Nov 13th 2008 9:51AM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
Filed under: Bears, NFC North, NFL Coaching
As a Bears fan, I can tell you the defense has been frustrating this year. The offense — as long as Kyle Orton’s under center — has been more productive, despite the fact that the team has sunk enormous resources into their vaunted defense. The production of the guys on Brian Urlacher’s side of the ball has been far from their reputation, which was established in Lovie Smith’s early tenure. The two biggest scapegoats for this disappointment have been defensive coordinator Bob Babich and franchise figure-head Urlacher.
On Babich, it’s really a lazy theory of convenience to blame him. He took over last season for Ron Rivera, who ran the defense for ‘05-’06 when the unit was elite. Obviously, if the personnel is virtually the same and all of a sudden the team gets worse, it must be his fault, right? I’m not ready to blame Babich for this. First of all, last season the defense was put in all kinds of bad positions due to awful offense … not to mention they were decimated by injuries. This year, however, the offense has been better than the defense, and the injuries have been limited (though, to be fair, most injuries have come in the secondary, and the defense isn’t exactly struggling against the run … it’s all been through the air).Continue Reading
