Stakes climb for Smith
NO TIME TO LOSE | If Bears are better than what they've shown lately, coach needs to get it out of them
SAN FRANCISCO -- Lovie Smith likes to say November goes a long way toward defining a football season, and fewer regular-season games in his tenure have more significance than tonight's meeting with the 49ers at Candlestick Park.
The Bears have had bigger games in November under Smith. Standing at 7-1 after being trounced at home by lowly Miami in 2006, they went to the Meadowlands and pummeled the Giants in what many thought would be a preview of the NFC Championship Game. The Giants didn't recover that season. The year before, the Bears withstood a huge game by Steve Smith to knock off Carolina in a battle of NFC powers in mid-November.
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
Line: 49ers by 3. Total: 43½.
Records (overall/ATS): Bears 4-4/ 4-4; 49ers 3-5/6-2.
Fast fact: Bears have allowed an average of 171 rushing yards the last three weeks.
Outlook: Bears are coming off a ''Want To Get Away?'' kind of game Sunday, so a quick turnaround on the West Coast against a struggling team might be to their liking. Niners have lost four straight after a 3-1 start despite the best efforts of former Bear Mike Singletary on the sidelines. Bears' defense can make 49ers QB Alex Smith look like Derek Anderson or Kurt Warner, but it's probably not their decision. Smith has thrown four interceptions and has been sacked eight times the last two weeks. The Bears have three sacks in their last four games. Frank Gore has picked it up since returning from an injury -- 171 yards on 28 carries over the last two weeks. Hook looms ominously at -3, but you have to think Coach Singletary will have his guys ready for his one.
Mark Potash's pick: 49ers 21, Bears 16.
Dan McNeil, WSCR-AM: 49ers. Doug Buffone, WSCR-AM: 49ers.
Neither of those games had as much riding on them personally for Smith as this one does. Smith and his schemes have come under fire as the Bears have lost three of their last four. Smith serves as his own defensive coordinator, and the Bears gave up 86 points in the losses to Arizona and Cincinnati. A team expected to compete for the NFC North title hasn't been competing, period.
''Everybody talks about the coaches,'' defensive end Alex Brown said. ''It's not the coaches -- it's us, it's us as players. We have to get off blocks, we have to make plays. We're not doing that.''
While Brown turns the subject to the players, let's take a look at that. Is the Bears' roster better than their 4-4 record? Above and beyond coaching and schemes, the reality is the NFL is a players league. Players win and lose on Sundays -- or Thursdays in this instance. General manager Jerry Angelo has made some bold moves recently, trading for quarterback Jay Cutler and more recently adding defensive end Gaines Adams.
It wasn't long ago the Bears touted themselves as a draft-drive organization, but that's not something they can claim after trading two firsts, a second and a third-round pick for Cutler and Adams. The draft has not been rewarding to the Bears in recent years. Angelo has not drafted a Pro Bowl position player since 2004, when the team selected defensive tackle Tommie Harris and cornerback Nathan Vasher. Those all-star appearances are well in their past. Both could be ex-Bears before next season. The Bears are one of 10 teams that haven't produced a Pro Bowl position player via the draft since 2005.
Angelo has drafted 43 players in the last five drafts and they count 10 of those players as starters, but none of them are elite. No one is left from the 2005 draft. Devin Hester is the best the Bears have to show from 2006, an improving wide receiver but not the true No.1 talent the team has been forecasting for years. Greg Olsen leads the Class of 2007. The hope is right tackle Chris Williams, the top pick from 2008, blossoms into a left tackle the team doesn't have to worry about, but he has had back surgery and has struggled. This last draft was thin after the Cutler trade, but wide receiver Johnny Knox has provided a boost while safety Al Afalava is the flavor of choice this season in a secondary that has a history of rotating late-round draft picks like him.
Angelo has failed to add blues -- scouts' term for elite players -- via the draft in a half-decade. The team is in the midst of another reincarnation on the offensive line via free agency and other means. Angelo has yet to draft a Pro Bowl offensive player, although Cedric Benson might change that. Too bad he's now with the Bengals.
Coaching and player evaluation go hand in hand. Smith needs to do better with what he has because the Bears are better than what they've shown recently. Good enough to challenge for a playoff spot?
If they're not, problems are going to be more widespread than coaching. They'll be without their top two picks in April, and it's a vicious cycle when you miss in the draft.