Chico's defense looks good

[bradjock]

San Diego was horribly burned on the one play where they were trying to substitute. Other then that, Ron Rivera's defense looked damn good against Indy. In fact, it's amazing how the San Diego defense has improved since he took over.

 

Is there any doubt at this point that it was a huge mistake to let him go? To be honest, when it happened I was ok with it and thought our defense could be even better. Damn I was wrong.

[Iguana]

You dont need to be competent when you're Lovie's BFF.

[danimal99]

San Diego was horribly burned on the one play where they were trying to substitute. Other then that, Ron Rivera's defense looked damn good against Indy. In fact, it's amazing how the San Diego defense has improved since he took over.

 

Is there any doubt at this point that it was a huge mistake to let him go? To be honest, when it happened I was ok with it and thought our defense could be even better. Damn I was wrong.

 

 

The guy was a token interview for about every HC job that opened up his last 2 yrs he was in Chicago. I'm not the least bit bothered that he's no longer with the BEARS.

If he loved Chicago so much he wouldn't have been interviewing for all kinds of HC jobs in the first place. It was total bull$hit IMO when he was interviewing for the Rams job the week before Super Bowl week vs the Colts. The defenses performance that day showed he wasn't 100% prepared for the Colts.

 

Has he done a good job since taking over as DC in San Diego ? Sure he has but the talent on the Chargers D is superior to what's on BEARS D at the present time..

[GrizzlyBear]

I totaly disagree with that preception 100 percent. Take a look at the D during that season of the SB, It was far superior to this one this year and we have improved personal on this squad over what Chico had. Get real man. It was the biggest mistake that Lovie has made and it will be that until Lovie realizes Babitch Sucks and Chico maybe in the SB again.

[danimal99]

I totaly disagree with that preception 100 percent. Take a look at the D during that season of the SB, It was far superior to this one this year and we have improved personal on this squad over what Chico had. Get real man. It was the biggest mistake that Lovie has made and it will be that until Lovie realizes Babitch Sucks and Chico maybe in the SB again.

 

Oh so you liked the super bowl when the Colts had 2 RB's rush for more 100 yds each ? and just days before Rivera is interviewing for the rams job.

 

If your wife or girlfriend screws your neighbor. Do you just say ok and then welcome her back home a few days later ?

 

It's hardly a mistake to get rid of someone who doesn't want to be there in the first place. Guess you can't grasp that conceipt.

 

Rivera didn't want to be the BEARS DC he wanted to be a head coach else where. He should thank Lovie for setting him free !

 

Oh and by the way he's still not a head coach. Norv Turner got the Chargers job over Rivera.

[madlithuanian]

Just because a guy was interviewing for a HC job doesn't mean he didn't like Chicago...

 

Buddy Ryan did the same.

 

Any coordinator that wants to be HC would take those opportunities.

 

I disagree on your talent of SD v Chicago. I think the Bears actually have more talent...and we're doing far less with it!

 

The guy was a token interview for about every HC job that opened up his last 2 yrs he was in Chicago. I'm not the least bit bothered that he's no longer with the BEARS.

If he loved Chicago so much he wouldn't have been interviewing for all kinds of HC jobs in the first place. It was total bull$hit IMO when he was interviewing for the Rams job the week before Super Bowl week vs the Colts. The defenses performance that day showed he wasn't 100% prepared for the Colts.

 

Has he done a good job since taking over as DC in San Diego ? Sure he has but the talent on the Chargers D is superior to what's on BEARS D at the present time..

[nfoligno]

No kidding. I don't know what world Damimal is living, but the natural order of things is to always strive to move forward. If you are a position coach, you want to become a coordinator. If you are a coordinator, you want to become a HC. If your a HC, often you want the GM title added. I can't see knocking a guy for taking interviews for a promotion. And as for doing it in the playoff bye weeks, well, that is the way it is set up. Pretty much every team that gets a bye week is going to have coaches taking a day or two to interview for a new job. That's the way it works.

 

And like you, I have to question the SD defensive talent comment. They had the same talent prior to Rivera taking over, and yet it is day and night in difference in how they play. And as for talent overall, it really isn't that great. W/o their steroid boy, their overall talent level takes a huge dip.

 

Just because a guy was interviewing for a HC job doesn't mean he didn't like Chicago...

 

Buddy Ryan did the same.

 

Any coordinator that wants to be HC would take those opportunities.

 

I disagree on your talent of SD v Chicago. I think the Bears actually have more talent...and we're doing far less with it!

[nfoligno]

Oh so you liked the super bowl when the Colts had 2 RB's rush for more 100 yds each ? and just days before Rivera is interviewing for the rams job.

 

To this day, I will say our D was not to blame. When your offense allows what, 5 turnovers, few defenses can compensate. When your offense can't get a 1st down, and the D is on the field all day, you rarely will see a great performance. The D didn't play great that year, but IMHO, it could have been FAR worse thanks to the offense and their turnover happy play.

 

If your wife or girlfriend screws your neighbor. Do you just say ok and then welcome her back home a few days later ?

 

Dude. Give it up. Take a look around the league. Any time you have a team that does well enough to get a bye week, you are also going to find coaches who are interviewing. That is how a coach moves up in the NFL. I can not believe you would compare seeking a promotion to a cheating wife. Sorry, but that is a joke.

 

It's hardly a mistake to get rid of someone who doesn't want to be there in the first place. Guess you can't grasp that conceipt.

 

And you can't grasp the concept of promotions. If Babich were offered a HC job, wanna bet how fast he would be gone? There is not a coach on this team (other than Lovie) who wouldn't leave for a HC position. I think you are a tad delusional if you think otherwise.

 

Rivera didn't want to be the BEARS DC he wanted to be a head coach else where. He should thank Lovie for setting him free !

 

He wanted to be a HC, which is what most every coach in this league wants. I truly do not understand the world you live where a man is supposed to show loyalty to a team to the point of ignoring his career.

[madlithuanian]

Exactly!

 

No kidding. I don't know what world Damimal is living, but the natural order of things is to always strive to move forward. If you are a position coach, you want to become a coordinator. If you are a coordinator, you want to become a HC. If your a HC, often you want the GM title added. I can't see knocking a guy for taking interviews for a promotion. And as for doing it in the playoff bye weeks, well, that is the way it is set up. Pretty much every team that gets a bye week is going to have coaches taking a day or two to interview for a new job. That's the way it works.

 

And like you, I have to question the SD defensive talent comment. They had the same talent prior to Rivera taking over, and yet it is day and night in difference in how they play. And as for talent overall, it really isn't that great. W/o their steroid boy, their overall talent level takes a huge dip.

[madlithuanian]

Well said nfo...

[BigDaddy]

Oh so you liked the super bowl when the Colts had 2 RB's rush for more 100 yds each ? and just days before Rivera is interviewing for the rams job.

 

If your wife or girlfriend screws your neighbor. Do you just say ok and then welcome her back home a few days later ?

 

It's hardly a mistake to get rid of someone who doesn't want to be there in the first place. Guess you can't grasp that conceipt.

 

Rivera didn't want to be the BEARS DC he wanted to be a head coach else where. He should thank Lovie for setting him free !

 

Oh and by the way he's still not a head coach. Norv Turner got the Chargers job over Rivera.

 

Rhodes rushed for 113 and addai for 77. Just to clarify. If my wife screws my neighbor, I think she's just more guilty of having horrendous taste but what that has to do with a guy following the NATURAL FREAKING CAREER PATH IN THE NFL is beyond me. I guess launching every coach that has aspirations of a better life should become common practice in your world? Well, that will certainly guarantee the Bears are on the right path by hiring garbage that nobody else would want. Mission accomplished, of course you forget one small thing...OUR DEFENSE WILL ALSO SUCK!!! You are right, Rivera should thank lovie for setting him free and I'm sure he will the next time these two teams meet each other. Lovie on the other hand should be kicking himself in the ass for letting Rivera go and promoting Rainman Babich.

[jason]

Oh so you liked the super bowl when the Colts had 2 RB's rush for more 100 yds each ? and just days before Rivera is interviewing for the rams job.

 

To this day, I will say our D was not to blame. When your offense allows what, 5 turnovers, few defenses can compensate. When your offense can't get a 1st down, and the D is on the field all day, you rarely will see a great performance. The D didn't play great that year, but IMHO, it could have been FAR worse thanks to the offense and their turnover happy play.

 

Bingo. Case closed. No defense, no matter how strong or fast, no matter how disciplined or chaotic, can consistently overcome a horrible offensive performance from their team. Rex Grossman and the Bears' offense shit the bed in the Super Bowl, and there was nothing the defense could do about it. If it wasn't a turnover, it was a fumble recovered by the offense or a penalty that caused the offense to fail time and time again. Sooner or later the defense is going to give up a decent play to a high powered offense like the Colts. Anyone who thinks the SB loss is on the defense is delusional.

 

But, back to the point at hand...allowing Chico to move elsewhere was a bad move, and just displays the depths to which Lovie's cronies are able to slime their way into positions for which they are not qualified. Forms of nepotism exist in all professions.

[Connorbear]

Bingo. Case closed. No defense, no matter how strong or fast, no matter how disciplined or chaotic, can consistently overcome a horrible offensive performance from their team. Rex Grossman and the Bears' offense shit the bed in the Super Bowl, and there was nothing the defense could do about it. If it wasn't a turnover, it was a fumble recovered by the offense or a penalty that caused the offense to fail time and time again. Sooner or later the defense is going to give up a decent play to a high powered offense like the Colts. Anyone who thinks the SB loss is on the defense is delusional.

 

But, back to the point at hand...allowing Chico to move elsewhere was a bad move, and just displays the depths to which Lovie's cronies are able to slime their way into positions for which they are not qualified. Forms of nepotism exist in all professions.

I think we have been over this. Anyone who thinks 1 phase of the team was responsible for the Superbowl loss was delusional (offense, defense, special teams, coaching,etc). They all share blame. We can argue % until the cows come home.

 

Rivera has been gone for 2 yrs. Let's move on.

 

Peace

[nfoligno]

I am not going to rehash the SB loss, but when you say Rivera has been gone 2 years, lets move on. My response is why? Shit. This is still the fan base that goes back more than two decades to talk about a coach, as well as another HC/DC conflict.

 

While I am not comparing the two, the point is, I don't see us "moving on".

 

When Rivera was allowed to walk so Lovie could hire Babich, it was inevitible the two DCs would be linked and compared. When we draft player X instead of player Y, you can bet the two will be compared against for years, and that is not even as strong a connection as this.

 

The even greater reason this is still a discussion, IMHO, is because the man who made the decision is still here, and further, you can see similar thinking in how he continues to run the team. His BFF DC is a bust, but still has a job. And now, we are looking at bringing in another BFF of his. This is a very legit discussion. It may be history, but you know what they say about learning history so as to not repeat.

 

I think we have been over this. Anyone who thinks 1 phase of the team was responsible for the Superbowl loss was delusional (offense, defense, special teams, coaching,etc). They all share blame. We can argue % until the cows come home.

 

Rivera has been gone for 2 yrs. Let's move on.

 

Peace

[AZ54]

Chico was using quite a bit of the cover 2 scheme IIRC.

[bradjock]

You're damn right this is a major point of discussion. When Rivera was here, our defense carried this team and was viewed as tops in the league.

 

With Rivera gone, our defense has been ranked 21st & 28th. The ONLY major change the defense has seen since that time is with the defensive coordinator.

 

Babbich seems to view things with a sort of "tunnel-vision." Last year we could stop the pass but not the run. This year we could stop the run, but not the pass. Statistically, our defense was tough as hell the first quarter. By round 2, teams made adjustments and started to burn us. When the hell did Babbich ever make an in-game adjustment? We're losing the game, getting killed by the slant pass, yet our corners continue to drop back.

 

Rivera leaving + Babbich Hired ='s defense sucking. This team EASILY makes the playoffs this year if we were close to top 10, like we all expected.

 

It sucks not being in the playoffs. And this defense has sucked for 2 years straight. No more excuses. It's tough for me not to think that if Rivera were still calling the shots, we'd still be playing.

[nfoligno]

Chico was using quite a bit of the cover 2 scheme IIRC.

 

He did use the cover two quite a bit, but also did a better job (IMHO) of mixing it up. Two games that stand out to me.

 

The Az game few here can forget. A rookie QB (Leinart) is tearing us up in the 1st half. We are playing a soft cover two scheme, and he is eating us alive. In the 2nd half, I saw drastic changes. Lovie came out and said players just started to execute, but I call BS. I saw a drastic change to how we scheme. In the 2nd half of that game, I watched our CBs press on nearly ever dang snap. I watched our LBs attacking the LOS (though not starting out ON the LOS), as opposed to the first half when Urlacher spent most of his time running backward into the secondary. I saw our DL mixing it up more and stunting. I saw blitzing, particularly by Brown our DBs, which I did not see in the 1st half. To me, that game was a prime example of the difference between Lovie and Rivera. First half was all Lovie's scheme. Soft zone and a lack of aggressive play. 2nd half was all Rivera. The difference? After getting abused in the 1st half, Az struggling to gain a yard in the 2nd.

 

The 2nd game is the playoff game in '05 against NO. We ran mostly zone coverages all year. Whether we were in cover 2, cover 3 or cover 1, we played zone coverages. In that NO game, we played the entire game in man coverage. I remember well Bress talking after the game about how much that affected them. Brees talked about how they prepared all week long to attack our zones, and never seems able to adjust to our playing man coverage. Brees was crediting the bears change of scheme, while also somewhat calling out his own coaches for not being better able to adjust to our changes.

 

Point is, Rivera did run Lovie's scheme, but also was simply better mixing it up and adjusting. But Lovie didn't like that. He didn't like Rivera moving away from his system, and didn't like the credit Rivera was getting for the success.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

San Diego was horribly burned on the one play where they were trying to substitute. Other then that, Ron Rivera's defense looked damn good against Indy. In fact, it's amazing how the San Diego defense has improved since he took over.

 

Is there any doubt at this point that it was a huge mistake to let him go? To be honest, when it happened I was ok with it and thought our defense could be even better. Damn I was wrong.

I agree, I believe he's proven himself worthy of a head coaching job.