Are we better off now than we were with Lovie Smith?

Hindsight is always 50/50, what done is done. Like the Emry not hiring Bruce Arians, and hired a dweeb from Canada. I was for it, but now I think it was a mistake.. However, thought the Bears did show signs of decline...

Better now than lovie at his peak? No. Better off? Yes. Lovie team was in decline. Foxes team is getting better. May not look like it now, but it is. IMO anyway. We need to get more talent, move on from logjam, and get healthy. Time heals all wounds...with the right doctor.

Bingo.. 

No......but then we weren't all that well off under Lovie either as the time went on.  Had he ever been willing or able to hire a decent OC and allowed him to run his offense in any manner similar to how Gase ran the Bears offense last year the results may have been different but that's not how it worked out.  A strong OC may have proven to be a threat to his HC job just as Chico was as his DC.  If you want my opinion of why Lovie could never get good OCs to work for him that's it.

So what's happened hence?

Phil Emery was required to retain Lovie and looking at it all in the rear view mirror that annoyed him.  Emery disguised his arrogance just long enough to rid himself of Lovie and then began to impose his will on the team.  IMHO that arrogance coupled with his inexperience is about 80% of the reason why we're still where we are today.  His arrogance with his insistence to be involved in the hire of assistants and coordinators cost him Bruce Arians who IMHO was the type of no nonsense Ditkaesque HC the Bears need about then. He refused to take the advice of far more experienced people at the coaching level when he ignored the advice of Rod Marinelli and hired Trestman over promoting a highly successful coordinator like Dave Toub and lost both of them.

What was the result of all that?  Never mind........we all know that story all to well.

So after just two years without Lovie and with his Zen Master Marc Trestman as HC the Bears plunged even farther into the abyss and when Ginny McCaskey herself had finally had enough of their ineptitude thy were fired.  IT TOOK THAT TO SEE THEM GONE!  When the 91 year old matriarch owner knows more about football than the team CEO who hired those stupid bastards you know you gotta problem but somehow Teletubby Teddy still lurks around Halas Hall doing God know what these days.


So we employ outside help with an actual football background this time to help is hire a new GM and I actually think he may be the right guy once he gains a bit more experience and ends his marriage to John Fox.  I don't think Gase was the mistake.  We needed a younger more dynamic GM from outside the Bears organization to run the show but with him will come some growing pains.  Eventually I think he'll get it figured out because he's not afraid to make decisions even if some of them turn out to be the wrong ones.  To me that beats JA who after awhile seemed almost paralyzed so little happened or Emery whose arrogance and need to show off to cover his insecurities by "thinking outside the box" simply don't work in the NFL period and we should have known that or at least Ted Phillips should have if actually knew a damn thing about football.

So now we're down to Fox.  Based solely on his previous track record as a quick turn around artists he may have been the right hire.  But THAT is the only reason he may have been the right hire and from all that we can tell today he's failed at that.  There is no quick turn around to be had by John Fox and because of that no rationale for having another conservative defense minded HC only duplicating what Vic Fangio can already do better and has proven it.  As long as he had Fangio and Gase to surround him he could show progress and point to it.  Now Gase is gone and Fangio's defense is so decimated with injuries progress is nearly impossible because those we needed to see progress are on the PUP or the IR or God knows where else.

Fox is more of an administrator and a developer of attitudes and cultures than he is a master strategist on or off the field which is why he has no answers for anyone.  Even after he's looked at hours of game film has anyone every heard him intelligently discuss the team basic issues and provide a plan for how he intends to fix them?  I could buy the I'm not giving away secrets only so long before realizing it was no more than a dodge to avoid admitting he simply didn't know what to do about them himself.  That what he had coordinators for but in trying to coordinate around Fox's way of doing things is he handicapping them and doing more harm than good?  I don't know but it's not working and with or without giving away secrets no one is having any trouble figuring out how to beat our asses very easily.

The bottom line is this.  Fox was hired to turn this team around quickly and he hasn't.  In fact they're getting worse not better and IMHO it's more John Fox's predictability than Vic Fangio's or Dowell Loggains that's hurting this team right now.  That began to be well established here in Denver before he ever came to Chicago and it's what led to him being let go.  John Elway pursued change with him and either Fox refused or was deemed to be incapable of it and it's what caused him to be let go in Denver.  It's clear to me that Pace should do the same with him now.  I think the time has come to let Fangio and Loggains figure out what they need to scheme and call in order to win and if he hasn't done so already have Fox keep his hands off the wheel.

This is the Bears so no one will get fired mid season but we have 13 games left to figure out what is wrong and make some decisions about how to best go about fixing it.  What Pace can't be too timid to do is to replace Fox or others who aren't up to the job including players if it comes to that although it's far easier to replace several coaches than it is to replace 63 players on the active roster and PS.  It could be costly but then so is a loss of reputation and not only is Pace's on the line but also the McCaskey's because this was all done based on a pledge to bring the Bears back to respectability.  A failure to keep that pledge only because they would have to pay off several million dollars in salaries should not keep them from doing what needs to be done.

JMHO