|
|
|
|
 |
| Author | Post |
|---|
petrick229
Tailgater
| Joined: | Fri Jan 2nd, 2009 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 26 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |  |
| MyPOTD: |  |
|
#1 Posted: Sun Jan 4th, 2009 00:52 |
|
LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Shortly after Sunday’s deflating defeat in Houston ended the Bears' playoff hopes, coach Lovie Smith said that he didn’t think the team needed to make wholesale changes.
“When you’re 9-7, you’re close,” Smith said following the 31-24 loss to the Texans. “You don’t need an overhaul. You just need to add a few pieces to the puzzle, and that’s what we’ll do.”
Lovie Smith has compiled a record of 45-35 in five seasons as Bears coach. Expanding on his thoughts a day later, Smith reiterated that he’s upset the Bears failed to make the playoffs but encouraged that the team won two more games than last season and finished with a winning record. “There’s a lot that goes into a football season, a lot of ups and downs throughout every season that you normally go through, and we had our share of both,” Smith said Monday at Halas Hall.
“When you finish 9-7, it’s saying that you’re close, but you’re not quite there. The season ended on a disappointing note. But then you have to look at some of the things you were able to accomplish.”
Smith is pleased that the Bears were able to answer question marks at quarterback and running back that hung over the team entering the season. Kyle Orton played well before spraining his right ankle Nov. 2 and running back Matt Forte enjoyed a record-breaking rookie season
|
|
|
 |
petrick229
Tailgater
| Joined: | Fri Jan 2nd, 2009 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 26 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
| MyPOTD: | |
|
#2 Posted: Sun Jan 4th, 2009 00:53 |
|
“Kyle Orton did a lot of good things during the course of the season—not enough, just like the rest of our team for us to get to the playoffs—but I like the progress that Kyle Orton made throughout the year,” Smith said.
“I was asked if Kyle was our quarterback [moving forward]. Of course Kyle is our quarterback.”
Forte was even more impressive, breaking Bears rookie records with 1,238 yards rushing, 1,715 yards from scrimmage and 63 receptions after arriving as a second-round draft pick from Tulane.
“Running back-wise, we went into the season not knowing exactly what we had with it,” Smith said. “Matt Forte answered a lot of our questions and had an outstanding rookie year.”
Even with those contributions, the Bears finished 26th in the NFL in total yards, one slot better than last season.
“Did we do enough offensively throughout the year?” Smith said. “No—again, just like the rest of our football team—but I think the arrow is pointed in the right direction. I like the core that we can build on.”
While the offense entered the season with six new starters, much more was expected from a veteran defense. But the unit faltered, regularly allowing a slew of passing yards while the front four failed to generate a pass rush.
“At times we played good defense up front and other times we needed to do a little bit more,” Smith said.
The Bears coach acknowledged that two of the defense’s top players did not perform up to expectations. Brian Urlacher had two interceptions and no sacks after registering five interceptions and five sacks in 2007, while Tommie Harris also failed to make the same impact that he has in the past.
|
|
|
|
petrick229
Tailgater
| Joined: | Fri Jan 2nd, 2009 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 26 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
| MyPOTD: | |
|
#3 Posted: Sun Jan 4th, 2009 00:54 |
|
“Brian at times played well this past year and other times he needed to pick it up a little bit,” Smith said. “At times, Tommie played very good football. The consistency wasn’t probably there as much as we would like, just like our entire football team.”
Smith accepted the blame for the Bears failing to make the playoffs, saying “it starts with the head coach. It starts with me.” He also discussed the team’s plans for the offseason.
“Are we going to change schemes, throw out everything that we’ve established here?” Smith said. “No, we’re not. We’re going to do it better. We’ll look and evaluate everything in our program: coaches, players, schemes. Everything that we’re doing, we’ll evaluate it and go from there. We were close—one game away from the playoffs—so we need to just add a little bit more, and that’s what we’ll look to do.”
Smith was asked whether he will make any changes on his coaching staff.
“We’ll evaluate everything—as I said—players, coaches and all,” he said. “Every year there’s change. I don’t know if we’ll have change right now. I can’t comment on any of that right now. We’ve just started our evaluation process.”
|
|
|
|
petrick229
Tailgater
| Joined: | Fri Jan 2nd, 2009 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 26 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
| MyPOTD: | |
|
#4 Posted: Sun Jan 4th, 2009 00:54 |
|
Upgrades on defense are possible on the line and in the secondary.
Defensive ends Alex Brown (6), Adewale Ogunleye (5) and Mark Anderson (1) combined to register just 12 sacks this season for a defense that recorded just one sack in its final three games.
“I would say that every year and I think I have said that every year,” Smith said when asked about the possibility of bolstering the position. “You can never get too many edge rushers, just defensive linemen in general. [General manager] Jerry [Angelo] will say the same thing.
“That won’t change as far as our approach. Everything starts up front with our defensive line, so we’ll always be looking to add guys like that.”
It’s a similar situation at safety, where the Bears were forced to juggle their players after losing Brandon McGowan early in the year and Mike Brown before the season finale.
“We seem to get hit injury-wise with it,” Smith said. “It’s a tough position physically on guys, so like I mentioned with the defensive line, we’ll always be looking for good safeties to add.”
|
|
|
|
Current time is 00:24 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Icon Legend
Forum
New Posts
Topic
New Posts |
Announcement
Important
Topic Locked
Poll
|
|
Login
