Somebody must be held accountable

Sometimes you wish the shouting around Lake Forest would be deafening.

You know, between Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith.

Monday was one of those days after the Vikings whipped the Bears 34-14 the night before.

Sports are blame games. Fans have to have somebody to blame. The media have to have somebody to blame. Somebody - must - be - blamed.

It would be comforting to know that behind Halas Hall's closed doors somebody is blaming somebody in no uncertain terms.

The two obvious candidates are Angelo the general manager and Smith the head coach.

"You have to get more out of the players I gave you!" the GM might shout.

"The players you gave me aren't good enough to give more!" the head coach might shout back.

This won't happen, however, at least not loudly enough that the public could listen in.

The blame game is so much simpler on the college level. The way Bill Parcells would put it, "The same guy who bought the groceries cooked up this mess."

Like, Charlie Weis clearly is responsible for Notre Dame's 9-15 record over the past two seasons.

Fire the bum!

Ah, but on the Bears and most NFL teams the monster has two heads.

Fire the bums!

No, that isn't going to happen either. The ownership isn't going to eat two contracts. Heck, it won't even eat one.

Nor should the McCaskeys, probably, though it sure is tempting to want to blame the GM, the coach or both with a vengeance.

More important than blame is accountability. It's difficult to correct a problem without determining who's responsible for the problem.

There must be a reason the Bears went to Green Bay and lost by 34 points for the Packers' only victory in five weeks. And there must be a reason the Bears went to Minnesota and lost by 20 points.

Either the Bears' personnel isn't good enough (the general manager's fault) or the players aren't performing to their potential (the head coach's fault).

The Bears' overall record is 6-6. If they overachieved to get there, blame the GM for not providing more talent. If they underachieved, blame the head coach for not getting the most out of the talent.

Or, again, maybe if you analyze the failures by unit then both are at fault.

I mean, it's possible that Angelo didn't give Smith offensive players good enough for the Bears to score more.

It's also possible that Angelo gave Smith defensive players who shouldn't be allowing opponents to score so much.

If both those theories are valid, the coach should be upset with the GM, the GM should be upset with the coach, and Bears fans should be upset with both.

Perhaps you're waiting to hear whom I blame.

Well, I tend to blame Smith for everything because his demeanor, and by extension the demeanor of his team, drives me nuts.

Angelo was my choice for general manager way back when the Bears hired him, so I rarely blame him for anything.

To be honest, though, all I know for sure is the Bears weren't as good as they needed to be in two critical division games, and somebody at Halas Hall better be holding somebody accountable.

Let the shouting begin.