Can't Buy Me Lovie
So the Bears won yesterday and finished 10-6 on the year, a 2-game improvement upon 2011. Normally this doesn't get your coach fired, but when the coach has been there for 9 seasons and has only put together back-to-back winning seasons once, normal doesn't apply. So the Bears owners (maybe management) did what I'd say 99% of Bears fans wanted and fired Lovie today.
These few paragraphs from the Trib story sum up his Bears' career best.
Since Smith took over in 2004, the Bears have ranked higher than 23rd in offense only once. They have ranked 28th or lower four times.Since 2004, the Bears defense ranks first in the league in takeaways, three-and-out drives forced and third-down percentage and is fourth in scoring defense.
Smith's defenders scored 34 touchdowns, which became a signature of the Bears' style of play.
There was some good, some bad and I'm sure after 9 years of a defense first team, many fans will be screaming for an offensive first coach. Sure. But if that happens, you know by mid-season the same fans will be complaining why the defense doesn't get takeaways anymore. Regardless of what the future holds, the Bears finally got rid of the past they held on well past the expiration date. So as the hope of the New Year approaches, the hope for a new Bears dynasty comes with it.
In other news, I'm going to go back to the old comment system (it's active for this post). Thanks for being my guinea pigs with the Disqus experiment, but I just don't think it works as well. All your old usernames will still work and you can email me if you have issues logging in (upper right, look for the envelope icon). I think I will be disabling new registrations though, at least as an automatic process, and anyone that wants to join will just have to email me and I'll set up their user accounts. Hopefully that'll curb the 200+ bogus registrations I get a day. I know, first world problems, but the things that annoy me to no end. Anyway, let me know if there are any issues.
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