Lovie extended

[pbmax]

Not much of a show of faith, only a two-year extension with one year left on his existing contract. He gets them to the NFC Championship in a year when not much was expected, and they are willing to commit to him for only three years, total? If I were him, I would be looking over my shoulder next year, because eating a year or two of an HC's contract is nothing.

He did foul up their plans to jettison him after this past season, if reports are to be believed. I am not sure about the Bears revenue picture, but I remember multiple reports that the Bears are averse to spending a lot of money on released coaches. So I think Lovie has two years here, effectively.

[Pugger]

What is this contraption?

[Pugger]

LOL!!!!

[RashanGary]

I too think Lovie is underrated as a coach. His teams seem to regularly overachieve and they're very good at forcing turnovers and keeping teams out of the endzone.

Sometimes it seems like people equate personality with coaching acumen.

Like Fritz is saying, Angelo is the dufus in Chicago. The Bears have a dearth of young talent across the board because they can't draft. They need to extend him too.

I'll third this sentiment. I think Lovie Smith is one of the top coaches in the league. I'd put him on MM's level. We have far more talent than them right now.

I wonder if the Bears have a meddling owner, Angelo sucks, a combination of the two or something else. Whatever it is, they do not draft well. It's killing Lovie.

[Joemailman]

Packers are 6-8 against the Bears since Lovie Smith became the Bears coach, and 56-42 against everyone else. The only year they swept the Bears was 2009 when Urlacher was out with an injury and Cutler was terrible. Even then, both games were extremely close. Why Packer fans would be glad he'll be around the next few years is beyond me.

[Patler]

Packers are 6-8 against the Bears since Lovie Smith became the Bears coach, and 56-42 against everyone else. The only year they swept the Bears was 2009 when Urlacher was out with an injury and Cutler was terrible. Even then, both games were extremely close. Why Packer fans would be glad he'll be around the next few years is beyond me.

True, but they are 5-5 under MM against the Bears. The difference has been Hester and the Bear's ST's against the Packer's ST's. I don't otherwise worry that much about a Lovie Smith lead team.

[Joemailman]

It's more than special teams. Lovie knows how to gameplan against the Packers offense. Packers have averaged just 17 PPG against Lovie's teams.

[packerbacker1234]

Lovie isn't a great coach, but he's a good fit in Chicago. SB apperance and to the championship game this past season. You can say what you want, but before lovie it had been awhile that the bears were even close to being that relevant.

[Patler]

It's more than special teams. Lovie knows how to gameplan against the Packers offense. Packers have averaged just 17 PPG against Lovie's teams.

A lot goes into that, including MM being shutout in his first regular season game against the Bears. Under MM one Chicago game has been mid-December or later every year. Chicago is good defensively, so low scores are not unexpected.

The last 3 years MM is 4-2 against the Bears and averages 20.5 points/game.

I'm content with Lovie Smith coaching the Bears.

[RashanGary]

A lot goes into that, including MM being shutout in his first regular season game against the Bears. Under MM one Chicago game has been mid-December or later every year. Chicago is good defensively, so low scores are not unexpected.

The last 3 years MM is 4-2 against the Bears and averages 20.5 points/game.

I'm content with Lovie Smith coaching the Bears.

It might be for different reasons than you think. You say Lovie isn't a great coach so the Bears are beatable. I say maybe Love is a great coach but their GM/Owner stink. Nobody knows which is right. With the way they've drafted the last 6 or 7 years, I think it's more about the Bears talent evaluators than coaches.

[pbmax]

I don't know about it being an Angelo only problem. Outside of Rex Grossman and now Mike Martz, Lovie's offenses have been pretty mundane.

They had Kyle Orton, who performed near Pro Bowl status for two years now in Denver with the Coach Prodigy. He is more than enough QB to make their offense go, but the Bears couldn't do much with him. I would say Lovie has not found his "Dom Capers" yet. And that is on him.

[Cheesehead Craig]

Happy Lovie is still in Chicago. Put me in the camp that thinks he's not that special. To me he's a DC who's in over his head as a HC, but his D and ST are so good that he stays around. His offense has been below average in his tenure and given the frequency of his players voicing their unhappiness with each other shows he doesn't have full control of his team.

[RashanGary]

I don't know about it being an Angelo only problem. Outside of Rex Grossman and now Mike Martz, Lovie's offenses have been pretty mundane.

They had Kyle Orton, who performed near Pro Bowl status for two years now in Denver with the Coach Prodigy. He is more than enough QB to make their offense go, but the Bears couldn't do much with him. I would say Lovie has not found his "Dom Capers" yet. And that is on him.

Nice. I'll adopt part of this. I like how his teams come ready to play. I like how his defenses dominate. I love how his ST's units play. It's on him that he hasn't found a great OC. I do think Angelo is a problem there though. Knox is a straight line guy, not a real WR. Hester isn't really a WR either. Their OL is blah. Good RB but nothing special and all those picks for Cutler is ridiculous. The offensive talent is just blah.

[MadScientist]

Lovie has done a pretty decent job given the talent the Bears have. At the beginning of the season many of us here were projecting the Bears to fight it out with Detroit for the bottom of the division. Even factoring in the luck they got this year, the Bears were a good team. If he can make it to the SB with Rex freaking Grossman, he can't be that bad of a coach. He earned the extension, unlike Chilly last year who got it for capturing lightning in a bottle, and this year got zapped by it instead.

[Fritz]

Wonder if Chilly will resurface as an OC somewhere?