Bears week 3: Lovie returns noon on CBS

[jersey cubs fan]

I hope the current version of ownership is more balanced. All those seasons under an O coach happened once George took over from Michael and initially it was very concerted reason specifically for that change. Obviously they've still spent half the time with D coaches in that span, but I don't think D first is a concerted management mandate anymore either.

George has shown a clear, “whatever didn’t work last just do the opposite next” approach. He’s gone D/O/D/O/D. If Eberflus fails, I would bet he takes an offensive head coach next.

 

But while Trestman was sort of an out of the box guy who had been around a while and seen a lot, and Nagy was relatively fresh and studied under one guy, he’ll probably look for either a guy with a ton of OC experience or a former head coach next. And that guy will get 2-3 years before they go back to defense.

 

They just don’t have the offensive infrastructure in place because they’ve never prioritized it. It is not an accident that the offense always sucks. This has been a defense first team and the couple times they strayed from that they quickly returned to the old model.

[Old Style]

George better be long gone by the time Flus is fired and we hire a new coach.

[minnesotacubsfan]

They just don’t have the offensive infrastructure in place because they’ve never prioritized it.

 

 

I dont understand what you're suggesting, wouldn't the coaching staff and GM provide the infrastructure? And, while we are talking specifically about Head Coach, GMs would certainly play a part. What part of the org's infrastructure doesn't get made over with coaching changes? Are you referring to scouts specifically?

[WrigleyField 22]

I hope the current version of ownership is more balanced. All those seasons under an O coach happened once George took over from Michael and initially it was very concerted reason specifically for that change. Obviously they've still spent half the time with D coaches in that span, but I don't think D first is a concerted management mandate anymore either.

George has shown a clear, “whatever didn’t work last just do the opposite next” approach. He’s gone D/O/D/O/D. If Eberflus fails, I would bet he takes an offensive head coach next.

 

But while Trestman was sort of an out of the box guy who had been around a while and seen a lot, and Nagy was relatively fresh and studied under one guy, he’ll probably look for either a guy with a ton of OC experience or a former head coach next. And that guy will get 2-3 years before they go back to defense.

 

They just don’t have the offensive infrastructure in place because they’ve never prioritized it. It is not an accident that the offense always sucks. This has been a defense first team and the couple times they strayed from that they quickly returned to the old model.

Yet overreacting to the latest failure will still give them an infinite more number of swings at an emphasis on offensive success than a organizational mindset that D is all that matters. So it's something.

 

Anyways a team like the Steelers has managed O prioritization with D coaches. It's certainly not the only metric by which to say whether an organizational emphasis exists or not. Unfortunately the Bears have been pretty disorganized forever which has only slightly improved from Michael to the Ted Phillips and eventually Phillips/George leadership (low initial standards and all that). And the 80s success was also pretty disorganized but had some nice headwinds from the last period of stability the did have with Finks before old man George dumped him.

[raw]

Saw someone post on Twitter that the Bears have 15 passing completions through 2 games, which is the fewest team completions through 2 games dating back to the year 2000. Not great.

 

Add it to the list of Bears offensive futility. I swear that since I first remember watching the Bears regularly (1994) we've had about 10-12 offensive seasons that would be on most teams bottom 5 offensive seasons ever. Change the players, change the coaches, change the FO and we just cant figure out how to have any sort of success offensively, particularly passing offense.

 

Dating back to 1994 they’ve had a defensive minded head coach in all but 6 seasons. The rest have all been defensive first and the bulk of those were guys in their final job, with minimal prior head coaching success. You can say they’ve changed coaches and still same results, but those changes have rarely shown a concerted effort to prioritize offense. It’s not some weird hex, it’s organizational but philosophy. Defense first. Maybe hire an offensive coach on occasion but if that fails go right back to defense first. We are back in a defense first situation and have to pray they magically find a qb or have a Ron Turner situation where the OC cobbles together a good season once or twice.

 

Nope. It's a curse. Are we sure a goat never walked across the endzone in Soldier Field?

[minnesotacubsfan]

the Curse of Doug Flutie

[UMFan83]

 

Add it to the list of Bears offensive futility. I swear that since I first remember watching the Bears regularly (1994) we've had about 10-12 offensive seasons that would be on most teams bottom 5 offensive seasons ever. Change the players, change the coaches, change the FO and we just cant figure out how to have any sort of success offensively, particularly passing offense.

 

Dating back to 1994 they’ve had a defensive minded head coach in all but 6 seasons. The rest have all been defensive first and the bulk of those were guys in their final job, with minimal prior head coaching success. You can say they’ve changed coaches and still same results, but those changes have rarely shown a concerted effort to prioritize offense. It’s not some weird hex, it’s organizational but philosophy. Defense first. Maybe hire an offensive coach on occasion but if that fails go right back to defense first. We are back in a defense first situation and have to pray they magically find a qb or have a Ron Turner situation where the OC cobbles together a good season once or twice.

 

Nope. It's a curse. Are we sure a goat never walked across the endzone in Soldier Field?

 

Obviously its not a curse but like the Cubs "curse" it sure feels like it at times. We are the only franchise to not have either a 4000 yard passer or a 30 passing TD season (albeit these are much more common things in the last 15 years than they were prior). They've had three 400 yard passing games in their entire history, the last being in 1999. There were fifteen 400 yard passing games in 2021 by 9 different QBs (including Mike White). We traded for a young QB who threw for 4500 yards in his 3rd season and then never hit 4000 yards again.

 

Jersey correctly pointed out that there hasn't been an emphasis on offensive hires, and while Nagy was a complete disaster, Trestman did get results his first season before his inherent creepy weirdness alienated the team. While it feels like defense was the priority during those first chunk of years, it seems like they've tried to build a coherent offense in recent years (Cutler trade, Marshall trade, Trubisky/Fields trade ups, 2/4 HC hires offensive minded). They just haven't been able to put all the pieces together at the same time. But its not that the Bears haven't had elite offenses, its that they rarely have even average offenses and more often than not its anemic. At the end of the day, a good QB makes everything else a lot easier and that just hasn't happened here.

[raw]

If Fields can't have success in this game, I'll be pretty worried. This is the same defense he's facing in practice. Same defensive scheme, probably similar level of talent which is young and talented on the backend.

[WrigleyField 22]

An actual interesting sports radio segment?

 

Thoughts on coaching up Fields and his development

[jersey cubs fan]

An actual interesting sports radio segment?

 

Thoughts on coaching up Fields and his development

[UMFan83]

An actual interesting sports radio segment?

 

Thoughts on coaching up Fields and his development

 

I love when Bernstein gets all excited and geeks out when he's doing interviews like this.

[gflore34]

An actual interesting sports radio segment?

 

Thoughts on coaching up Fields and his development

 

Listening to the first few minutes was like looking up an illness on the web.

[Brian707]

...I swear that since I first remember watching the Bears regularly (1994) ..).

 

 

i feel for those who never got to watch the Bears in the 1980's. If I had to rely on 1994+ as a basis for my fandom, I'd hate myself. the 80's had some awesome Bears teams, and it was still legal to horsecoller, and generally destroy opposing QB's. it was wonderful and the Bears were good at it

 

The first season I can remember following was 1985, I thought I was so lucky to be a fan compared to some of my friends who liked the Cowboys or the lowly Packers.

 

[minnesotacubsfan]

...I swear that since I first remember watching the Bears regularly (1994) ..).

 

 

i feel for those who never got to watch the Bears in the 1980's. If I had to rely on 1994+ as a basis for my fandom, I'd hate myself. the 80's had some awesome Bears teams, and it was still legal to horsecoller, and generally destroy opposing QB's. it was wonderful and the Bears were good at it

 

The first season I can remember following was 1985, I thought I was so lucky to be a fan compared to some of my friends who liked the Cowboys or the lowly Packers.

 

 

 

I was actually a Steelers fan when I was very young because I had very blonde hair as did Bradshaw. But somewhere in the early '80's ('82 or '83) I started to love to watch Walter Payton more, and glad I did

[Soul]

 

 

i feel for those who never got to watch the Bears in the 1980's. If I had to rely on 1994+ as a basis for my fandom, I'd hate myself. the 80's had some awesome Bears teams, and it was still legal to horsecoller, and generally destroy opposing QB's. it was wonderful and the Bears were good at it

 

The first season I can remember following was 1985, I thought I was so lucky to be a fan compared to some of my friends who liked the Cowboys or the lowly Packers.

 

 

 

I was actually a Steelers fan when I was very young because I had very blonde hair as did Bradshaw. But somewhere in the early '80's ('82 or '83) I started to love to watch Walter Payton more, and glad I did

 

I liked the Raiders as a kid because they were evil or something that made sense to my kid mind...

 

And they had Snake Stabler, the original outlaw QB who I still look upon fondly. I think it was Stabler going to the Oilers, and Payton with the Bears, combined with living in Chicago, that sealed it for me. I then was introduced to true misery as a football fan, but got to see the SB win too.

 

1994 was Wanny - that's a difficult introduction to the Bears. I'd say at least they got to see 2006. People tend to forget that year for some reason? It was pretty awesome. Didn't win the SB but I still consider that a fun year as a Bear fan.

[minnesotacubsfan]

the Lovie years were fantastic, and Cutler was fun. But I dont know how you get out of the 1990's still being a bears fan if you only started in 1994. my heart feels for those people

 

also, growing up south of Platteville in IL made training camp in the 80's epic

[WrigleyField 22]

the Lovie years were fantastic, and Cutler was fun. But I dont know how you get out of the 1990's still being a bears fan if you only started in 1994. my heart feels for those people

 

also, growing up south of Platteville in IL made training camp in the 80's epic

Yea I think my first memory of being a Bears fan was whatever year they played SF in the playoffs, I think that was 94. I was about 6 then. So that is me.

 

I guess circa 97-2001 my Sundays were often taken up with pop warner football games so I actually missed quote a bit of the slog of the later Wannedstadt and Jauron years. Had a pop warner coach yell at us to not watch those Bears teams if we wanted to be good and watch the Packers instead lol. Then entering HS was the Lovie years so that was generally fun and got me into adulthood years.

 

I've also not moved around the country for any extended time and actually dealt with questions of access so I'm just Chicago Sports through and through.

[UMFan83]

 

The first season I can remember following was 1985, I thought I was so lucky to be a fan compared to some of my friends who liked the Cowboys or the lowly Packers.

 

 

 

I was actually a Steelers fan when I was very young because I had very blonde hair as did Bradshaw. But somewhere in the early '80's ('82 or '83) I started to love to watch Walter Payton more, and glad I did

 

I liked the Raiders as a kid because they were evil or something that made sense to my kid mind...

 

And they had Snake Stabler, the original outlaw QB who I still look upon fondly. I think it was Stabler going to the Oilers, and Payton with the Bears, combined with living in Chicago, that sealed it for me. I then was introduced to true misery as a football fan, but got to see the SB win too.

 

1994 was Wanny - that's a difficult introduction to the Bears. I'd say at least they got to see 2006. People tend to forget that year for some reason? It was pretty awesome. Didn't win the SB but I still consider that a fun year as a Bear fan.

 

Because I'm an idiot and have rarely seen adequate football from the Bears I remember the Wanny years with a small amount of fondness. Like I mentioned 94 was the first year I remember following the Bears. I remember the Halloween rain game against the Packers and remember watching the scores the last week of the season to see if the Bears would make it despite losing. I drew pictures of Lewis Tillman in school because I thought he was awesome, though looking at his stats now wtf. The playoff win over the Vikings was a lot of fun. I watched the 49ers game with my dad. He told me there was no way the Bears were going to win but I was convinced they would. When the Bears forced a TO and then kicked a FG to go up 3-0, I gave him a high five. By the time the game hit the 4th quarter I was playing with toys or baseball cards or something. 1994 wasn't bad. Then Wanny told us the pieces were in place....95 wasn't bad either but I remember being crushed that we didn't get the help we needed the last week to make the playoffs. Then in 96 we started off the season by crushing the Cowboys on MNF and thought we must be awesome. It was all downhill from there except for the Lovie years basically.

[minnesotacubsfan]

The 90's were Eric Kramer on the high side and Alonzo Spellman on the down side. I was never more sad then than the day Trace Armstrong left

[David]

the Lovie years were fantastic, and Cutler was fun. But I dont know how you get out of the 1990's still being a bears fan if you only started in 1994. my heart feels for those people

 

also, growing up south of Platteville in IL made training camp in the 80's epic

 

the first team i followed at all was that 95 team with kramer, conway, graham, etc. the 2001 team really sucked me in since that was the first bears team i really saw do anything remotely good (at least, besides that mediocre 95 team with a good offense). then the lovie years really hooked me.

[Soul]

the Lovie years were fantastic, and Cutler was fun. But I dont know how you get out of the 1990's still being a bears fan if you only started in 1994. my heart feels for those people

 

also, growing up south of Platteville in IL made training camp in the 80's epic

 

All those Packer fans in Platteville biting their tongues.... yay Bears (spend money please). Fun times.

[Brian707]

1995 was probably the only year the Bears had a top 5 offense? But the d sucked.

 

2006 was fun and you can never have a better start to a SB then Hester running it back.

 

Also, the Arizona comeback from 23-0 down.

The SF game I attended and I believe the Bears lead 44-0 at halftime. Went to both playoff wins, Reggie Bush doing that stupid flip in the endzone before halftime to get within one score, then the Bears dismantled them afterwards. Will Smith's "Going to Miami" playing in the stadium after they advanced to the SB, the snow falling.

[UMFan83]

the Lovie years were fantastic, and Cutler was fun. But I dont know how you get out of the 1990's still being a bears fan if you only started in 1994. my heart feels for those people

 

also, growing up south of Platteville in IL made training camp in the 80's epic

 

Meh while the Bears sucked most of the time I was too busy being a kid/teenager to care if they were bad. I was a Bears fan because I lived in Chicago and that was that. The losing didn't start to bother me until the early 00's. The 2001 season gave me a taste of winning and I wanted it to continue but it was a fluke year.

[Tryptamine]

Irrational early hot take, but man did missing on Brian Daboll suck. Daniel Jones hasn't been amazing, but he has been competent, Barkley is looking much closer to his old self and they're off to a 2-0 star albeit Tennessee is not looking at all like the team they were supposed to be.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Irrational early hot take, but man did missing on Brian Daboll suck. Daniel Jones hasn't been amazing, but he has been competent, Barkley is looking much closer to his old self and they're off to a 2-0 star albeit Tennessee is not looking at all like the team they were supposed to be.

 

I wanted Daboll, first choice