FBR Urlacher - Bears have Lovie Smith curse

[Boris13c]

Brian Urlacher says the Bears are plagued by the “Lovie Smith curse”

Former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher believes his former team is cursed.

“The Lovie Smith Curse” to be exact.

In an interview with Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney on CBS Sports Radio, Urlacher cited the departure of Smith after the 2012 season as the point where things began to awry for the Bears. He also said he’s wondered what exactly the team is doing with their decisions this offseason.

“I like to say it’s the Lovie Curse,” Urlacher said. “Because since he left, (the Bears have struggled). He got fired being 10-6. I think they fire him either way. Even if we go to the playoffs, I think they fire him. I don’t think the GM (Phil Emery) liked the way he coached the football team.

“The guy’s a winner. I love playing for him. I don’t know what the identity of that team is. They sign (Mike) Glennon, then they draft a kid No. 2 (Mitchell Trubisky). I don’t know what (they’re doing). It’s confusing.”

The Bears have certainly struggled since Smith was fired following the 2012 season. They haven’t posted a winning record in any of the four seasons since and are on their second head coach since then as well. The 3-13 record last season was the worst by a Bears team since the schedule expanded to 16 games in 1978.

Chicago made the playoffs three times during Smith’s tenure, including a Super Bowl appearance in 2006. The 10-6 season posted by the Bears in 2012 was the fourth-best record in nine years under Smith. Nevertheless, Emery decided to change course after the year.

Urlacher also defended former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and said he was just as surprised as anyone by Cutler’s decision to move into the broadcast booth instead of continuing his career. He also said he hopes Trubisky is as good as his draft position would tend to suggest.

“I hope this kid is unbelievable,” Urlacher said. “I hope Mitch Trubisky is the best quarterback of all time. He looks like a stud. He’s 6-2, 6-3, put together, good-looking kid, he seems really nice – I hope they do really well. Their defense is going to be good this year. They were good last year and they had so many young guys play that it’s only going to help them this year.”

perhaps a bit of sour grapes from Urlacher since Lovie was his guy

if Lovie Smith had a legitimate Offensive Coordinator during his tenure, I think things would have been golden and he may very well still be the Head Coach ... but I think he felt threatened if any of his staff were competent peers which is why he clung to second tier guys as his subordinates

[Moriarty]

What a genius.

"The Bears have been bad ever since (ie, 4 yrs) they got old, then decided to rebuild. It must be the coach."

[UOK]

This is stupid.

Lovie was a mediocre coach who had 3-ish years of excellence molding a team that only ever had one shot to win a title and blew it. Had he stayed here the Bears would've floundered around .500 and become the Bengals of the NFC with Lovie being their Marvin Lewis. The Bears at least had the balls to be terrible and take risks in their hires AND their fires.

I hate the McCaskeys and Phillips as much as the next person, but I'd rather be a terrible team that takes shots at becoming reborn than just spinning our tires grinding out mediocrity, and that's precisely what Lovie was capable of.

[Boris13c]

I hate the McCaskeys and Phillips as much as the next person, but I'd rather be a terrible team that takes shots at becoming reborn than just spinning our tires grinding out mediocrity, and that's precisely what Lovie was capable of.

well don't give them too much credit ... at one time they fired everyone BUT Lovie and expected better results ... I remember much ranting about the stupidity of that

[Bad Flanders]

I've never hated Lovie. He is what he is. He's absolutely a great coach. You have to be an amazing coach to take a team built around defense and special teams offensive output to the superbowl. The key here is admitting that amazing coaching doesn't mean smart coaching. I have always argued that it's the front office's fault for promoting an amazing coordinator to be an average head coach and then leaving him there. He shouldn't have been given the power over staff he was or the power to control the roster like he was, his abilities started and stopped at coaching (you can argue Toub was his but they got there together, I don't know that Lovie brought him in?). If they hadn't gotten rid of the RB Jones (for freaking Benson) and if they'd kept Chico... that team would've done more... I don't know that you can put any of that on Lovie. Then they promoted him (based on the SB run) to his highest level of incompetence... again, it's what almost every coach wants, they'll always fight for it, doesn't mean you should give it to them. My 12 year old wants to drive my car too, if I let him drive, is his fault for sucking or mine for giving him the keys?

[G08]

Lovie could have been a legend here if he knew a single God damned thing about offensive football / QB development.

[Boris13c]

He's absolutely a great coach. You have to be an amazing coach to take a team built around defense and special teams offensive output to the superbowl. The key here is admitting that amazing coaching doesn't mean smart coaching. I have always argued that it's the front office's fault for promoting an amazing coordinator to be an average head coach and then leaving him there. He shouldn't have been given the power over staff he was or the power to control the roster like he was, his abilities started and stopped at coaching.

valid points ... I don't agree with the "great" part though

Lovie could have been a legend here if he knew a single God damned thing about offensive football / QB development.

or had been wise enough to hire a person who did to be a key member of his staff

[DaSuperfan]

Sure, they went 10-6 and didn't make the playoffs. What he failed to mention is during that season the Bears started out 7-1 and whimpered their way to 10-6 going 3-5 the rest of the way. All they had to do was win maybe 1 more game and they would have made it. They absolutely blew it.

[Wounded Bear]

Great coach? I don't think so.

What I recall about Lovie was that he was excellent at setting up a very good base defense, but that was based on getting pretty decent personnel at certain positions. His success was also based on putting up a pretty decent defensive pregame plan, but if that plan didn't measure up on game day, then he was inept at making any in-game changes necessary to counter what the offense was throwing at him. As I always said, watching Lovie coach against the likes of Bill Belichick was like watching a guy play checkers against a guy playing chess. Two different worlds, two different games.

Another thing that drove me crazy about the Lovie Smith Bears is that they would always say that "this defense doesn't use any deception, they just line up across from you and hit you in the mouth." For the most part that is correct. Lovie refused to use any deceptive tactics on defense, which I believe is a huge part of competing against the upper echelon teams in the NFL. His idea of deception was to have the linebackers mug the gaps and then have them drop into coverage, which usually made them slightly out of position to guard the deep pass and their momentum to drop to deep pass coverage made them vulnerable to the under routes for running backs or tight ends to nickel and dime the defense all the way to the Red Zone.

I'm personally glad he's gone. Yes it has been painful, but I am happier with this team attempting to be a championship caliber team rather than a team who are champions of the mediocre teams. If we could get the meddling McCaskey's (along with Ted Phillips) out of the equation, this team may actually be able to make that move.

But hey, what the F do I know.

[Rusty Trombagent]

Great coach? I don't think so.

What I recall about Lovie was that he was excellent at setting up a very good base defense, but that was based on getting pretty decent personnel at certain positions. His success was also based on putting up a pretty decent defensive pregame plan, but if that plan didn't measure up on game day, then he was inept at making any in-game changes necessary to counter what the offense was throwing at him. As I always said, watching Lovie coach against the likes of Bill Belichick was like watching a guy play checkers against a guy playing chess. Two different worlds, two different games.

Another thing that drove me crazy about the Lovie Smith Bears is that they would always say that "this defense doesn't use any deception, they just line up across from you and hit you in the mouth." For the most part that is correct. Lovie refused to use any deceptive tactics on defense, which I believe is a huge part of competing against the upper echelon teams in the NFL. His idea of deception was to have the linebackers mug the gaps and then have them drop into coverage, which usually made them slightly out of position to guard the deep pass and their momentum to drop to deep pass coverage made them vulnerable to the under routes for running backs or tight ends to nickel and dime the defense all the way to the Red Zone.

I'm personally glad he's gone. Yes it has been painful, but I am happier with this team attempting to be a championship caliber team rather than a team who are champions of the mediocre teams. If we could get the meddling McCaskey's (along with Ted Phillips) out of the equation, this team may actually be able to make that move.

But hey, what the F do I know.

god damnit yes to all of this. fuck the mug look, it got us butchered in shallow zones, briggs is bad enough in coverage without him starting out grossly out of position.

and fuck lovie and his "we had a really good game plan and the players just need to execute better" press conferences. you had a really good gameplan and then the other team adjusted and then you did that thing where you had an infuriating blank look on your face.

urlacher singing lovie's praises is like tom cruise giving his opinion on david miscavige.

[Rusty Trombagent]

They sign (Mike) Glennon, then they draft a kid No. 2 (Mitchell Trubisky). I don’t know what (they’re doing). It’s confusing.”

no it's not you jackass.

[Funkster]

First off, I love me some Lach. He always speaks from the heart. He's right, the bears do have the Lovie curse, not because they fired him with s 10-6 record and haven't made the playoff since. More so, the curse comes from years of neglecting drafting and grooming replacement players. We all know he is a defensive coach, he put together one of the better defensive in the modern era NFL. But IMO, his down fall was not being able to groom drafted talent, most notably a QB. Also, he wouldn't adapt with the league. He was the captain of the ship, he kept an even keel and went down with the ship. With the Bears defense he put together, all they really needed was a QB that didn't turn over the football. Just think, they were good for years, damn good, maybe elite. Just think, the bears went to the glory land with Grossman as their QB.

A true total rebuild is what we're seeing and those take time. I believe the bears are at the point where we're going to start to see the fruits of the new front offices labors. Curses are made to be broken!

[wab]

Always loved #54 on the field, off the field (post retirement) he's a bag of dicks that has such a one sided point of view that it's hard to take anything he says seriously. He's one of those guys that can't just go away gracefully.

[The Kaiser]

Love was a master....

of the Jumbotron Stare. Nobody could put on the poker face and stare down that screen quite like Lovie could. Hmm, mmm..he had it down pat.

[thunderspirit]

Always loved #54 on the field, off the field (post retirement) he's a bag of dicks that has such a one sided point of view that it's hard to take anything he says seriously. He's one of those guys that can't just go away gracefully.

+1.

[Mikefive]

Always loved #54 on the field, off the field (post retirement) he's a bag of dicks that has such a one sided point of view that it's hard to take anything he says seriously. He's one of those guys that can't just go away gracefully.

Definitely. Not such a bad guy. But somebody you wish never had a microphone in front of him.

[marlin]

How did an article about how the Bears have sucked since Lovie left (and not mentioned, the D has sucked since Urlacher left) turn into a thread full of replies about how both Lovie and Url suck or are jerks. You all doth protest too much. Plus, Url was joking. He played for the Bears his whole career. He wants to see the Bears win, but like all the rest of us, he just has to deal with us having the worst record in franchise history...not to mention historically bad run defense. Better to laugh than cry.

[staleystarch]

I loved Urlacher as a player but I wish he would shut up.

Edit: I'm not going to take this down because I already posted it, but I wish I would have thought twice before I did post it.