Five Cold Hard Facts As The Case vs. Lovie Smith Builds

At 4-7, it is very easy to want to hop on the bandwagon and scream "Fire Lovie Smith!" at the top of your lungs.

The problem with that is most fans are all about change for change sake, and that is never a good way to go about building a champion.  Have coaching carousels in Detroit and Oakland worked well?  No.  It wouldn't work in Chicago either.

But the McCaskey family has to treat the Chicago Bears franchise like a fledgling business.  Everyone must go.  Including Lovie.  Here are five legit reasons Lovie has got to go.

1.  The Big Picture.  Let's just get this out of the way before we get into the heavy-hitting portion of this blog.  Lovie Smith has three winning seasons as Bears head coach.  In the years which Chicago didn't make the playoffs, Lovie's squads have posted a 25-34 record ... and that includes the 2008 team's 9-7 campaign.

The 2005 Bears went 11-5, but were pantsed by Steve Smith the Carolina Panthers in its playoff appearance.  One year later, the team went 13-3 en route to the Super Bowl, but Peyton Manning's heroics gave a glimpse of what future offenses would do to the Bears in upcoming years.

A 49-42 career record isn't going to cut it when you only have two playoff wins and no Super Bowl jewelery to show for it.

2.  The defense is indefensible.  Again, it's easy to write this after the Bears allowed more than 500 yards of total offense ... but facts are facts.  Remember when Lovie made defensive coordinator Bob Babich the scapegoat, so much so that he took the playcalling duties upon himself.  Well, um, how's that worked out for Mr. Smith?

Not good.

The Bears have allowed opponents to score 261 points, an average of 23.7 per game ranking 24th in the entire NFL.  Quite a dropoff from a team that ranked 1st in that category in 2005.

The head coach takes over the playcalling and the play of that unit gets worse?  If that isn't enough of a case against the coach, I don't know what is.

3.  Ozzie Guillen would call him "Little Game Lovie."  The must-win choke jobs are as follows:

• Jan. 15 vs. Carolina: Bears lose 29-21.  NFC Divisional round at home.
  
• Feb. 4 vs. Indianapolis: Bears lose 29-17.  Defense fails to cover Reggie Wayne.
  
• Nov. 9 vs. Tennessee, Nov. 16 @ Green Bay, Nov. 30 @ Minnesota, Dec. 28 @ Houston: Bears lose all of these games when winning one of them puts the Bears into the playoffs.  They choked against Tennessee and Houston.  And decided not to show up against division rivals Minnesota and Green Bay.
  

4.  Lovie's friends are failing him.  There's nothing like getting a job, and then being able to give your friends work.  Unless, of course, you're Lovie Smith and your friends are Rod Marinelli and Bob Babich, both of whom are great guys ... but not great coaches.  Same for Ron Turner.

There's only one rule in the un-written rulebook of giving your friends jobs: Make sure they don't suck.

5. The penalties/lack of discipline.  Are you tired of delay of game penalties on field goal attempts?  How about not reporting as an eligible receiver when you're number is 95?  Personal foul penalties and ejections got you down?  Simple offsides and false starts stalling your drives?

These are all disciplinary fouls and if the head coach isn't handing down the discipline, then nothing is being properly followed.  I'm not one of those Bears fans that begs for a red-faced Mike Ditka for 60 minutes per game, but I am a fan who hates dumb penalties.

So, can you make a case for why Lovie Smith should keep his job?  If so, leave it in the comments so I can tell you how wrong you are.

And for Lovie, here's hoping you hear this soon.