Imrem: This season, Chicago Bears coaches can't lose

Bears head coach John Fox is in an enviable position at the midway point of the NFL season.

When the Bears win, the coaching staff is credited; when the Bears lose, the players are blamed.

Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase is responsible for quarterback Jay Cutler's improvement this season; Cutler is responsible for the interception that the Chargers returned for a touchdown Monday night.

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is the reason the Bears haven't given up 100 points in any given game; his players are the reason dumb penalties enabled the Chargers to add a field goal at the end of the first half.

Overall, credit Fox for the Bears' 3 victories - including 22-19 at San Diego - and fault the players for their 5 defeats.

"Things didn't go in the first half quite like we wanted," Fox said of the Chargers' 16-7 lead. "It says a lot the way (the Bears) responded."

Of course, Fox is credited with instilling a culture that has inspired the Bears to rally down the stretch.

"You've gotta play your best in the fourth quarter," Cutler said. "That's what we've been talking about and what Coach Fox is harping on."

Never mind that the Chargers (2-7) are as bad and as injured as the Bears (3-5), maybe even worse, making the game resemble a drag race between two clown cars.

Fox and general manager Ryan Pace, each in his first season with the Bears, inherited a sorry bunch of players from predecessors Marc Trestman and Phil Emery.

If the Bears finished with an 0-16 record in 2015, Trestman and Emery would have been considered the culprits.

But the Bears won't finish winless, which means Fox won't be viewed as witless.

But does that make John Fox the right head coach at the right time for the Bears for the long run?

Not so fast.

Still too early to tell.

It's one thing to be capable of coaching a bad team up to mediocrity or a mediocre team up to good.

It's altogether different to be capable of coaching a good team to greatness or a great team to a championship.

We saw it accomplished in Chicago when Phil Jackson won six NBA titles with the Bulls and Joel Quenneville three Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks.

Fox's history says he can coach the Bears to a Super Bowl because he did so at Carolina and again at Denver.

But was Fox responsible for those successes or did he benefit from circumstances? Did his conservative nature get those teams to the Super Bowl or cost them when they arrived there?

Fox is widely respected around the NFL, but John Elway fired him in Denver after last season, so Fox is at least a bit less than universally respected.

Teams and coaches that are merely good can reach a Super Bowl. Heck, we saw the Bears and Lovie Smith do it in the 2006 season.

Winning the championship is a major leap from there because rarely does a team that isn't great win the final game of the season.

So much going forward will depend on whether Pace is a great general manager providing great players or a lesser GM providing lesser players.

We'll have to wait a year or two or five to find out.

In the meantime, John Fox will continue being credited for victories and Bears players will continue being blamed for losses.

mimrem@dailyherald.com