Lovie Smith’s decision to let Ron Rivera go is coming back to haunt him
When the Chicago Bears went to the Super Bowl in 2006, they did so on the strength of their defense and special teams. Their defensive coordinator that season was Ron Rivera, who is now the DC for the San Diego Chargers.
The reason Rivera is out in San Diego instead of still coaching the D in Chicago is because head coach Lovie Smith promoted close friend Bob Babich to defensive coordinator, instead of keeping the guy that had just got him to the Super Bowl.
Now Smith is in a hell of his own making as the Bears currently sit at 5-5 on the year and are owners of the 19th ranked defense in the NFL. While it’s true injuries have ransacked Chicago’s defense, there’s no excuse for the poor tackling that the Bears demonstrated in Green Bay on Sunday, or the utter collapse earlier this year against the Falcons when Matt Ryan was allowed to complete a long out pattern to Michael Jenkins to set up a Jason Elam-game winning field goal.
One Chicago Sun-Times contributor writes that Smith should fire Babich and end the charade. That’s hard to argue when you witness a Bears’ defense that continuously is overmatched, under prepared and out schemed on a weekly basis. I mean, how many times will you allow teams to beat your Cover 2 defense before you make adjustments?
Somebody has to take blame for the collapse of the Chicago defense and I think it’s fair to say that Smith and Babich deserve a 50/50 split. If Smith would have allowed Rivera to make the adjustments he wanted to make following the Super Bowl in 2006, than maybe the Bears would be running away with the hapless NFC North right now. Instead, Smith is stuck with his buddy and a defense that is currently surrendering close to 25 points a game.
Anthony I couldn’t have said it better myself. As a Bears fan who watches every game eventhough I no longer live in Illinois, it is becoming more and more painful to watch.
Rivera should not have been fired. Babich should never have been hired. I truly do not like Smith’s way of coaching but the Bears problems go “up” from the coaching staff. Gerry Angelo is horrible, and has let more good players GO than he has kept. And a dream come true for me would be to say goodbye to the McCaskey clan.
Maybe if MLB doesn’t want Mark Cuban to buy the Cubs, the NFL will let him buy the Bears. If the SEC doesn’t send him to jail first…Enough acronyms.
Good write-up, Mr. S.
Ya know, I’m a Packer fan, and even I was stumped when Ron Rivera split. I just couldn’t imagine why you would mess with the one thing that made your team work.
The Bears only need to win once every ten years for the McCasky’s to be happy. Its a family business and as long as Mom gets her allowance life is good.
They got to the Super Bowl a few years ago and look where they are today…they still have money left from that so there is no need to get better right now.
Give them a few years Virgina
I too am a fellow Bears fan and couldn’t agree more that there are multiple problems with this organization. However, being that I live in Chicago I get to hear a lot of Joe average’s solutions to the problem. A lot of the recent talk is about letting Rivera go, now I agree Babich is about as good as my three nieces at coordinating a defense, however I don’t think Rivera is doing a great job in San Diego right now. I know he was thrown in there, but lets be honest San Diego has a lot of talent and is 4-6 and ranked 27th overall in total defense. Don’t get me wrong I liked Rivera and whatever he did here worked great that year in Chicago, but maybe its time to start looking at these players who have all landed a huge pay raise. Every week I here excuses from some of the players, one week I hear them try to blame it on the fans not supporting them in the fourth quarter. Guess what Bears, If me getting to the stadium at 6am, drinking myself to a complete waste, and spending the last dollar I had to my name in these horrible economic times to come watch you give games away isn’t devoted then I don’t know what is. Maybe Lovie is the head of all of this mess, maybe Babich thinks he is an offensive coordinator…..either way I have a lot of guys on defense who are suppose to be elite defensemen, when the ball is snapped its up to the players to perform.
The key here is that your drinking yourself silly…how about those cheerleaders?
Party on Garth
Titan22, I agree with most everything you said, but I’m not sure about the Rivera history. I thought he just got promoted to defensive coordinator in San Diego a couple of weeks ago. I could be wrong but I thought he was linebackers only up until then……
Rivera has only been the Chargers’ DC two games – vs. Kansas City and vs. Pittsburgh the last two weeks. Ted Cottrell was the DC before then and Rivera was the LB coach.
I think both of you make valid points and I agree that the Bears’ problems are not only with the coaches, but (as Titan22 said) the players as well. Everybody has to be held accountable and I listen to the same crap every week on Chicago radio – it’s always excuses with the Bears and enough is enough. Line up and play.
Thanks for your comments about the article, Da Bear!
Yo Titan22,
I just checked. Rivera was doing great with SD inside linebackers as coach. He was promoted to defensive coordinator on 10/28. The following week they had a bye. They then beat KC at home 20-19 and lost at Pittsburgh 11-10. Thirty points in two games, not bad. So, Rivera has two games under his belt as DC, not fair to say he is not doing a great job. I say fire him out there and let’s bring him back to Chicago. While we’re at it, let’s get Singletary back too.
Is it just me or does Lovie Smith spend a lot of time gazing at the scoreboard with a perplexed look on his face?
i am 51 and have never seen the bears defense this bad. all we had to do is beat the texans to get to the playoffs and our defense sucked!!! again!! we need rivera back – we brought turner back now we should bring rivera back !!! what do my other bear fans think – today was an embarrasment!!! once again – next year !! go blackhawks !!!
I agree that Bob Babich should be let go. Yes, we have great players and it may appear as though they are not pulling their weight…but lets look at the way Bob Babich is lining them up. I mean Hunter Hillenmeyer blitzing? I’m not saying I don’t want Ron Rivera back, it would be great but why in the world would he want to leave beautiful San Diego for frigid Chicago when he’s got talent over there to work with and our guys are getting old? Not to mention our past few drafts have been horrible.
Who’s in the play-offs? Lovey you dumb ass! Ron in San Diego and in the play-offs. HA HA