Imrem: No love left for Lovie Smith
Like Sunday, when the Bears beat Lovie Smith's Buccaneers 26-21 in Tampa.
“I thought we'd play a lot better than that today,” Smith said.
The Bucs played poorly enough to stretch their losing streak to three games, end the Bears' losing streak at three and leave each team with a 6-9 record.
The Bears outplayed the Buccaneers nearly the entire game — and dare we say out-coached them — making it only a matter of time before they prevailed.
Most importantly, the Bears controlled both lines of scrimmage, enabling quarterback Jay Cutler and three running backs to have a productive afternoon.
“I liked our toughness,” Bears' head coach John Fox said.
Smith couldn't have liked the Buccaneers' softness. They committed 3 turnovers to none for the Bears and looked as inferior as the Bears did at Minnesota last week.
Back to the original premise: It was fine with me if former Chicago baseball managers like Jeff Torborg, Gene Lamont, Jim Riggleman and Dusty Baker moved on to have success elsewhere.
Go get ‘em, Ozzie Guillen, when you get another chance.
If Tom Thibodeau wins an NBA title with another team before Fred Hoiberg does with the Bulls, no hard feelings.
But did anyone in Chicago want Dave Wannstedt to win a Super Bowl in Miami, or Dick Jauron in Buffalo, or even Mike Ditka in New Orleans?
I certainly don't want Lovie Smith to win one in Tampa.
The stoic sideline demeanor was a chilling memory on this day, along with the Tampa 2 defense and the Bucs' struggling offense.
Thank goodness I didn't hear Smith say “disappointing loss” to open his postgame media session.
Man, that stuff got so old during Smith's tenure as Bears' coach.
OK, so it's well-documented that I never was a fan of Smith's style and systems. Still not. Likely never will be.
Now Smith belongs to the Buccaneers, or as his critics might put it, now he's their problem.
Smith's hiring was welcome in Tampa, where he had been a valued assistant coach in the 1990s.
Yet in October, the Bucs lost at Washington in ignominious fashion and a Tampa Tribune columnist was certain that game was the beginning of the end for Smith.
Never mind that this is just Smith's second season as head coach in Tampa … it already was time for a change.
The second paragraph read, “When they close the book on Lovie Smith's return, and they will, and they should, this (game) will be written in blood.”
Later, this proclamation: “And so begins Lovie's long farewell.”
If only those folks down there could imagine how long.
When Bucs' fans and the Tampa Bay media think they're nearly done with him, they'll find out that Lovie Smith is a difficult coach to be done with.
Smith not only had nine years with the Bears, he had nine lives. Every time it looked like he was finished, his team did something well enough to secure his position for a while longer.
The Tampa newspaper column in question predicted the Bucs wouldn't reach .500 again. But in typical Smith survival mode, they did it twice before their current losing streak.
Anyway, congratulations and thanks to John Fox for taking down Lovie Smith.
Enjoy it, coach, until you're an ex-Bears coach and the sentiment toward you reverses field.