Lovie Smith Calls His Players Out

Found a great article on ChicagoSports.com, discussing the fact that Lovie Smith recently called out his players for a lack of effort against the Minnesota Vikings last week.  While the idea that the coach noticed a lack of heart from a team that allowed a rookie running back to go LT on them shouldn’t shock anyone, the fact that Lovie Smith publicly called the team out should definitely raise a few eyebrows.  Smith is generally known for being extremely tight-lipped and professional in all his comments, and especially for protecting his players in the media (Remeber “Rex Grossman is our quarterback”?).  The fact that Lovie decided to air this grievance publicly is sort of a big deal.

Can anyone blame the guy, though?  If you saw that game against Minnesota, you were most likely shocked and appalled to see your defense giving up the game in the final minutes.  I mean, Bears fans are used to their offense screwing things up and making their defense clean up the mess, but they have rarely been treated to teams that work the other way around.  After the Hester TD at the end of the game, you got the feeling “hey, we can take this thing in OT, we’ve got the veteran team, we’ve got- oh my god are they KICKING TO PETERSON??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

I was in a sports bar full of Bears fans.  It was truly brutal to watch the special teams and defense roll over and die like that.  Whether it was questionable to kick to a guy that had carved you up all day or not, Smith has to be able to trust his D in those situations.  If he can’t trust his defense in the future, the Bears should just start scouting  high draft picks.

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Posted in General on October 18, 2007

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