The Chicago Bears have posted three 11-plus-win seasons and one Super Bowl appearance under coach Lovie Smith. They've also struggled to find an offensive identity throughout his nine-year stint and could miss the playoffs this season after a 7-1 start.

Some believe Smith should lose his job if the Bears are left out of the postseason. They need a win Sunday in Detroit and the Green Bay Packersto beat or tie the Minnesota Vikings. If the Bears tie the Lions, the Vikings have to lose. Chicago would be out with a loss.

No, I don't think Coach Smith is in the hot seat, but at the same time, we as players feel like he is going to be around this franchise, this organization," Bears cornerback Charles Tillmansaid on NFL Network's "NFL AM" on Friday. "I don't think it's something, his job, the hot seat, he doesn't really get caught up in all that, neither do we as players. At the same time, you do want to win for your coach."

The Bears were a juggernaut early as Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall were nearly unstoppable. The defense was playing as well as any unit in the league. Then Chicago lost five of the last seven games.

Tillman was asked why Smith deserves to come back.

Because he is a great coach," Tillman said. "He's been here nine years, I believe, the only coach I really know. I don't want to play for another coach. I think he's done some great things for this city, for this organization. Great guy, great leader.

"(If) you got to bring in a new coach, they got to start all the way over, they got to rebuild the team. Naw, you don't want to do that. Coach Smith is the guy."

The collapse in Chicago has been monumental, but the Bears are close to making the playoffs for the second time in three years. This isn't a Philadelphia situation where things completely imploded. Smith probably deserves at least one more year with Cutler, Marshall and Matt Forte. Plus, Smith took the Bears to the Super Bowl with Rex Grossman at quarterback. That alone should buy a little goodwill

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Yeah, I suggest we keep giving these bafoons chance after chance too because of something that happened 6 years ago. Not even a win mind you. The standards for this team are in the crapper. Where is the urgency? Before you know it.......we will be working on 30 years without a SB victory and some will still be saying "but but but we went to one 9 years ago."

No player will publicly come out and say that his coach is on the hot seat!  The fact is, Lovie is on the hot seat, and has been since the day Angelo was fired.  The only reason he wasn't fired along with Angelo was because the tight-wad ownership of the Bears didn't want to eat two contracts.

I can understand Tillman's quote of not wanting a new coach and how Lovie has been his coach for 9 years. however, some players may have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.  Not saying that Tillman does, but others might.  Tillman has been the constant bright spot on the defense!  Tillman exemplifies the true meaning of an NFL football player when others seem to fragile.

Good post. I like Tillman too, but you are right. Comments like his have absolutely no substance to them. Very cookie cutter. Very predictable. Some people eat em up. I roll my eyes.

Those last 2 sentences crack me up. I think ole Lovie Dovie has lived enough off that SB "appearance." Knowing this team and half the fan base, Lovie will probably get extended and we will continue to wonder why, while his supporters will talk about the SB we went to a decade ago and how his players love him.

The team is going nowhere under Smith.  Unless he manages to win a playoff game I think he is a goner.

TheUFan wrote: Good post. I like Tillman too, but you are right. Comments like his have absolutely no substance to them. Very cookie cutter. Very predictable. Some people eat em up. I roll my eyes.

Those last 2 sentences crack me up. I think ole Lovie Dovie has lived enough off that SB "appearance." Knowing this team and half the fan base, Lovie will probably get extended and we will continue to wonder why, while his supporters will talk about the SB we went to a decade ago and how his players love him.

  What does the Fan Base have to do with Lovie getting extended or not?

PeanutCB33 wrote:

TheUFan wrote: Good post. I like Tillman too, but you are right. Comments like his have absolutely no substance to them. Very cookie cutter. Very predictable. Some people eat em up. I roll my eyes.

Those last 2 sentences crack me up. I think ole Lovie Dovie has lived enough off that SB "appearance." Knowing this team and half the fan base, Lovie will probably get extended and we will continue to wonder why, while his supporters will talk about the SB we went to a decade ago and how his players love him.

  What does the Fan Base have to do with Lovie getting extended or not?

He is in his own bitter world because people argue with his random assumptions...

From all the various website, newspaper site, and forum polls; the majority want Lovie to be gone or at the least kept only as a lameduck. So what he uses as his basis for the fan base is his from delusions that he is on the outside of the majority.

Meaning knowing this team he will get extended and knowing half the fanbase they will continue to talk about the SB we went to years ago as a reason he should still be around.

TheUFan wrote: Meaning knowing this team he will get extended and knowing half the fanbase they will continue to talk about the SB we went to years ago as a reason he should still be around.

I have never heard anyone, here or elsewhere say Lovie should stay because he took us to a Superbowl in 2007. And i know a lot of people and a lot of Bears fans but i can't say i know anywhere near half the Bears Fanbase. You just like to throw comments out that have no basis in reality and act like they are fact. You should really stop doing that if you ever want to be taken seriously.

I don't really care if I am taken seriously or not.  When you don't respect or get respected by most of the people you debate with, why would I care if they take me seriously? Its past the point of repairing anything.  I engaged in some hyperbole.  I basically was saying that Lovie could get extended, continue to suck it up, and he would still have supporters talking about how his players love him and how he got us to a SB years ago.  I was making fun of some homers on here.  I know most fans want him gone at this point and its about damn time, but he still had a "decent" following until crap hit the fan yet again.  I just used "half" to use it. 

I really did think though that at least 1 poster would admit that I was right about him.  Maybe I shouldn't be surprised.  That would take a pair.

You know that even with new draft picks and free agent additions the next season will be a lot like this one.  The Lovie Plateau.  You won't change that unless you hire a new HC in my opinion.

I agree that it is time for Lovie to go as well.  I do, however, understand that the change itself will not guarantee improvement.  So I will approach that crossroads with guarded optimism.  Some posters here seem to find that improvement will be a guaranteed outcome from firing Lovie.  What happens if the next HC hire completely flops and the team regresses into a bottom feeder?  Boy, how those years of mediocrity would look awful nice.  Be careful what we wish for.

I completely disagree. I think a good case could be made that the only thing worse than sucking is being mediocre. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can improve. That would be ok with me. What I couldnt take is more of this pretender crap.

Hey look, a Lovie thread hijacked by UFan. What a shock.

skepticalbear wrote: Hey look, a Lovie thread hijacked by UFan. What a shock.

 Yep.
 
Why I am not even bothering responding. So far it seems everyone here missed the point of this thread lol.

skepticalbear wrote: Hey look, a Lovie thread hijacked by UFan. What a shock.

Hey look, the owner of the board showed up.  Sorry, I forgot to ask permission to post sir.

outkasted2006 wrote:

skepticalbear wrote: Hey look, a Lovie thread hijacked by UFan. What a shock.

 Yep.
 
Why I am not even bothering responding. So far it seems everyone here missed the point of this thread lol.

Are you trying to show us that you are paid per hyperlink?  Was that the point.

IRUSHTHROUGH wrote:

outkasted2006 wrote:

skepticalbear wrote: Hey look, a Lovie thread hijacked by UFan. What a shock.

 Yep.
 
Why I am not even bothering responding. So far it seems everyone here missed the point of this thread lol.

Are you trying to show us that you are paid per hyperlink?  Was that the point.

LOL no. But nice guess though. +1 for effort 

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--- TheUFan wrote:

skepticalbear wrote: Hey look, a Lovie thread hijacked by UFan. What a shock.

Hey look, the owner of the board showed up.  Sorry, I forgot to ask permission to post sir.

---------------------------------------------

You're so melodramatic. Makes me laugh.

IRUSHTHROUGH wrote: Some posters here seem to find that improvement will be a guaranteed outcome from firing Lovie.  What happens if the next HC hire completely flops and the team regresses into a bottom feeder?  Boy, how those years of mediocrity would look awful nice.  Be careful what we wish for.

You summed it up well.  It can be a mistake to not take a risk but at the same time those risk can set us back many years.  I for one feel Lovie should stay he's a great leader the guys play hard under him.  What we need to do is get the best offensive coordinator we can.  Tice is terrible Lovie needs someone to run that side of the ball and I don't think Tice is the man for the job.  

Say what you want but I firmly believe if we had kept Martz this team would be in better shape.  Or maybe Cutler is out again for the year under Martz but there is no denying that that Martz did more with less.  Martz certainly knew how to use Forte better than Tice.  Granit he's had the ankle this year but Martz had far better designs to get him the ball and the screen game was money.