do they really have anything else to do besides stare at livestock?
But, was it a disappointing season? In a single elimination tournament anything can happen. If Lovie Smith didn’t totally screw things up and played Caleb Hanie the whole second half instead of Todd Collins for a few series, maybe things would have gone differently. The Chicago Bears weren’t dominated but they were outplayed. And certainly outcoached.
The New England Patriots, Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and New Orleans Saints were all teams projected to do better than the Chicago Bears. And yet, they didn’t.
I’m not upset. I’ll take a shot at the Super Bowl every year. Hopefully, Smith doesn’t screw up again.
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A Case Against the Lovie Smith Contract Extension
I am totally against extending Lovie Smith’s contract. I’m not suggesting it’s time to fire him, but I don’t think he’s warranted an extension. Here’s my case…
Smith did a solid job this season until the Todd Collins fiasco of the Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers. This in my opinion is grounds for near-dismissal or a serious reprimand. The Chicago Bears could have won that game if Smith wasn’t caught with his pants down. Plus, by not shedding light on Jay Cutler’s injury contributed to the public beating suffered by Cutler.
Smith also upgraded his coaching staff this season. By bringing in Mike Martz and Mike Tice to coach the offense and offensive lines respectively as well as promoting Rod Marinelli, he had one of the most experienced and successful staffs in the NFL. Certainly picking a staff is part of a coach’s job, but his staff choices were poor in the past. I believe much of the team’s success came because of his new coaches and less from his decision making skills.
Is there a head coach who’s worse with challenges and timeouts? His decision making in these situations is horrific and has cost his team games.
To be fair, Smith was the key reason why Julius Peppers is wearing a Chicago Bears uniform. His players, free agents and other people around the league respect the hell out of Smith. I’ve met Smith and he’s a classy man. As a person, you couldn’t ask for a better coach.
What happened to the days of former Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda signing a one-year contracts? He did this because either the Dodgers or he could walk away anytime. Smith probably would have been fired last season except his contract was too rich. Now, the Chicago Bears are putting themselves in the same boat. The Vikings extended Brad Childress’ contract after his run in 2009. How did that work out?
I’m not sure there’s a better coach on the market. Everyone wants Bill Cowher, but I think his expectations will be unrealistic and he’s been out of the game for a while. Jeff Fisher frankly isn’t that much better of a coach than Smith. So maybe the Bear’s motivation is to protect themselves. But I don’t see Smith as a sexy hire for other franchises. He’s just doesn’t have that appealing personality.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
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Grading the Chicago Bears…Tight Ends
For those of you that know me, you know I’m am not a card carrying member of the Greg Olsen Fan Club. In fact, while in Green Bay, Packers fans accused me of actually being too hard on him. Wow, even the enemy thinks I’m too rough.
But I’ve got my reasons for not thinking Olsen is very good. He runs poor routes, fails to get open, cannot block and drops/fumbles the football way too often. I know he’s had some solid games, but I can point to numerous occasions where he’s been a non-factor or even a minus.
Brandon Manumaleuna was brought in to be a bad-ass blocking tight end. He was given big money and expected to be an important part of protecting Jay Cutler and opening holes for Matt Forte. While he got better towards the end of the season, he didn’t exactly blow up opposing defenders the way we expected him to do so. He did catch some big passes during the season, but his primary responsibility was to block. Frankly, Manumaleuna didn’t live up to expectations. It was announced today he’s having a procedure done on his right knee. This could be an indication of why he wasn’t as good as expected.
Desmond Clark dropped a touchdown pass in week three against the Packers. From that point forward, he was banished to football Siberia. He became a non-factor the rest of the season and will be taking his talents elsewhere.
I think Kellen Davis may potentially be their best tight end. He got much more involved late in the season and has the size and speed to create match-up problems for opposing teams.
Overall, I give this unit a generous C-. I cannot ignore Olsen’s big games and Manumaleuna did block better in the second half. Davis had some huge catches as well. But, the negatives from this group just made it barely functional.
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My Reaction to The Super Bowl and the Chicago Bears
First of all, congratulations to the Green Bay Packers. They earned this title and it was commendable considering the injuries they overcame even during the game. This obviously hurts me as a Chicago Bears fan, but sometimes the truth is known to do so.
After reflecting on all the events of today, I’ve decided how angry I am at Lovie Smith. I’m angry because his monumental mistakes in the NFC Championship game two-weeks earlier denied the Chicago Bears even a shot at this opportunity. I’d go so far as to say he did the franchise, fan base and the NFL a disservice by his mistakes. I just get angrier by the minute towards him and hope the Chicago Bears don’t extend his damn contract.
Two words people…Todd Collins. How could Smith in his right mind think that this piece of crap could ever lead the Chicago Bears to anything? Collins is so bad that he tried his hardest to give the Carolina Panthers a win.
Let’s go back to the preseason where this whole mess started. After Caleb Hanie injured his shoulder against the San Diego Chargers in the first preseason game, the Bears panicked and basically had to beg Collins to come out of retirement and play for the Chicago Bears. Meanwhile, Smith and crew played rookie Dan LeFevour a ton during the preseason and eventually cut him. While I grant you LeFevour wasn’t too impressive, he certainly had more upside as a number three quarterback than Collins did as a number two.
Just like the saying goes in baseball, the ball will always find your weakest defender when you least want it to do so. Well, thanks to having that cancer to my eyes Collins as the number two quarterback, it found him in a big way. Meanwhile, Hanie played well enough to almost lead the Bears back in the fourth quarter against the Packers. What could have been wasn’t thanks to Smith.
An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. They got that ounce from the Carolina game and failed to take the damn medicine. Smith is a stubborn jackass that turned a blind eye on how horrible Collins played. There had to be a better alternative out there somewhere and Collins should have been launched immediately after that game. A lot of this also falls on Jerry Angelo, but Angelo isn’t an in-game manager, that falls on Smith.
After the championship game, when Jay Cutler was being treated like a voodoo doll for the national media and idiot fans, Smith didn’t come out and defend his quarterback. We’ve learned that Cutler tried to gut this one out, but Smith wouldn’t discuss the injury. Instead of shedding light on the situation, his lack of backing his starting quarterback made the situation significantly worse.
Up until the championship game, I ate a lot of crow suggesting Smith should have been fired during the preseason. Now I’m not completely sure I was wrong.
A part of me feels bad unloading on Smith like this; he’s a class act and he just lost his mother. But poor job performance is poor job performance.
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