Monday night against the New Orleans Saints was the last straw.

Even an amateur’ analyst’s passing glance at the game tape would recognize a quarterback almost purposely ignoring the offensive system in which he’s being asked to execute. At ten or more moments in that contest Jay Cutler passed on the opportunity to hit an open man underneath, instead choosing to fling the ball down the field, often to nobody in particular. A week earlier Bears offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer had Sally Fielded the locker room with tears, admitting to an act of sideline treason and breaking the sacred covenant of the locker room by admonishing his quarterback publicly.

The Saints game was a Monday night mutiny by Cutler and no one on earth could convince me the quarterback was not calculated in his futility. A week earlier Trestman had refused the opportunity to fire a coordinator well-deserving of the slow, security guard aided walk to the front sidewalk. Monday night’s game tape was an opportunity knocking too loudly. Trestman fired Cutler as Bears starting quarterback.

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This is not a move about seeing what the Bears have on their roster. They know what they have in Jimmy Clausen and David Fales. This is a statement move from head coach Marc Trestman. Jay Cutler is being sent to the bench and now one can wonder if his time in Chicago is all but done.

In August of 2005 I self-produced my first play, Shore Points, at the Irish Arts Center in New York. It was a limited run but still ranks amongst the most exciting experiences of my life. I decided over the run to sell Coors Light cans in the lobby for the powerful, almighty “suggested donation” as a means of erasing at least some of the credit card debt I was quickly accruing. My family came. My friends came. Friends of my family came. Family of my friends came. And they all drank. A lot.

I took the cash and went to Ireland with Noah Brier, co-founder of this website, in October of that year. We were in a town called Dundalk on Sunday October 16th. Dundalk like many Irish towns is in a Catholic coma on Sundays aside from a few pubs specializing in fine Sunday roasts serving creatures most of us find cute. No smart phones. No open internet cafes. Nothing. And the Bears were playing the Vikings at noon CT.

We found a pay phone. And for three hours continually called a friend in New York. Every fifteen minutes or so. We didn’t stop calling until Thomas Jones ran in a longish touchdown early in the fourth quarter, making the game 21-3. Updates at an Irish payphone. More than $40 spent. That’s how much I care about the Chicago Bears. That passion led to the creation of this website a few weeks after I arrived back in the states.

For the last three weeks, for the first time in my life, I have watched the Chicago Bears play football and not cared an iota about the result. They have played the care out of me. They are a nothing team led by nothing men deserving nothing from their dedicated fans.

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Some Final Thoughts…

1 – Have read in multiple places the Bears now have an opportunity to utilize Marquess Wilson more prominently in the game plan due to the absence of Brandon Marshall. Poppycock. Wilson should be utilized in the exact same manner he would have been were Marshall healthy. Bears are already making a terrible decision by changing the positions of Jon Bostic and Christian Jones in the name of, to paraphrase Trestman, “less disruption”. All three should spend the final weeks of 2014 playing the positions they are projected to play in September of 2015.

2 – Josh Bellamy should start tonight for the Bears and Cutler should target him. When I watched Bellamy play against Cleveland this summer he handled first-round pick Justin Gilbert with ease. (I was so convinced by Bellamy I expected him to spend the year on the Browns roster.) I think he’s a pro.

3 – So now every time the Bears run the ball unsuccessfully, media and fans will question whether the blame belongs to the blockers and back or if Cutler should have checked out. That is the damage done by Aaron Kromer. That is why its inexcusable he is still a member of the coaching staff. (Do you think Tom Coughlin would still have Kromer around? John Harbaugh?)

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The cynic could say they’ve seen this coming since October, maybe even September.  Even the most optimistic Bears supporter has had some inkling of it since the start of December.

But few could have predicted just how bad things would get in Chicago as the season continues to head south. Nobody is in charge inside of Chicago’s locker room, which has resulted in everybody doing whatever they can to save their own skin at the expense of the team.  Let’s recap just how far back the jarring lack of leadership goes.

September 3

Lance Briggs, the play caller and supposed on-field leader of the defense, skipped Chicago’s first practice of the season to go open his restaurant in California.  You’d think a guy coming off a 6 month offseason could have scheduled more intelligently.

Plenty of people-myself included-said this was no big deal.  It was just a walkthrough, and Briggs was a seasoned player who wouldn’t miss anything.  Plenty of people blamed Briggs for selfishly putting his own interests ahead of the team and not acting like a veteran leader.  Plenty of people blamed head coach Marc Trestman for giving Briggs the practice off for “personal reasons” while saying he didn’t bother asking what they were.

Chicago would go on to lose their season opener at home to the heavy underdog Buffalo Bills.  Briggs played a poor game and was directly responsible for some defensive miscommunications that led to big plays for the Bills.  In retrospect, this would not have not been a huge deal if it was an isolated incident, but it showcased the clear lack of leadership in Chicago, from the coaches to the players.

October 19

Following a nice road win at the Atlanta Falcons that was their best game of the season to that point, Chicago came out flat at home and lost 27-14 to Miami to fall to 3-4 with two difficult road games looming.  Particularly troublesome was the first half, when the Bears were held scoreless and only ran the ball twice.

There was a postgame outburst in the locker room from Brandon Marshall, one of the offensive leaders, that reportedly involved a fight with kicker Robbie Gould, the leader of the special teams.  Defensive leader Lance Briggs, meanwhile, walked out of the locker room rather than getting involved and trying to calm the situation down.

In press conferences that week, head coach Marc Trestman insinuated the reason the Bears weren’t running the ball more was because Cutler was checking out of too many runs, then revealed he stripped Cutler of the ability to make such checks in the second half.

Here we have the first instance of somebody under fire deliberately shifting blame to somebody else associated with the team in an effort to save themselves.  Don’t worry, it won’t be the last.

December 1

Following a Thanksgiving loss in which they called only 7 runs against 52 passes, Jay Cutler, Matt Forte, and Aaron Kromer all said the Bears need to run the ball more.  In doing so, they insinuated that the blame lied on Trestman as the playcaller to establish the run and separated themselves from the embattled coach.

Once again, we see fingers being pointed, with players and coaches trying to place the blame on anybody but themselves.

December 9

Following a home loss to the Dallas Cowboys that saw him injure two ribs and go on season-ending injured reserve, Brandon Marshall goes on the radio and admits he understands why people would have buyers’ remorse with Jay Cutler’s contract.  He also thanks those who visited him in the hospital, naming many names but not Cutler, leading to speculation that there is a rift in their previously close relationship.

I personally think this interview was blown out of proportion, but here again you see no clear leadership.  Marshall and Cutler are supposed to be the leaders of the offense, and very possibly the team, yet they are not exactly sticking up for each other publicly or toeing the company line.

December 11

Now we come to the latest, and most egregious, incident.  Aaron Kromer apologized to the offensive players, revealing that he had leaked some negative comments about Cutler to Ian Rapaport a few weeks earlier.  Patrick Mannelly then said on the radio several players had told him the apology felt fake.  Marshall took to Twitter to bash that players had talked to the media about the meeting, which was presumably supposed to remain private.

Yet again we see a free for all situation where every man seems to be in it for himself.  Nobody is keeping any players or coaches in line.  Nobody is stepping up, assuming responsibility, and making all this nonsense stop.

Who is in charge?

This leads to the obvious question: who is in charge of the Chicago Bears?  Normally, you would say the head coach.  So where is Trestman in all this? He has been involved in pointing fingers at others publicly.  He has not done anything that we know of to promote accountability since way back in August, when he suspended Martellus Bennett for a training camp fight.  Otherwise, he keeps going in front of the media and insists that everything is fine while chaos erupts all around him from players and coaches alike.

If the head coach is not the man in charge, then surely there must be some player who holds his peers accountable, right?  Not in this case.  The most logical candidate would be Jay Cutler, but he’s never been that guy.  That guy was Brian Urlacher until he retired following the 2012 season.  None of the logical candidates-Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Matt Forte, and Lance Briggs-have stepped up to do that.

What we’re left with now is a sinking ship with no captain.  In a situation like that, everybody looks out for their own interests above all others, which will never work in a  sport like football, where you have to put the team above yourself.  And that is the greatest indictment of all on this coaching staff, and the biggest reason that they all need to go.

Here what’s I know about Jim Harbaugh’s coaching career.

His first head coaching job was at San Diego and he led the Toreros to program bests in every conceivable way.

His second head coaching job was at Stanford where the Cardinal had been a Pac-10 doormat since Ty Willingham left town. He won 4 games. Then he won 5 games. Then he won 8 games. Then he won 12 games. 12 games. At Stanford. A university that had never won 11 in the entirety of their footballing existence. (And before you credit Andrew Luck, go take a look at John Elway’s W-L record at Stanford.)

His third head coaching job is at the San Francisco 49ers. He is 43-17-1 and has appeared in 3 NFC title games and a Super Bowl. In the 8 seasons prior to his arrival, the Niners did not record a single winning season.

Jim Harbaugh isn’t a good head coach. Jim Harbaugh is one of the best coaches in the entire world of football and he is available. That does not happen often. It’s happening now. The Bears will regret it for many years if they don’t become serious players for his services.

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Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip never amounted to much of a show but this is one of my favorite five minutes in TV history.

The Saints are horrible. The Bears are slightly more horrible. So why do I like the Chicago Bears this week?

I always like the Chicago Bears.

WHY ELSE?

• If the Saints didn’t win a Super Bowl a half decade ago they’d be the Chicago Bears. Their sideline is lousy with coaches shouting at one another, their defense is in the tank and now will have 2013 first-rounder Kenny Vaccaro on the bench, their offense shows up every other month and they are coming off a humiliating thrashing at the hands of the also-terrible Carolina Panthers. That was remarkably their fourth consecutive loss at home – a place where they’ve dominated the sport in the Sean Payton/Drew Brees era. It’s bad in New Orleans but…
• …if you are miserable in New Orleans, you must not like drinking or eating or music or joy.
• 40 carries, 271 yards, 6.8 yards a clip, 2 touchdowns. That is what the Panthers did to the Saints with a wasteland of an offensive line and a combination of Jonathan Stewart, Cam Newton, Mike Tolbert & Fozzy Whittaker.
• Cam Newton is the fifth most sacked quarterback in the NFL. The Saints didn’t get near him.

2014 Draws Comparisons to 2009

The 2009 Chicago Bears were 3-1 heading into their early-season bye week. They came out of the bye and lost 8 of their next 10 games, including defensive embarrassments against Cincinnati, Arizona and Minnesota. The team was dead and buried.

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