Score one for keeping your cool
Smith's calm style may not be popular, but it's paying off
Whatever you're going to take from the havoc of the Bears' comeback, from their 24-23 victory over Arizona in front of the nation on ''Monday Night Football,'' I think I might have been most amazed by the least chaotic moments. Did you notice:
In the first quarter, when they announced that the replay had shown that the Bears had not, in fact, intercepted a pass, and the ball was still Arizona's, it took four seconds for Lovie Smith to prove that he wasn't a mannequin. He did it by blinking. Once.
When the officials told Smith that the Bears had punted into the end zone and that the play could not be reviewed, he grinned. When the Bears fumbled a few minutes later, Smith did his best mannequin impersonation again.
''Lovie, all the time, he never changes,'' Urlacher said. ''That's what we love about him, why we respect him. We take on his personality. Never panic.''
We have spent the past month making comparisons between these Bears and Da Bears. Did you want Smith to go into full Ditka mode? Kick, scream, pop a few veins?
''Everyone leads differently,'' Bears general manager Jerry Angelo said before the game. ''I can't define personality traits or whatever, but they bring a calm to the storm. And they always create hope.''
The test was on Smith, and the Bears continued to believe. In themselves, in him. This was never going to be easy. The Bears were never above having to work for this season. But to come back like this, when they had looked so bad for so long?
''Nobody's [free from] adversity,'' Angelo said.
Angelo was talking about Smith and his level-headedness. When Angelo went about hiring Smith, he said, the goal was to find a pure leader, someone who takes teams through the inevitable troubles.
Smith never panicked, and the team never did, either. And in the end, when Arizona's field goal was wide left, and the Bears had won, Smith swung his arms in the ''no-good'' motion and jumped and screamed, too. He had earned that.
There is something innate in Chicagoans: We like butt-kickers. Ditka, Iron Mike Keenan. Scott Skiles. After watching Dusty Baker snooze on the bench the past few years, the Cubs now have their new Leo Durocher: Lou Piniella.
The truth is, the only thing that matters is whether players respond to a coach, whether they listen and respect. The yelling only works for a few years, and then the coach is tuned out, and a calm presence needs to come in.
''Coach never lets us believe we're out of it,'' Urlacher said.
It didn't take kicking and screaming.
Smith didn't win this game, but he allowed the team to win it.
We forget that this season was going to decide success or failure of the Angelo era, and also make a strong statement about Smith.
And it is.
So before the game, I reminded him of some of the things I had criticized him for, such as not getting a decent No. 2 receiver, not bothering with a tight end, arrogantly picking a project in the draft in Danieal Manning instead of trading for a veteran. Let's see, what else? Oh yes, not bothering to add a first-rate defensive back, and instead getting only Ricky Manning Jr.
It seems that every one of those moves has worked out.
''I'm happy for us, but I'm not worried about the naysayers,'' he said. ''That's part of the territory.''
Angelo blinked. He said he stuck with Bernard Berrian as the No. 2 receiver and with tight end Desmond Clark, even though they hadn't proven anything, because it was unfair to judge them on a year behind rookie quarterback Kyle Orton.
''When it's broke, you fix it, but we have to know that,'' he said. ''We made a commitment. When you draft somebody in the third round, or sign as a free agent, the obligation is made that they be given a fair shot. You set a plan, you have to stay with it.''
That galling patience again. How un-Chicagoan.
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