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

What defensive assets did Emery ever trade away for draft picks?  He basically said buh bye to Urlacher, Briggs was never as effective without him, a terrible defensive captain and aging and injured too often, Peanut couldn't stay healthy, we let Pep go to GB as a UFA without even trying to renegotiate his deal, and as much as I loved Hester $3.5 mil a year for a KR/PR who would never see the field as a WR??  No way.

Emery's three biggest enemies were his lack of self confidence which he covered with number two, his arrogance, and three was is inexperience as a GM which led to him one being overly arrogant in insisting he be involved in hiring coordinators and assistants for Arians staff (so Arians said blow me) and his need to think he was more clever than the rest of the NFL by hiring a CFL HC who'd been passed over so many times by the NFL he should have been dead of pneumonia from the cold breeze.  That, keeping Tucker, and his equally poor drafts sealed his fate.

As for Lovie I agree 100%.  His failure to ever field an offense even close to being as good as his defenses was his downfall. In the one year we did manage to make it to the NFCC game under Martz by then Cutler had been so badly beaten up all year long in Martz scheme he was an injury waiting to happen and we fell short by a game or being in our second SB during his era.  Compared to now that look pretty good doesn't it?

As his defense aged the lack of a good ball control offense to go with it left the defense on the field too much and too dependent on turnover to win games.  As the season progressed the defense tired and we experienced a series of late season collapses.  But exactly the same thing will happen to Fox as well unless he can actually field that ball control run centric offense he wants to run and I don't believe he can do it.  Not when he chooses to part ways with productive players who can make it work before he has anyone similar to replace them.

I was not an advocate of keeping Lovie at that time either but then none of us expected the Bears organization to be so poorly prepared to replace him.  In his last three years he had a winning record and was fired because he either didn't reach the playoffs due to late season losses or couldn't win big when he got there.  But even then and in the seasons prior to that a .500 record is at the very least a stable launching point of enough progress to get to 10-6 or better and have a shot at the playoffs.  A 6-10 or 5-11 or even worse record is not.

Early this year I made the point that with a little more luck and a few failed plays and coaching decisions we were playing well enough later in the year to be an 8-8 team.  We added some significant talent in the offseason to bolster positions that kept us from being better last year.  On that basis and feeling we already had enough talent to be an 8-8 team in 2015 a jump to 10-6 to me should have been a given.  The defense would certainly be better against the run and Fox sold everyone on the idea that his RBC approach featuring Langford would be the cornerstone of an offense that continued to depend less and less on Cutler to take more risks as a playmaker to move the offense.  An offense that was billed as year two of what we'd already seen last year and how it improved Jay as a QB.

Where is all that now?  We don't know and what's even worse Fox can't seem to tell us either.  For all his faults I think Lovie actually had a much better handle on the big picture than Fox does.  Fox is and has been evasive when asked direct questions he should have answers for and to me his entire thought process seems very slow which would tend to confirm why we've made no half time adjustments in our first two games.

Last night it was like he finally allowed the wraps to come off some downfield passing because the run didn't work and we had time to throw for a change.  Well of course we did which is why the run didn't work.  Dallas simply decided once they had a 21 point lead to let Hoyer try to win with his arm and of course he couldn't.  Cutler maybe but not Hoyer.

I think my whole point if this is that John Fox IS another Lovie Smith but quite possibly worse.  I just don't think he's got it in him any longer to turn a team around quickly by schemes and overachieving.  I don't want to hear about a lack of talent because any coach can win with great talent.  He did in Denver.  But truly great coaches can win without great talent as Belicheat is doing with 2nd and 3rd string QBs in NE and without a ton of HOF players on offense or defense.

Fox is not a great coach.  He was hired to be a turn around guy and he's failing at that.  If that's his primary skill and the reason for his hire and he can't do it then he needs to go.  Changing QBs and others won't solve the root problem.  The root problem is that after three games the offense looks like it's still working out it's preseason kinks and the defense looks like the ER and Surgical Wing at Cook County Hospital. 

How prepared to play a game did we look for 30 minutes last night and the only reason we gained much ground in the second half was Marinelli was playing his old Lovie style Cover 2 prevent stuff to stop any quick scoring and it worked.  He knew we'd never make up a 21 point deficit.  So what if we outscored them in the second half.  The game is 60 minutes long and so far this year we've barely been able to play well for 30 minutes.  Offensively and defensively Dallas could not have played us better and we couldn't not have played them worse.  That's why you have a game plan and that's on the coaches not the players.

So while Lovie could never finish a season strong we have just the opposite problem with Fox.  We can't start one strong and even if we do get healthier on defense and more coordinated on offense by the time that happens we'll have lost six or seven games already and we're not gonna win out from there this year anymore than we did last year.  We don't even have an identity yet let alone a killer punch to take team out with.  In fact we aren't even entertaining as a team.

Sorry, but Fox has to go too.

I'm not longing to go back to those days.  But I thought the whole idea was to get better - not worse.  

It is and those who can't or won't accept that it's a hard road at times and one that requires some tough decisions are usually destined to repeat their failures. Such has been the lot of the Bears since the death of GSH and the passage of the team into McCaskey family control.  Hopefully GMcC can change all that but so far the jury is still out.

So we went from hiring coaches with no HC experience ( which we thought was part of the problem ) - to finally hiring a coach with HC experience and assumed that would begin to make things better . It hasn't . Sometimes you have to pick one of these guys who have been asst coaches for years who have been passed over ( like Zimmer , Arians ) . Guys who have been chomping at the bit to finally get their chance and bring fire and energy to their jobs . Fox was that same guy when he first got his shot , but now that it's 'old hat ' to him I don't seem to see the same fire he had when he first started .

I'm not saying get rid of him yet , but if this team sux next season and still isn't improving , then they need to consider it .

And next time they hire a HC , make sure it's someone who has paid his dues and knows what he's doing but who also has the kind of fire in his belly needed to MAKE his team better thru his will and his work ethic .