My Friends,

 

Let’s begin by stating the obvious; Lovie Smith should be fired. 

 

In a complaint previously voiced here, Lovie Smith should be fired for running out the clock at the end of the half when he had ample time to give his offense a shot to move the ball into field goal range. That might have come in handy at some point today, no?

 

Lovie Smith should be fired for going for it on fourth down at the Atlanta one with eight minutes to play while trailing by nine. What’s with his aversion to scoring points? Needing two scores at some point, taking the three there would have put him in position to tie the game on the Bears final drive had Kyle Orton not engineered the drive that put the Bears in the end zone and ahead to stay. (Or so we thought.)

 

Lovie Smith should be fired for directing Robbie Gould and his kickoff coverage team to squib kick after Orton succeeded in his miraculous comeback with a miniscule eleven seconds left. I’ll never understand why he didn’t kick it deep there. Up to that point Gould had put three of his four kickoffs into the endzone. Worrying about a long return there is immaterial when the clock is running out. For a team that allegedly prides itself on their special teams the directive from the bench to kick short was the coaching equivalent of Smith telling his coverage unit, “you guys can’t get it done if I let you kick it deep.” Nothing like when your coach exudes confidence in your ability.

 

Lovie Smith should be fired for allowing flunky defensive coordinator Bob Babich to call a cover-two zone with six seconds to play and not preventing any and all receivers an escape route to the sideline. 

 

I haven’t seen such a horrible effort from the Bears bench since 2001 in Tampa, when a clueless Dick Jauron intentionally turned the ball over on downs with 20 seconds to play after ordering Jim Miller to kneel down three straight times. All Tampa did was use the remaining time to drive into position for a tying field goal attempt, the Bears escaping when Martin Gramatica’s last-second 48-yard try clanked off the upright.

 

And while we’re at it, Tommie Harris should be fined another game check for violating the cardinal rule of football: you play to the whistle. When Harris pounced on Jerious Norwood’s fumble, he forgot that he wasn’t in Kansas, or Oklahoma, anymore. He obviously thought he was down when he spit up the ball and gift-wrapped another field goal for the Falcons, one that kind of maybe could have had an impact on the final moments of the game. You think?

 

And that’s another reason Lovie Smith should be fired. These Bears realistically could be 6-0, but through repeated displays of lack of discipline and awareness on the field and the sideline they’ve managed to lose three very winnable games. The fact that all of those losses were against conference rivals puts even more pressure on them if they have any dream of a first round playoff bye. Luckily they play in the NFC North, where a division crown is available to any team with a pulse.

 

We’re still wondering whether the same can be said for the Bears head coach.

 

LBF

October 12, 2008