Pixote

Hey, I am not apologizing for Lovie, or making excuses for him. I am just saying that the problem goes beyond Lovie and he can not be blamed for everything that happens. Despite denials, that is exactly what I am hearing on the forum. It's all Lovie's fault. Every decision made is questioned and Lovie is called out. Even the possible demotion of ALvalva (I know I spelled it wrong) was turned into a indictment of Lovie. As HC he obviously has to take a lot of the blame, granted. If the team fails this year he obviously has to be the first one out the door, assuming JA is retained. If JA gets canned also, then the new GM will start the rebuilding process by hiring a new HC. Simple as that. This topic is getting old. I rest my case. I have said all I care to about this.

I would strongly disagree with this assumption of yours. I am surprised, knowing you read most if not all the posts & threads, that you would even say this. I have no problem with posters not giving respect to Lovie, I am not sure he deserves any, but I do disagree for him getting the blame for everything from A to Z that happens on the field. I repeat what I said, you win as a team, you lose as a team, and there is plenty of blame to be assigned to many different people within the organization including players. IMO, assuming the labor contract is signed, if the Bears to not make a trip to the Super Bowl, then clean house. I am not a Lovie apologist. I am not trying to defend the mediocre product that we have had to endure. I just want to see accountability properly assigned and not all blamed on Lovie.

Percentages. Interesting thought. Totally conjecture for sure on the part of the observer. Who is to blame? You have Lovie HC, JA GM, Phillips, Team President, & Ownership Then you have OC & DC Then you have STC, OLC, DLC, DBC, etc... And of course you have the players themselves. There is plenty of people responsible. To say it is close to 100% on anyone would be an injustice. What is it said, the buck stops here, so I guess it is normal for the HC to get most of the blame. But is it really just the HC at fault? To me the obvious answer is no. To others it is all his fault. I will give one small example. Tommy Harris was an excellent draft choice based on talent. He kicked ass the first 3 years. Was given a big PayCheck. I can only assume JA did his job. He played well so I assume the coaches did ok by him. What has he done over the past few years? He has sucked ass. Why? I do not think it is the coaching or HC. It is not the fault of JA, Ted P., ownership. Harris IMO had more than injury problems. Injuries certainly played a part in it but his motivation was totally lacking. He talked about retiring early. To become a preacher. I honestly do not think he has shown any self motivation the past few years to overcome his injuries. He lacked "balls". (hopefully he has grown a pair in the off-season). Who's fault is that? Tommy Harris and only Tommy Harris. If Harris had played to his potential as he did the first 3 years the past few years how much would that have helped this team? How many more games would have been won? Would we be having this conversation? Who's fault was it Tank Johnson couldn't stay out of trouble? Who's fault was it the C Benson sucked so bad as far as attitude? Did the coaches pass the pipe to R Salaam? Did the coaching staff cause D Terrell to be an ass wipe? The players controlled this. God knows they were getting paid enough where they should not have needed a coach to be a babysitter or shrink. So back to the original question, what percentage of blame does each deserve for the results over the past 3 years? Impossible to answer. I will give it my best shot. I would say that 50% of the blame is SHARED, I will say it again, SHARED by LS, JA, TP, & Ownership. How you want to divide that 50% I will leave up to you. I would say 20% is to the assistant coaches & coordinators. Why only 20%. Because they do need to follow some direction from the 50% above. I would say the remaining 30% is totally on the players. Don't give me this shit about how they need to be given direction. These guys should have the skills and balls to produce on the field. IMO they are not getting paid more in one year than I made in a lifetime to do anything else but go out there and kick ass. There is not one piece of the puzzle that can be changed to make a significant difference. They are all intertwined. There is not one person anyone can lay all the blame on, it is a shared responsibility. There is a saying that there is no I in the word team. It takes everyone from the top down to win a SB. Well the same goes for failure, it is a team effort. To lay all the blame on Lovie, or even the majority of the blame, is blind judgment IMO. Losing is as much a team effort as winning.

To state it differently, Anything and everything that goes wrong is Lovie's fault Anything and everything that goes right is despite of Lovie Seems to me Lovie is in a no win situation

LOL. 'nuff said...

I find it hilarious that some on this board thinks it necessary to blame Lovie Smith for everything that happens in a negative aspect with the Bears. I assure you that if the Bears Dorm rooms at camp runs out of toilet paper, it will be Lovie's fault. If a player gets his steak medium well when he ordered it medium rare, you guessed it, Lovie's fault. Lovie makes enough mistakes he deserves to be criticized for without some posters trying to turn every damn negative as a mistake made by Lovie. Lovie's main mistake, the thing that I feel has defined his failure, is his selection of assistant coaches. Hopefully this year he has gotten it right with DC, OC, & OLC. If he has, we will have a very good year, we have the players IMO. If not, if he blew it again on selecting his staff, he will be gone next year.

I was never high on Afalava, did not think he should be considered a starting caliber player, just a backup at best. It seems everything that happens is twisted so as more insults can be given the coaching staff. If we don't make the playoffs and go DEEP into the playoffs this year, I like everyone else will want to clean house. The difference between me and many on the forum, I am willing to give the coaches another chance this year to prove themselves. JA certainly has stepped up in player acquisition. In two years to get Cutler & Peppers as well as some other very respected players is fantastic.

The guy from ESPN Is making a lot of harsh judgments based on the first couple of practices. It is kind of stupid to evaluate the first couple of non contact drills and the first practice in pads for the year. He even tries to twist Cutler's statements into readers thinking "oh my God this offense is just too hard to learn" when Cutler, from what I can tell in interviews, is learning it just fine and is comfortable with it.

I guess I do need to confirm, although I truly love FF, I am going to take a year off. I have some other things going on and I do not want to take time out from what is more important to obsess over a FF roster. I would prefer to reserve any free time I can muster up to follow the Bears and any other games I can catch. I actually have Directv NFL Sunday Ticket this year and am looking forward to being able to watch any game I want live. Best of luck to all of you. Next year if there is an opening maybe I will jump back in.

The Bears Site is saying Bruce will arrive Wednesday and remain in camp for the entire preseason sessions to help the Bears receivers learning the new offense. Good stuff!

I Honestly, an regretfully, believe there are members on this forum who dislike Lovie Smith so much that they want to see us tank it this year so that they can get their wish, A clean sweep of Smith/Angelo/Phillips. The what if that happened and we hired the best of the best HC/GM/TP? Then we go out and sign the top free agents available, say 250 million dollars worth of tallent. We finish it off with the best draft in team history. Guess what, it does not guarantee you will see a SB trophy carried into Halas Hall.

Fantastic! Thanks for the updates. I look forward to the guys from the forum giving these type of reports. Much more valuable than the stuff the so called experts put out, especially when they are on the Bears pay roll.

Yep, another one bites the dust....

He has admitted we played poorly in the past many times. However, when asked on the eve of training camp I do not think he needs to talk about the past, but needs to move forward and kick ass. If he did anything else I would be disappointed.

But all the pieces are in place!

For some reason I was freezing up when trying to make the post. Sorry. At any rate, what I was trying to say is that I have read a lot of rookies and vets getting injured in OTAs and mini camps. Now, this guy is lost for the season. I do not want to hear about any injuries this off-season. We need to stay healthy if we are going to have a chance to surprise people. I have never wanted to see the Bears KICK MAJOR ASS as bad as I have this year. I am so sick and tired of all the experts and rival fans.

Let's hope this type of luck stays in other teams camps " Ravens starting CB Domonique Foxworth suffered a torn ACL in practice and will miss the season.

I do not ever recall a head coach of any pro team, including the NFL, be interviewed before the season started and say that they had a crappy team and may have problems competing. I have no problems with Smith's Optimism. Just another story to fill a column of news writers who are as bored as we all are and trying to find something to talk about.

From this clip from an article on the Tribune site it makes it sound as if Unga will probably make the 53 man cut so we will certainly have to wait and see who gets cut. Maybe he will be put at FB but the article also says he has never been put in that role so it would be a project.

My impressions from the video: He looks faster than 4.6 He looks smaller than 240+ He looks like he needs a good deal of work in the weight room He showed some good moves in the open field He had quite a few runs around the corner which I did not expect I don't know, some mixed emotions on my part as I was looking for a old style smash mouth fullback which I did not see on the film but may well be worth a gamble for a 7th round pick Even if he gets cut, no big deal

The way I look at it is this guy has better credentials and upside as a prospect than anything we would have been able to select in the 7th round next year. Therefore, it is a no risk pickup. Even if he does not make it, how many 7th rounders do? (I know there are exceptions to that question but the odds are high.)

Good Story on Tim Ruskell

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Bears Banking on Another Tice Turnaround

I have seen statements made by Thayer that we critical and brutally honest. At last year's fan convention when questioned he was not all flattering when answering questions about the Bears. I do not think he is a puppet on a string. Larry Meyer, that is a different story. Joniak, that is a different story.