Having the same coach for 9 years and then firing him for missing the playoffs 5 of the last 6 seasons is not panic…. it is reality.

How about giving the ball to William Perry instead of Walter Payton on the goal line in the Super Bowl?

How about playing Doug Flutie at QB against the Redskins in the 1986 playoffs and throwing away what should have been another Super Bowl championship?

I am a life long Bears fan but I have no problem in saying shut up and go away Mike.
Not all of us live in 1985.

If Lovie can get the Browns to 8-8, I’d take him tomorrow.

Ditka misses the point. Even if other teams cooperated, and Bears got into the playoffs, who here thinks they are going anywhere? Squeaking in (thanks to other teams) and promptly losing is hardly any different than not making it anyway.

Lovie’s failure is not establishing any consistent offense. Forte runs, and Cutler throws to Marshall. That’s all they have. Their record is deceiving….early season their defense excelled at takeaways, later in the season, against better teams, we saw the real Bears.

I was at the Bears vs Vikes game in early Dec…once Cutler threw 2 picks and put his team in a hole, they never looked like they were coming back. And they didn’t.

Good job, Bears. You made the right call.

btw, i have had the ‘pleasure’ of speaking with ted phillips in the past, so i know where one piece of the bear’s problems lay.

i can just hear halas now.

Playoff record (career): 5-13
Playoff record (in 5 seasons with Chargers): 0-2.

In his next gig (which he will get ASAP since he does understand defense) he should remember victories rather than being liked by all the players on the team is the real end goal. A popularity contest it ain’t.

But he was also a lame duck…

The GM wanted is own guy for the job. And he had only a couple years on his contract…

They had to settle for Mike Martz 2 years ago, and Mike Tice last year. No O.C. worth a darn was going to sign on for a short-term deal.

Now, at least, hopefully he’s learned a bit. He can go someplace with a new sense of security. (As much as there is for an NFL head coach) And maybe get a good OC. And a GM that can provide a little stability. And he can build a good balanced team.

This is the same coach who if he could developed even an average QB, outside of the one year McMahon was healthy, they could have probably won at least one more Superbowl.

To use Ditka’s own words on the furor by some over Lovie’s firing, “this too shall pass.”

and as the Chicago gm says, they will win championships….. as in more than one.

oh boy!

But they didn’t. And you can place blame for being in that position (where one win by another team decides your job fate) squarely on Smith and no one else.

It’s like whenever one call seems to go against a team and they lose: there are always *plenty* of other opportunities that were missed that could have obviated the need for that call to go that team’s way to win them the game.

Smith had five seasons of the last six where he had 16 games in each that each played a part in his team making the playoffs or not. And in those five seasons he failed.

He missed the playoffs five times in the last six seasons, end of story. For Ditka to apparently not acknowledge that is cherry-picking an awful lot.

I think the Bears had lost 4 out of 5 games leading up to that second loss to the Packers , so I can believe that Miller is probably right.
Oh and by the way your Titanic analogy was one of the best posts I’ve seen in a long time …classic.