One guy is called the offensive coordinator. Another guys holds the play sheet. The latter, head coach Marc Trestman, faced a firing squad after practice Monday afternoon. From the Twitter feed of the Tribune’s Rich Campbell:

Kromer on why Bears didn’t run down only 10 pts coming out of halftime: That’s a good point. I think that will happen in the future.

Cutler on running game: “Giving the illusion that you’re going to run the ball, it definitely helps.”

Forte on running the ball: “Just because you’re (defense is) ranked in the top doesn’t mean you don’t try it.”

What does it mean? A great deal.

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The way I see it, Phil Emery has two options in the month of December:

Option #1

Emery crucifies Mel Tucker for the sins of the 2013-4 Chicago Bears and throws his full support behind head coach Marc Trestman. This decision would most likely make 2015 a Deliver or Here’s a Cardboard Box, Put Your Things In It year for both the GM and coach.

Option #2

Emery plays politics, walks into a meeting with Ted Phillips and George McCaskey and admits that after an almost gloatingly exhaustive head coaching search he chose the wrong man. This decision would enable Emery to hire a second head coach and possibly buy him 2-3 more years on the job.

Stubbornness or self-preservation? Will Emery continue to display the same defensive tactics he utilizes to rationalize the drafting of Shea McClellin or will he recognize what is evident to every single objective observer: the Bears have the wrong man in charge.

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Note to the McCaskey family, Ted Phillips and perhaps Phil Emery…

The rest of the 2014 Chicago Bears season should come with the same on-screen disclaimer as televised mediums: for entertainment purposes only. Nothing taking place over these coming four games – three to be played at Soldier Field – should be used to validate the efforts of the current coaching staff or inspire confidence in a crop of under-performing players. These games have no meaning. None. Zero.

Even if the Bears were to miraculously run the table, beating three well-quarterbacked teams competing for the postseason, this organization can’t insult their fan base by delivering vapid banalities like “the team rallied together” or “they fought to the very end” or “Coach Trestman never lost the confidence of his locker room.” After several mid-season embarrassments, Trestman and his coaching staff had an opportunity in Detroit to prove the team had rallied. The Bears had a chance to show their coaching staff confidence and competitive fight by performing against the Lions and providing meaningful football in the month of December. They failed.

Fans can excuse losing in the name of development. They can even excuse losing tight, hard-fought contests. They can not and should not excuse the noncompetitive nature of Marc Trestman’s Chicago Bears.

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Note: This column is being written at the tail end of a Thanksgiving evening that featured plenty of beer and too plenty pumpkin pie.

Someone wrote this, when discussing the road map for Marc Trestman to keep his position as head coach of the Chicago Bears:

Step #2. Trestman’s Bears deliver a spirited effort on Thanksgiving. This will be the next time the Bears receive any national attention. It would be imperative from a public relations perspective for the Bears to (a) not embarrass themselves and (b) show the fight and passion missing from their efforts against New England and Green Bay. In many ways beating the Lions on Thanksgiving and moving to .500 would not only be a saving face performance but it might also create optimism around the coach’s potential to lead this organization into the future.

None of that happened. Road map lost. Marc Trestman’s career, as head coach of the Chicago Bears, should be over.

That’s right. I’ve never called for the firing of the head coach in my time running this site. I’ve never said a man should be removed from his job, his family displaced, his life altered in a startlingly negative way. But that is now over. The Bears have the wrong man leading their organization and they must replace him before a single decision is made in the 2015 off-season.

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Here is something I don’t want to hear. Or read. Or listen to. Or find in my fortune cookie.

Bears should lose games for a better draft pick.

Research project for those espousing this ideology.

Prove that the number 8 selection in the NFL Draft has more success historically than the number 18 selection. Prove that number 5 selection has more success historically than the number 25 selection. Unless you are in the market for generational talents, specifically at the quarterback and pass rush positions, draft position has little to do with an organization’s success in the draft. You know what does matter? Talent evaluation.

Do you think Chance Warmack and DJ Fluker and Jonathan Cooper would still be taken before Kyle Long? Do you think Trent Richardson would be taken before Doug Martin? Do you think Matt Kalil would go a round earlier than Cordy Glenn? Would Dee Milliner or Morris Claiborne get drafted? Go look at the horror show that is the top of 2013 draft. Go look at the 13-17th selections in the 2014 draft.

And isn’t it odd how certain franchises retain their positions at the top of the sport? New England, Green Bay, Baltimore, New Orleans…etc. continue to be in contention for postseason berths every year while none of them ever select in the top ten come April. How is that possible? Oh, that’s right. They choose the right players when they are on the clock.

I know why fans act the way they do. Fans invest emotionally in a team they believe can make the postseason or win a championship. That emotional investment means feeling pain should the team lose. Nobody wants to feel pain. Pain kinda stinks. Once a fan can check out, or at least say they’ve checked out, they can divest emotionally from the occurrences over the three hours of their favorite team’s game. “Lose for draft picks” is another way of saying “if I expect or hell, even WANT, my team to lose I will not feel sad about them losing”. These fans are what doctors commonly refer to as full of shit.

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Going into halftime I was fully prepared to write a “Marc Trestman Must Be Relieved of His Duties Today” column. That’s how lifeless the Bears were for thirty minutes. How thoroughly unmotivated they seemed. They would have enraged a surprisingly large and vocal crowd but the Soldier Field faithful were too bored to express anger.

Then they went into the locker room. Then they came out of the locker room.

I don’t know what Marc Trestman said to his football team. I don’t know the contents of Martellus Bennett’s MLK-inspired halftime tirade. But I do know Trestman had a tangible opportunity to display leadership. He had a chance to show the entire organization he was not only a capable leader of men but a capable leader of these specific men, in this specific locker room. And in Lovie Smith’s old locker room, Trestman delivered. If the Bears had played two second halves yesterday they would have beaten Tampa by 35 points.

Do these two wins mean a lot for the Chicago Bears? No. But they were the first essential destination on the Trestman road map to remaining the Chicago Bears head coach. Now the Bears play a month of games against NFC playoff teams (even though I don’t believe the Lions will ultimately make the postseason). Now the results are measuring sticks. Now the results matter.

More thoughts on Sunday’s win over the Bucs…

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Tweeting in-game is growing on me. Not only do I enjoy expressing joy and frustration in the moment but going back and looking at those Tweets can often tell the emotional story of a football game. Here is a Tweet from well-into the Bears victory over the Minnesota Vikings:

This offense means nothing to Cutler. He makes no plays in rhythm. Idea that changing offense will impact him is fallacy.

I don’t remember the play that spawned this comment but, quite honestly, couldn’t it have been all of them? Many individuals, including myself, have argued the Bears changing the head coach at the end of the season would be a detriment to Jay Cutler because it would be yet another system change for a player whose career has been marred by a lack of consistency in the playbook and on the field. But watching the Bears offense, even when it is performing well like Sunday, left me asking a singular question: what is the Bears offense everyone is so passionate about not changing?

I know what it’s not.

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Those who are saying the Bears should be tanking the remainder of the season are the types of fans I’ll never understand. Win games. Win as many as you can. Draft where you’re slotted. This was a nice, convincing win from the Bears. But it doesn’t mean anything if they don’t string a few together. It’s step one in a reclamation project for the coach, quarterback…etc. Here are my thoughts:

• Yes, I’m leading off with the drive at the end of the first half. You are the Chicago Bears. You have been embarrassed on national television in consecutive games. You only have a four-point lead. You take possession at your own twenty-six with more than minute to go and a timeout and you sit on the football? If the Bears had lost this game this sequence would have made the covers of both dailies and been a talking point across the football landscape. How does Marc Trestman not understand his offense is playing at their finest level in months? How does a coach choose not to ride the hot hand and trust his quarterback? I would have loved comments from Cutler and Marshall at the half.
• The interception thrown by Cutler at the end of that sequence was a necessary act of defiance.
• Maybe Marquess Wilson being on the field DOES make a difference. Jeffery and Marshall played their best game as a pair by far.
• When the Bears commit to the vertical passing game, they win. All four wins this season featured Jay Cutler throwing the ball down the field.

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Testing out a new feature here on DBB. Might be a failure but we shall see.