I'm pretty sure everyone saw the stomping of the Bears Monday night in Detroit. Of course, the score doesn't indicate the beat down, but anyone who watched the game understands how badly it was played.
It is much easier to start listing the positives of this team than the negatives, but hey, I'll give it a shot: Frank "Oh My God I Crapped My Pants" and the rest of his misfit offensive line mates, the general incompetence of the receivers (none of whom would start on nearly any NFL team - especially you Roy "I Never Get First Downs but Still do My Stupid First Down Dance" Williams), the absolute atrocious play of the secondary (now we know why Belicheck cut you, Meriweather), Lovie improving his challenge record to something like 10 for 800 in his career, and the continuing saga of Mike Martz's ineffective offense. Pretty hard to put this one on Jay Cutler, who performed remarkably under the circumstances (making me wonder what he could do with Rodgers' line, or Brady's line), and certainly not on Matt Forte, without whom this team would be an even bigger laughingstock.
All of those things considered, and really, the preceding paragraph only touches the surface of the on-field ineptitude of the Chicago Bears, the problem that has led to all of this lies squarely in the front office's lap. You'll notice my hatred and disgust of all things Jerry Angelo becoming a theme in this blog; really, I should have used firejerryangelo.com as the domain for this blog (and it seems like someone is already doing that).
Angelo, and the shaolin puppet masters above him in the front office (really, does anyone know who works up there anymore besides Ted Phillips???) have undermined any ability for this team to succeed. I talk all the time about the need for organizations to breed an attitude of winning into EVERYTHING a team does (see, Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, and Green Bay Packers, as much as it pains me to say). From the owner on down to the guy who runs and picks up the tee after a kickoff, everyone needs to understand and maximize their role to win games. The Steelers, Patriots, and Packers do it, and hmmm, what a surprise, they WIN. But our resident DB Angelo utterly refuses (whether it's a reflection of upper management or not) to address issues that the ENTIRE NFL KNOWS THAT WE HAVE. It's like he spent the entire off season/lockout working on his old man tan and not worrying about football.
Think about the upgrades we need to compete in a division that has two legitimate Super Bowl contenders for the foreseeable future: OFFENSIVE LINE, Wide Receiver, Tight End, Defensive Line (to a certain extent - depth), Linebackers (young depth), and the entire secondary. In case you didn't notice, that is an entire football team. Yet, I'm pretty sure after Angelo took Gabe Carimi in the first round of the draft this year, he took 5 straight safeties. Or at least it felt that way.
One thing this season has done is remind all of us die-hard Bears fans just how far away we are from truly contending. Angelo, please promptly wake up, remind the front office that the Chicago Bears are a flagship NFL franchise, and commit the franchise to winning. Until that happens, the Bears will continue meandering down the same embarrassing path.
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