Lovie Adjusting: Season to Season, Game to Game, Series to Series

The Stubbornness Era

Lovie Smith resurrected the Bears in 2005 and took the 2006 team to a Super Bowl with legitimate talent.  Lovie was stubborn; he had a simple scheme and old school football philosophy that he wouldn’t abandon.

His team ran the ball, did their best to limit errors from their “game manager” (QB), emphasized “takeaways”, and shortened the field with great special teams.

Those Bears teams had defensive talent that we will never forget.  Lance Briggs, Brian Urlacher, Mike Brown, Tommie Harris, Nathan Vasher, Mark Anderson put up ridiculous stats and the unit was producing turnovers and winning games.  The scheme meshed perfectly with the talent and success followed.  Stubbornness worked.  Lovie’s system worked.

Fast Forward to 2009.

The Bear’s best players were either fading away or disappearing all together.  On the defensive side of the ball, Mike Brown was gone, Tommie Harris would never be the same, and Urlacher sustained a season ending wrist injury.

The offensive side was in equally bad shape.  Matt Forte was hobbled and our line began their major decline.  Olin Kreutz was now officially old, slow , and undersized.  Johnathan Tait retired unexpectedly, the $15 million signing of Orlando Pace failed miserably, and Chris Williams was shuffled around in his “rookie” (injured most of 2008) season while looking out of place.

The reality hit us as fans, and it hit Lovie.  That generation of Bears had come to an end.  Highlighting the decline of our aging core of players was the concurrent ineffectiveness of our GM Jerry Angelo.  Very little new talent was coming in.

On to 2010: Lovie Adjusts

Lovie’s Cover-2 scheme needs real talent at certain positions, specifically from the interior defensive line and safety positions.  The Cover-2 could still be effective without Harris, Brown, Vasher, Anderson (remember his 12 sack season?), and an aging Urlacher, but it was no longer the type of dominant defense that would dictate the use of such a simple offensive philosophy.  Lovie realized that he now had a team that needed points from the offense to win games.  

Back in the day, he could run the ball a few times, grind the clock, punt the ball, and the defense would take over the game.  Those days were gone.

In firing Ron Turner, Lovie essentially fired his own offensive game plan.  Lovie and his current offensive staff had no experience in creating an offense scheme around a talented quarterback and, subsequently, made the Mike Martz hire.  

Give Lovie credit, not specifically for hiring Mike Martz, but for admitting he needed help.  His original players were gone and he adjusted.

The hiring of Mike Martz and the thought that he could bring the “greatest show on turf” here to Chicago had its own set of issues.  Martz’ overzealous faith in his offensive scheme backfired, the line failed, Angelo failed in obtaining the necessary talent, and Lovie thankfully pulled back the reigns.  He forced Martz to scale back the offense, limit the hits on Jay Cutler, and run the ball.  Lovie inaugurated the adjustment.

Led by Lovie Smith, the Bears now had two coaches with two stubborn schemes, both understanding the limits of their personnel and adapting to what they have.  While other contending teams were able to maintain their game plan and replace veterans with new talent from the draft, the Bears were forced to adapt their game plan around their weaknesses. 

If you look at the lack of talent on the 2010 team, and in hindsight, how lost the Bears were at the beginning of 2010, you realize how much Lovie Smith has developed as an NFL head coach.  That team had absolutely no business winning the NFC North and beating the Green Bay Packers.  He may be one of the worst at throwing the red flag, he shows no emotion on the sidelines, and has a boring personality, but you could never argue that his team didn’t have his back.  

From the very beginning, the Bears played hard for Lovie, but that’s only half the battle. 2010 proved he is much more than a nice guy with a simple scheme, he was willing to change with the game, and change with his team. 

2011

You know the story; the Bears came out of the gate with a great win against Atlanta and then proceeded to revert back to early 2010 form.  The line was lost, injuries hit, and Mike Martz got away from the revised Martz offense, and the Bears weren’t running the ball enough with their best playmaker, Matt Forte.  

Lovie once again initiated the adjustments and made tough decisions (release of Chris Harris) that have resurrected this team with minimal talent.

Mike Martz will still have his flashes of craziness (see Wildcat) but he too has taken Lovie’s lead and shown the ability to adapt.  The Bears are calling more roll outs to take advantage of Jay’s gun-slinging ability.  Cutler has had good games in the past, but he has never looked as comfortable as he has, specifically the last two weeks.  Yes it’s the line giving protection, but the line is performing better because defenses aren’t sure what’s coming.   If the Bears run, defenses aren’t sure if it’s up the middle, a toss play pulling linemen, or power run on the edge.  If the Bears pass, defenses can no longer tee off on Cutler by assuming he is going to be in the pocket taking seven steps, rolling out, or throwing a screen.   Time will tell if we can continue executing, but for now our offense is showing signs of being dynamic.  

2011 also has marked a first for Lovie, the willingness to adapt on the defensive side of the ball. 

Old Lovie stuck with his scheme with minimal adjustments, regardless of the team they were playing, the situation, or field position.  As a result, the Bears would always fare well against certain offenses, but always play poorly against others.

We are now seeing Lovie and his staff adjusting from game to game, from half to half, and from series to series, and its been fun to watch.  The talent at certain positions is still far from perfect, but the synergy on defense that Lovie seems to have discovered looks like it could be here to stay.

The Adjustment Era

The bottom line is that Jerry Angelo has given Lovie (and us Bears fans) a team that that really has had no business winning more than 6 games the last couple of years.  Rather than multiple weeks of Sunday football indifference, we have football to be excited about.  Lovie has given us football when Jerry has tried to take it away, and for that I am adjusting what I think of Lovie Smith as a football coach.