Fire Angelo, Lovie, Mike and Rod

Some may think we are having a hard time here letting go of skewering Ron Turner. Well, they are right. After all, as Illini and Bear fans, we suffered though 17 years of bad football with him. So it is hard to let go. As usual, I will give mad props to Ron for keeping his nose clean and keeping his connections. He always has a job…

Speaking of, how in the name of all that is right did Ron get a job with the Colts? Was there a resume review? Or did Ron just know someone? I am still bewildered that the AFC Champs would pick him up. I also wonder what went down with Jim Harbaugh at Stanford. I haven’t seen anything on that situation. Harbaugh and Turner are both playing the game correctly by not shelling each other in the press. As we have found out, the NFL and major college football is a small club and you are either in or out. You never know who your next boss might be.

I have been perusing the Colts message boards to get a feel for what the Colts fans think of their new Wide Receiver Coach, Ron Turner. There are some great threads and classic one liners. You can view threads here, here and here.

I think these are some of my favorite comments (comments in [brackets] mine):

well Chicago was known for their great recievers… wait, what?

are you kidding me? this guy has not done squat at any stop on his resume – why do we need this chump?

..but I heard Ron Turner is the best yes man around [haha]

This blows

are you saying Ron Turner is a fluffer? [classic]

As a Cal fan I’m pissed – I was hoping to see worse production out of their [Stanford's] WRs [along these lines, this is why we wanted to see Ron at one of our Big Ten rival schools]

“Ron Turner” sounds like a ’70s porn name, so that’s pretty cool Sucks otherwise, though. [never thought of it that way, but nice comment for creativity]

How does Ron Turner keep landing a job in football [we have wondered that for a long time]…. This guy was a hot mess at Illinois and he was even worse in Chicago. How in the world could he possibly make an improved to the Colts??? Unless our goal is for the offense to get worse.

The only football job Ron Turner is qualified for is tackling dummy….

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO!

Oh god no. I live in central Illinois and am a big Illini fan and am surrounded by Bears fan an I know Ron Turner is not really good for anything. He drove the Illinois program even deeper into the ground than it usually is and was awful with the Bears, what could the Colts possibly use him for?

Peyton makes all coaches look good so quiet down ppl.

I thought Peyton was the coach?

Back to topic.. I’ve stepped away from the computer for a few hours and I think I’m okay with this decision now as someone pointed out to me he’s not going to be an OC just a positional coach in otherwords he will have no real impact.

I hope Ron Turner is not the Offensive Coordinator in-waiting. He has proven to be a marginal [hahaha] coach in his stints as the Illnois head coach and the Bears Offensive Coordinator. I believe Polian and Caldwell don’t go for the flashy dynamic coach because they don’t want to be upstaged, but I hope they won’t be putting our offense in the hands of Ron Turner.

I don’t think we will even notice he is here. This is such a good offensive team that unless something dramatic happens we may not even notice. [you better hope so]

He’s going to a team with the same OC for like 15 years, and Peyton Manning, who is another OC on the field. He will literally have nothing to do or contribute. LOL It’s perfect for him…

Ron Turdner was so stupid, I nearly pined for the days of Terry Shea or John Shoop. I have no clue how you could not have been physically ill watching that joke of a coach scheme an offense.

2006 was Ron Turner’s offense working at max potential… mostly because the Bears had pretty good personnel across all offensive position groups.

By no means am I endorsing Ron Turner’s system, but you look at every year besides the Super Bowl season and it’s easy to see why that offense was stuck in the bottom third of the league. Yes, the system had its flaws, but there was always one or more position groups that really sucked big time, with ‘06 being the exception.

Bears Offensive Rankings Under Turner
2005: 29th
2006: 15th
2007: 27th
2008: 26th
2009: 23rd

What could Ron Turner and his Tecmo Bowl playbook [classic] possibly bring to that passing game of any real value? [hahaha]

You think Ron “I can’t think of any other plays so I’m going to run bubble screens and fullback dives all game” Turner can add anything to the Mastermind Peyton Manning and the mastermind OC in Indy?? You definetely have some Bailey’s in your coffee this morning then….or maybe peyote. [the correct term for that dive is I formation of death(tm) get it right and get used to it]

this is a great oppurtunity for Ron Turner. Peyton manning should be able to coach him up real nice like and he can finally be decent OC

Most of the comments seem to fall into a couple of camps. The first is one of indifference – Colts fans know that Ron isn’t the OC and that Manning calls all the plays anyways so it is no big deal that Ron is around to act like he is coaching the guy who is probably the best QB ever or his receivers. Another camp takes the tack that it is fucked that a guy like Ron is let anywhere near the potent Colts offense in any way, shape or form. I think that they are probably both right. In the end, it is NOT a positive that the Colts have hired Ron, and I believe that we all know what the results will be if he ends up as their OC.

Us and pretty much everyone we’ve ever met has been calling for Ron Turner’s head for years. Then as soon as Babich started sucking there was also a call to get rid of him up in the cheap seats, and Lovie’s stock has been on the decline since 2006. As far as Angelo, he has been class clown forever (although it is NICE to see the Bears open the checkbook!).

The media, however, has just given them a free ride all along until the very end when Turner’s fate became clear (as the sacrificial lamb for Lovie). That’s some crappy journalism.

A recent Chicago Tribune article is titled “Bears Fulfill most of their Free Agent Wish List in 1 Day“:

Angelo and Smith are empowered and confident moving into 2010 after 3 seasons of missing the playoffs. Why not? Smith has the defensive coordinator he sought in 2004 with Rod Marinelli and an offensive coordinator capable of putting 30 points on the scoreboard every week.

The reason that this quote makes steam come out of my ears is that Lovie and Angelo should have done this YEARS ago. Everyone said Babich stunk, so why didn’t they do anything? And wasn’t Ron Turner an offensive coordinator capable of putting 30 points on the board in Lovie and the press’ mind for years? Why didn’t they scream about this years ago and save us all this trouble?!??

Now the news media are on the band wagon that Turner sucked all those years – but they joined the bandwagon in the last 2 minutes of the game, instead of half way through the first quarter when we noted that he SUCKED. It is unclear to me what these journalists think their job is – Dan figures that they just say good things about the coach to get inside access, and Dan is usually right, but what the hell is that worth, anyways. Remember the STUUUPID articles about how Turner was going to “save” Cutler with his awesome advice? I do. I fail to remember articles back years ago that consistently skewered Lovie, Turner and Babich like they deserved. And that contributed mightily to the three lost years with no playoffs and certainly contributed to the 2006 Super Bowl loss when the offense just fell apart there towards the back half of the season.

Like the French Resistance, everyone was a collaborator until the day the Allies arrived, and then everyone all the sudden told stories of their bravery under occupation. NOT TRUE!

The Bears had a big day, picking up 1) Julius Peppers 2) Chester Taylor, to go with our recent TE acquisition. According to news reports they are trading Olsen, too.

Rather than try to sum this up I am going to start with a post DOSHI left on a recent thread:

Bears land Chester Taylor and Julius Peppers as well. Taylor is yet another above-average back that runs with power but not much speed. Peppers is a great pickup, but the 6-year contract is VERY crappy to me for a 30-year old.

OK, they’ve taken care of a need and two wants so far. I still have yet to see them take care of several other GAPING needs: Right Tackle, Left Guard, Defensive Tackle, Strong Safety, and Free Safety. I’m still high on Afalava, but he’s only in his 2nd year, and he’ll probably slump this year to come back stronger next year. But, right now, there’s nobody to protect Cutler or to open holes for Forte and Taylor. And there’s nobody to clog the middle on defense or to protect over the top.

I know many are calling WR a need right now. I respectfully disagree. I see a team with at least four #2 WRs with the Devins, Bennett, and Knox, and I’m fine with that. Look at the world champs right now. No true #1, but about 5 #2s. And each has their role. DevH and Knox are flyers (Knox is better there). DevA is good in coverage with his height and reach. Bennett is an ideal possession dink’n’dunk WR. I’m fine with role-playing WRs.

I also know some are calling for more CBs, and I just don’t see that. Tillman is one of the best cover corners in the NFL, and I credit him completely for the win over the Lions early last year with his coverage on Megatron. On the other side, both Vasher and Graham are serviceable CBs that aren’t going to lose to a #3 WR on any offense, and can perform competently against most #2s.

If anybody says we need more LBs, they’re stupid. Our backups could start for most teams in the NFL. Urlacher and Briggs, though getting older, are still two of the best in the game. Hunter’s a smart guy and just seems to be in the right place in the right time, though he doesn’t have the skill set of some of the other guys. Williams and Roach are both amazing talents but need some seasoning to be top tier. Pisa has a good reputation, and Tim Shaw deserves his shot on defense even after his stellar track record on special teams.

I’m moderately happy with the signings right now, but we need somebody like Sharper, and we need him YESTERDAY.

Idiotic, grinning skull Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune wrote an article titled “Chicago Bears Foolish if they dump Olsen“. The gist of the story is that Olsen doesn’t fit in very well with the Bears new scheme under Martz and that maybe they should get some value out of him in terms of a 2nd round draft pick or something.

What isn’t mentioned in the article are two other questions:
1) why even bother adjusting personnel in such a permanent way given that it is unlikely that any of the “four horsemen” on the mast head will be here next year?

2) when other teams value Bears offensive stars, what “factor” do they apply to the fact that all those years they labored under Ron Turner’s useless offensive plans? For example, in 2009 Olsen’s stats were 612 receiving yards, 60 receptions, and 8 TD catches. Do they multiply this by maybe 1.5 or 2.0 if he played for a “real” coach? Just wondering.

If you look at the before / after on some of our other Bears offensive departures the multiple was large, although the sample size is relatively small. Look at Benson, Jones, Berrian, Gage, etc… and how they fared after leaving the Bears. Or look at the fall in production once they JOINED the Bears. Here you could Moose the receiver and Pace, although Pace apparently was just plain busted when we got him.

This is probably an item worth approaching statistically at some point – we showed that Ron AVERAGED in the 20th percentile against his peers, and this would be another way of quantifying ineptitude.

I remember when ESPN the Magazine was doing a profile of today’s NFL stars against super stars from the past at the same point in their careers. They compared Cutler to Elway, I think, over those first couple of years, or some star like that. My answer was HA HA HA his stats are going to go in the dustbin in a relative sense as soon as the great minds at Halas Hall get ahold of him and surround him with their random cast members. Not to say that Cutler isn’t a big upgrade – he is the best Bears QB I’ve seen since Dan and I started sitting in the cheap non PSL seats – but to compare how he would do as part of a “real” offense to what he will do as part of the Bears is laughable. We all know how his stats in 2009 turned out.

The best part of being a Bears season ticket holder to me is, at times, laughing at insane marketing materials and letters from the team.

I just got my invoices for the season tickets. Two of my seats are the same price as last year. The price of the other two (even higher up and further down the sideline than the first two) was adjusted up to match the price of my first set. So now I pay a cool $69 per ticket per game to watch this team play football (pre season games mandatory as an added kick in the pants). But I paid the invoices and now have to wait to see if I get the coveted parking pass for next year, or if we have to go black market for them. By paying the invoices I have made a decision to give my money to this team who constantly rewards me with not much to root for. Frankly, after sitting in Soldier Field on and off for the last 15 years or so, I find the tailgating and meeting up with my friends more rewarding than the game itself. If the Bears do well, that is just an unexpected bonus. Odd, isn’t it?
Read more…

I have to admit that when we picked up Orlando Pace last year I was somewhat excited. I was excited WITH THE CAVEAT that I had assumed that the staff put him through his paces before picking him up and paying him a gazillion dollars to play.

Well, you know what they say about never assuming…

I remember the very first game I watched him play and saying to myself “what the fuck?”? The guy could hardly move and I can’t remember seeing him downfield on a run a single time all last year. Nice job Angelo. Next time, maybe observe the guy in his physical for 20 seconds BEFORE signing him. I am sure the great judge of talent that is Ron Turner had a lot to do with this as well.

While Ron Turner is gone from the Bears we wish him no love for wrecking the Illini and also doing nothing for all his years with the Bears, especially during the 2nd half of the 2006 Super Bowl season.

Now he apparently bolts Stanford, before he even “calls” a game, to join the Indianapolis Colts. From the California paper:

Turner, who was a Stanford assistant under Denny Green and then the SJSU head coach, was employed by Stanford for … what was it? … two weeks.

So if you’re interested in coaching Andrew Luck, send your resumes to Harbaugh, James, care of the Stanford athletic department.

Sure, it’s a blow to Stanford’s staff. But not a big one.

Good call. It is like comforting your buddy at a wedding when a total bitch who was going to gain 200 pounds and make his life hell bails out at the last minute… it hurts for 2 seconds, but then it is ALL FOR THE BEST.

Now on to Indy. What the HELL would Indy want with Ron?

Here is an article that says

The Indianapolis Colts have not made an announcement, but the club is adding an assistant to its staff and it’s easy to connect the dots here.

Ex-Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner is leaving Stanford, where he was hired earlier this month as the offensive coordinator, to take a job with the Colts. It is believed Turner will be the wide receivers coach.

The Colts didn’t have an opening on their staff. Speculation is that wide receivers coach/assistant head coach Clyde Christensen will be promoted to offensive coordinator. He took the job last year at this time when Moore retired. Moore wound up returning in the spring, and now he could be departing for good.

The move makes sense for Turner for a few reasons. He has ties at Stanford, and coached there previously, but his family remains in the Midwest and it’s an opportunity to remain in the NFL.

HA HA HA HA HA Indy fans this is our (slight) revenge for whipping us in the 2006 Super Bowl – now you get dopey Ron to foul up your offensive machine. It is impossible for me to foresee how Ron can help you in any way, but it is EASY for me to see how he could make things worse.

Feel free to read through this site or any other news source on the Bears that calls out what a pathetic offensive coordinator Ron is. You must not have access to any sort of news media, or you must be watching some series of parallel universe NFL games on a bizarro world channel where the Bears don’t continually squander all their offensive assets.

Even though “Fire Mike Martz” directs here we are all hard-core Bear fans and have hope for the season. It was funny to see Singletary, who fired Mike Martz back in 2008 at the 49ers, tell fans to “Get Your Popcorn Ready“.

“Like Terrell Owens would say with ‘Get your popcorn ready,’ that’s what you can get ready for with Mike Martz,” Singletary told the Tribune at the NFL scouting combine. “He knows offense.” Martz is known for his explosive offenses, and the Bears figure he should be able to work well with Jay Cutler. Before he was hired, Martz flew to Nashville to meet with the quarterback. “I think he will be great for the young man who is playing quarterback there,” Singletary said. “(Cutler) needs someone like Mike Martz. “That kid is a smart kid … has feistiness to him or whatever. And I think Mike Martz can bring out the part that (Cutler) needs in order to go to the next level.”

It is strange to fire a guy and then give him mad-props but I guess that is the NFL way. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Ron Turner certainly knows how to play by the rules from this perspective which is why he was continually employed despite a “career of failure” that we documented at this site.

Oh well let’s hope that Singletary is right. I want to at least see some excitement next year from the cheap non-PSL seats, since we have Cutler, some fast WR’s and a newly rejuvenated (we hope) Forte.

As we all know the Bears raised ticket prices this year. Per this article:

As expected, the Bears announced a hike in ticket prices in some areas of Soldier Field on Friday, marking the eighth time in the last nine years the franchise has raised prices in some form.

Being the guys way up in the cheap seats, Dan and I likely will only see our ticket prices go up by $2 / game, which isn’t even the price of 1/3 of a beer. Now we’d consider this money well spent, and then some, if it went to what they should have used the money for – to get rid of Lovie and Angelo and bring in some real talent, who in turn could have hired a first class offensive and defensive coordinator. Actually even though we own Fire Mike Martz.com really he might even be the best of the “Four Horsemen” on the mast head, because he actually has done something during the course of his career.

It is hard to muster up too much enthusiasm for this season coming up but at least we aren’t taking the brunt of the costs from the expensive seats; my anger would be geometrically higher paying for the Cadillac Club.

This year will be surreal stumbling in towards the lockout; in the end I can’t believe that the Bears will look back on keeping Lovie and Angelo for another year as a good idea.

The Chicago Tribune ran an article titled “Bears Must Hire Future GM Now” in their paper today. From the article:

Angelo has a contract that runs through 2013, but those close to him know he has contemplated retiring before that deal’s up. He probably has thought about it even more during a difficult January when Bears fans surely have fantasized about his retirement

As any reader can see from the title of this blog, us Bears’ fans have definitely fantasized about his retirement.

The Bears have to do something smart and innovative. Until now the Bears’ offseason has been as unorthodox as their regular season was unsatisfying. Internally and externally, confidence has dipped even lower than it was the day they fired Ron Turner.

Hey we can all dream. Other than the short, sharp shock of trading for Cutler, the Bears have failed to give us a positive jolt for years. I don’t know about the quote saying that confidence is even lower than the day they fired Turner; from this guys’ perspective, firing Turner, a guaranteed loser with a career of failure, was definitely the highest note of a discordant off season so far.

It somehow took 27 days for the Bears to hire the right offensive coordinator, Mike Martz, who was out of football. They needed even longer to stumble onto a new defensive coordinator, Rod Marinelli, who basically accepted a promotion because nobody else wanted the job.

The Tribune gets this right – Martz took the job as a favor for his friend Lovie and Rod had to take the job because everyone else had fled. Now even terrible Angelo is thinking about hanging it up.

Good for the Chicago Tribune to finally start calling out the Bears for their inept off season moves. They should have been calling for their heads years ago, so we could have built some momentum, but better late than never.

I picked up a Redeye, the free version of the Chicago Tribune, and they had a good article by Bag Boy, their columnist who wears a sack on his head. In the case of talking about our offensive coordinator, that is quite appropriate. He does a funny job of summing up where Ron Turner left us and a bit of advice for Mr. Martz (abridged).

I present a list of things that you will not see from the Bears this year
- No draw plays on 3rd and 10 – that dies with Ron Turner
- No wide receiver screens on 3rd and 10 when there is no one out there to block and it goes for only 3 yards
- No more getting off the bus running the ball. With Martz, we throw if it’s appropriate, we run if it’s appropriate, we do whatever it takes to score
- No more lame coaches saying “we have to get the tight end more involved”. Yeah, that really helped
- No more calling plays off the laminated Denny’s menu (don’t know exactly what that means, but it is funny, and at one point we were building up a little dumb play-calling card for Mr. Turner)

We give the Chicago Tribune hell for hiring idiotic, grinning skull Dan Pompei, official Ron Turner apologist, but then we should give them credit for this excellent headline of “Spare Us the Rod”.

The Bears had a chance to do things right, to hire a great offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator to jump start the franchise, but instead they did what we expected (feared) – they brought in a bunch of Lovie’s cronies, the only guys willing to take this job. I find it hilarious that both Mike Martz AND Rod Marinelli publicly claimed to NOT want the job, but eventually were talked into it by Lovie, I guess. The whole stupid runaround of actually trying to interview competent replacements who might not slavishly follow Lovie’s non-plan is over, another embarrassment for the franchise.

Like the famous “Four Horsemen” of the apocalypse, here at the Bears we have Jerry, Lovie, Mike and Rod. They all need to go. It is true that Ron Turner was worse than any of them, a coach without even a past history of success (in fact, a career of failure), but that doesn’t mean that they are good enough.

Now you can get here by way of the old fireronturner.net and also firemikemartz.com. The first thing Mr. Martz should have done before he seriously considered joining Lovie’s crew of doomed disciples is bought his name with “fire” in front of it, but hey now it comes here instead.

We also will welcome the soon-to-be-frustrated Stanford Cardinal fans. Sorry about your new offensive coordinator.

hahaha. It seems that Ron Turner will be the offensive coordinator at Stanford. Bear fans who regularly visit this site will recall that Ron was the OC here in Chicago when Jim Harbaugh, now the head coach at Stanford, was QB here in the early nineties.

I would like to take a moment to welcome all of the Cardinal fans who will likely find this site over the next few days. There is a lot of information here to digest. You will need to understand that your offense will be…how should I say it…offensive…in the near future. Too bad, your program was on the way up. Oh yes, THANK YOU for getting Ron far, far away from my beloved teams here in the Midwest.

Dan and I can’t stand the idiotic drumline for the Bears (here’s Dan’s great post on it). I was at a recent Bulls game and I saw… oh no… a damn drumline.

But at least the Bears can learn something from the Bulls… cheerleaders! Gotta dig them go-go boots!

Looks like our old buddy Ron is snooping around the Giants asking about that open QB coaches position.

If they hire him for that spot, I would love nothing more than to hear what Ron has to say for himself in that interview, and I would also love to hear how the Giants came to the conclusion that Ron Turner was the most gifted person for that particular position.

Welcome Giants fans, look around here, you will be stunned at what you will find.

Yea, yea, I know. He hasn’t coached one game or called one play yet, but why not start early? At least he has had a shred of NFL success, albeit in another life. Not as bad as the Troika of Stupid ™ which is Shea, Shoop and Turner.

And the OC position for the Bears rolls on year after year after year, in that same old form…which is to say “well, he’s not as bad as (insert previous OC here)”.

So after all this time do you really think that the Bears are going to get anyone worth a shit to run this offense? Didn’t think so.

So what now? Optimally, we get wiped out each and every game next year so the management is forced to fire everyone from Angelo on down. But there is a huge elephant in the room – the fact that the players union and the NFL are very far from a new agreement, which may mean a work stoppage in 2012 after next years no cap year.

Speaking of that no cap year, I wonder which great free agents the Bears will draw to their offense with our great offensive coordinator that we haven’t hired yet (that we are on our sixth choice now from most reports). Ugh.

I have a bad feeling that whoever gets Ron’s old job will just be another in the long line of shitty offensive coordinators that the Bears have had and that this blog will have material for eternity or until the work stoppage, whichever comes first.

I hope I am wrong.

Either Ron himself or his agent has written a factually true, but overall woefully incomplete summary of his latest disastrous stint with the Chicago Bears at his wikipedia page here. I went there not in search of more punishment, but at least to make sure that his status had been adjusted to “former” offensive coordinator. Let’s look at it.

Chicago Bears

In his first season with the Chicago Bears, Turner helped Chicago to a overall record while directing the offense in his first stint with the team despite working with a different starting quarterback each season[2]. The Bears team completion percentages in 1994 (61.4%) and 1995 (60.2%) rank as the highest in team history. Chicago’s net passing yard total of 3,743 in 1995 ranks second in team annals while the total of 3,185 in 1996 was pushed to sixth in team history by the team’s totals from 2006 and 2007[2]. With Erik Kramer at quarterback in 1995, the Bears set a team record for passing yards per game with 233.9 while compiling the fifth-most points in team history with 392. Kramer set club records with 29 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions (least among 16-game starters)[2]. The 1995 squad produced the third-most total net yards (5,673) and the second-most first downs (340) in team history. The offense also featured a 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers in 1995, the only such season in team history. During his earlier four years with the Bears as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach under head coach Dave Wannstedt, Turner guided some of the most prolific offenses in club history.

Turner was hired for his second stint with Chicago on January 9, 2005, replaced Terry Shea as Bears offensive coordinator. In 2005 season, Turner’s role in Kyle Orton, who was a fourth-round draft pick, to compile a 10-5 record as the team’s rookie starting quarterback. Chicago featured the eighth-ranked running game in the NFL in 2005[2]. The 2,099 rushing yards totaled by the Bears were the franchise’s most in a season since 1990 when the team rushed for 2,436 yards. Chicago also tied for the NFL-lead with 19 runs of 20 or more yards in 2005 after recording just seven such rushing gains in 2004. On the season, the Bears rushed for over 100 yards in 13 of 16 regular season games featuring six individual 100-yard rushing performances[2].

Turner contributed to Chicago’s appearance in Super Bowl XLI by coordinating an offense that ranked 15th in the NFL in total yards in 2006. He has coordinated the team’s offense in each of its last six playoff contests with Chicago owning a 3-3 record in those contests while averaging 25.7 points per game[2]. Turner also holds the distinction of being the offensive coordinator for each of the top two quarterbacks in Bears history in single-season gross passing yardage[2]. Erik Kramer set the franchise record with 3,838 passing yards under Turner in 1995 while Rex Grossman finished 2006 as the runner-up in that category with 3,193 yards[2]. The Bears were the only NFL team with six players with five or more touchdowns in 2006. Chicago’s 38 offensive touchdowns (24 passing, 14 rushing) in 2006 were the unit’s highest single-season total since scoring 44 in 1995[2]. In 2006, the Bears led the NFC while tying for second in the NFL with 427 points, the second-highest single-season scoring total in team annals.

Chicago topped the 30-point plateau twice in 2008, four times in 2007 and accomplished the feat seven times during the 2006 season, the team’s most 30-point games in one campaign since registering eight in 1956[2].. The Bears scored 48 points against the Vikings on October 19, 2008, the most for the club since tallying 48 on December 7, 1986 versus Tampa Bay. The offense has compiled more than 300 total net yards in 25 of their last 48 games after doing so just three times in 2005; the third season of Turner’s first stint with the team. The last time Chicago had six players combine for at least five touchdowns was 1948.

In 2008, the Bears passing offense continued to develop under Turner. Bears quarterbacks threw for over 3,000 net passing yards for the third straight season, a first for the franchise since the 1997-99 campaigns. Chicago has passed for over 3,000 net yards in six of the previous eight seasons under Turner’s direction[2]. In 2008, Turner helped oversee the development of rookie running back Matt Forte. Forte set Bears rookie records for rushing yards (1,238), yards from scrimmage (1,715) and receptions (63)[2]. The passing game was led by quarterback Kyle Orton in 2008. In 2008, Orton recorded the sixth-most passing yards in team history (2,972), fourth-most completions (272), the fifth-highest completion percentage (58.5) and 13th-highest passer rating (79.6) in 15 starts[2]. Orton’s nine starts without an interception in 2008 were tied for fourth-most in the NFL and most by a Bears quarterback since 1995. Orton also threw a team-record 205 consecutive pass attempts without an interception last season. Chicago scored 375 total points in 2008, tied for seventh-most in franchise history. In 2009, Bears acquired Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler. After throwing 19 TD passes and 25 interceptions in the first 14 games, Cutler passed for eight TDs and one pick in season´s last two games against the Vikings and Lions, giving him more TDs (27) than interceptions (26) this season. The Bears offense generated season-highs vs. Detroit with 418 total yards and 22 first downs, giving the unit 718 yards and 41 first downs in its final two games[3]. On January 5, 2010, he and several of his assistants were fired[4]. The Bears qualified for the postseason in three of Turner’s eight seasons with the team.

WOW. They really know how to selectively pick the facts here. If you wrote a grade school book report like this, the teacher would give you an “F”. The teacher would say – I don’t understand how you just write about how great you are, but then in the last 2 lines you finally mention that you were FIRED. Shouldn’t the article lead somewhere, and explain where you started, what you did, and WHY you were fired?

While I don’t have the stomach to do all of this right now some of these are howlers:

- He continually compares himself to the Bears, and not the league. Statistics aren’t self-referential; they serve to show your position relative to competitors
- As we know, Ron typically stacks up in the bottom 20% against his peers. As we consider how this bio ought to be drafted, basically other than the 2006 season, where the offense woke up for half the season (the front half, instead of the back half that mattered), Ron has sucked relative to his peers
- Some key highlights are missing. How about the game in 2009 where we didn’t get a SINGLE FIRST DOWN rushing the football? For about the first time since the Bears began keeping statistics?
- How about the blowout losses to fringe playoff teams like Cincinnati and Baltimore in 2009, when our offense was just pummeled off the field?
- How about the fact that our offensive players wilted here at Chicago and thrived elsewhere under logical offensive coordinator regimes?
- Don’t forget Ron claiming that he “fixed” Cutler with his magical horse-whisperer technique earlier in the season and then watching Cutler fall apart (until the last 2 games, WHEN IT DIDN’T MATTER)
- But let’s not just focus on the disastrous 2009. We have years and years of bonehead, predictable and ineffective play calling to choose from

This is a sad project that we will have to collectively embark upon.

According to this article from the Chicago Tribune “written” by that idiotic, grinning skull Dan Pompei

A source close to the situation said Rob Chudzinski, who interviewed with the team Thursday, will not be coming to Chicago. Chudzinski finished the season as the assistant head coach and tight ends coach of the Chargers. His contract is expiring, and it is believed the Chargers want him back. Chudzinski also could be drawing interest from other teams.

Hey here is a basic journalism tip – Dan – please ask WHY Chudzinski won’t be coming to the Bears. Is it because he has other opportunities, and pretty much ANYTHING is better than working for the Bears hopefully-soon-to-be-fired crew of slow moving Lovie and dopey (except for his trade for Cutler) Angelo? Or is it because the Bears don’t want to hire him for some reason or another.

Looks like we continue to stumble down the “let’s let Lovie’s buddie Martz show up and give it a try” route. At least there won’t be any dissension on the happy “Love Train” as they used to play at Soldier Field while the combined crew pushes us further down the drain.

It is a fact that the Chicago Bears are one of the premier franchises in the NFL, in terms of history, fan base throughout the nation, and also the fact that LA has no franchises and NYC has 2 to dilute their fan base. So a decent case could be made that the Bears are up near the top if not the top in terms of NFL impact by virtue of their decisions.

Thus it is a bit sad that we aren’t really going after any top flight offensive coordinators. We aren’t trying to “wrest away” anyone from any other team, or pull any big guys out of college.

The latest candidate to stumble through the turnstiles at Halas Hall is Chudzinski (I would hope that he gets it just for his name, if I were a late night comedian). Here is a link to a Chicago Tribune article about his upcoming interview.

Chudzinski served as the Chargers’ assistant head coach and tight ends coach last season… He was operating on a one-year contract in San Diego, which makes him a virtual coaching free agent. The Bears still had to receive permission to interview him because he is tied to the Chargers into February, however. It is believed the Chargers want him back, but it is unlikely they would offer him total control of an offense as the Bears could.

Basically this describes the heart of the matter, the Bears are talking to him because he is cheap, hungry and available. I like this a bit better:

People who know Chudzinski well refer to him as very bright, hard working and well versed in his offensive system. There is no question the 41-year-old has significant potential. Chudzinski is known for using formations and personnel groups to create mismatches.

Formations and personnel groups to create mismatches? Wow that’s news to Bears fans. You mean he just won’t run the same 5 plays, regardless if they work or not, and regardless of the capabilities of the players on the field?

If Chudzinski doesn’t work out, the Bears still could turn to Bengals quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese or former Rams head coach Mike Martz.

Yes that is our dynamic cast of characters to choose from, since other candidates have spurned us by moving quickly to other teams. Who could blame them? Since we didn’t change anything at the top and Lovie’s slow grip will still be on the team (maybe he will help in calling plays, like he did with our defense, right?), it would be a hard sell unless you were already a crony of Lovie and crew (like Martz).