Lovie accepts blame for lack of leadership
It was a different scene when Bears coach Lovie Smith rolled into the Halas Hall media room Monday.
The normally proud and defiant Smith was conciliatory and humbled a day after his team was blasted 41-21 by the Arizona Cardinals at Soldier Field, unable to play much defense for the second time in three weeks. Having lost three of their last four games, the Bears (4-4) are in a position where soon it will be too late to kick into gear in 2009. Seven NFC teams have more victories, and only four have allowed more points.
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
In his longest news conference in some time, Smith was thoughtful with his comments, perhaps because he was stripped bare of his usual conventions. He doesn't take well to criticism of his schemes and players, but he was understanding of the questions he faced. He took the blame, saying ''it always starts with me,'' and he didn't run from the latest issue surrounding defensive tackle Tommie Harris.
Asked if he was angry with the situation, Smith stayed in control, as usual.
''I'm not happy with it,'' he said. ''What do you think? Do you think I'm happy in this situation right now, happy with that game? You were there [Sunday]. So to confirm what you were thinking, no, I'm not.''
No one was going to get Smith's goat, not even when the conversation turned to a potential leadership void. Quarterback Jay Cutler was asked Sunday if there was a leadership issue with the team, and he replied, ''I don't know. We'll see.''
''Well, we lost, and there wasn't a whole lot of leadership,'' Smith said. ''Leadership starts with me. Whoever you talk with, they can lead by doing their job. When people look for leaders to step up, do your job and you become a leader instantly, and that's what we need. That's what I talked to the entire football team about today, doing our job. The only way you get out of this hole is to do our job.''
Middle linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer was a little dismayed by the doomsday reaction to the loss, but he acknowledged it was difficult coming two weeks after the 45-10 demolition in Cincinnati.
''I don't think there's any easy answers, and a lot of things that people are reading today from players probably sound like a broken record from the Cincinnati game,'' Hillenmeyer said. ''But we know what we're capable of. Lance [Briggs] stood up in the locker room after the game and pointed out that the most important thing is that you've got to believe that you're going to win out there.
''I think the biggest difference regardless of X's and O's and missed tackles and whatever else is that when we played Cleveland, we went into that game knowing we were going to win. We went into that game with a confidence and a swagger and an attitude. Regardless of who your opponent is, if you go into a game with that mentality, then better things are going to happen.''
The Bears spent a good portion of the day explaining why they believe they're better than a .500 team and saying they're excited to return to work so quickly with a game Thursday night at the San Francisco 49ers (3-5), who've lost four in a row.
But much of what happened Sunday remains unexplained. The Cardinals scored on their first six possessions for the first time since the AFL-NFL merger two weeks after the Bengals scored on their first seven possessions. The Cardinals scored touchdowns on their first four possessions for the first time since 1980. After not allowing a quarterback to throw five touchdown passes in 14 seasons, the Bears have done so twice in three weeks.
Most irksome, though, was a lousy run defense. The Cardinals entered averaging 64.9 yards per game, and Tim Hightower and Beanie Wells eclipsed that in a 182-yard game.
''How would I explain that?'' Smith said. ''Again, after a day like [Sunday], I can't give you a lot of reasons why it happened. It happened. We've played the run fairly well most of the year. We're sound in our gaps, things like that. We missed tackles. If you want an answer: We missed tackles. There were a couple of gaps we were out of.
''We can talk about all the different things we're going to do to make it right,'' Smith said. ''It's on us going into this game to see exactly where we are.''