| There’s a bandwagon rumbling in the Windy
City, and suddenly there are an awful lot of people who are praising Chicago Bears head
coach Dick Jauron for the job he’s done this season. Don’t count me as one of
them.
Sure, the Bears have become one of the surprises in the NFL this season, but Jauron has
pretty much Forrest Gumped his way to a 6-2 record and a tie atop the NFC Central. Chicago
has been strong thanks to a suffocating defense and an unwillingness to give up when the
chips are down, but again, Jauron isn’t the guy to credit for the Bears’
unlikely turnaround.
And he better enjoy the praise while it’s coming. Chicago faces Tampa Bay and
Minnesota on the road, has a home game with Detroit, then plays Green Bay at Lambeau Field
Dec. 9. That’s a rough schedule and one that the Bears are going to have a tough time
surviving. Jauron’s ballclub has padded its record by playing weaker teams, and it
needed miracles to knock off a pair of solid teams in Cleveland and San Francisco. The
Bears’ six-game winning streak was snapped by the Packers this past Sunday, and
Chicago was shaken by the loss.
More than anything, the loss to Green Bay showed Jauron’s weakness as a head
coach. He wanted to establish the running game, but he did so by trying to pound the ball
up the middle against a team that is fifth in the league against the run. He allowed
offensive coordinator John Shoop to run his conservative offense despite the fact the
Bears needed to shake things up a bit. He didn’t have his team prepared to take on
the Pack, and it looked like Jauron was hoping that the team would somehow pull the game
out late for the third week in a row.
Shoop has to be taken to task for what can only be described as baffling play-calling,
but it is Jauron’s responsibility to have a little chat with Shoop when the game plan
is failing miserably. Short, high-percentage passes are great on first or second down, but
calling a WR screen in 3rd-and-long situations isn’t going to get the job done
against a team like Green Bay. Jauron’s inability to shake things up on the sideline
forced the Bears to settle for four field goals and a loss to their hated rivals.
This kind of thing has been going on for weeks now, but the miraculous wins and the
rugged defense have been masking the Bears’ problems on offense. RB Anthony Thomas
has created a buzz around Chicago for his ability to make plays, but Jauron waffled on
making Thomas the starter despite the fact that James Allen, the incumbent starter, had
been wildly ineffective.
Jauron’s lack of decisive leadership makes him appear to be a weak leader, and
there’s still a good chance that it will end up costing him his job. Bears general
manager Jerry Angelo has said that he isn’t interested in the number of wins the team
chalks up this season; he’s keeping a closer eye on how the team is coached. In other
words, short of Jauron really leading the Bears to greatness, he’s likely to get a
pink slip at the end of the season.
Some members of the media — including PFW editor-in-chief Ron Pollack — have
praised Jauron’s job in turning Chicago around this season, with Ron going so far as
to name him his choice as midseason Coach of the Year. While Ron is off getting
drug-tested, it’s important to realize that the Bears could very easily be 4-4
without a pair of huge and very fortunate comebacks this season.
Certainly Jauron isn’t all whipping boy. He has led the team to a
better-than-expected record despite playing a pair of quarterbacks, Jim Miller and Shane
Matthews, who currently rank 13th and 14th in QB rating in the NFC.
He has gotten decent performances out of rookies David Terrell and Thomas. Jauron has also
allowed defensive coordinator Greg Blache the freedom to unleash hell upon opponents and
has shown time and time again that he trusts his "D" to get the job done when
the game is on the line.
But it will be Chicago’s lack of offensive production that will be its doom as the
season wears on. Playing from behind will grind on a team, and Jauron has never hinted
that he’s about to open things up. Angelo has made it clear that he doesn’t feel
a lot of loyalty to Jauron and thankfully is taking the big picture into account rather
than just being blinded by the wins.
Chicago has a lot of potential to be a strong team in the future with the personnel it
has at receiver, running back and on the defense, but Jauron isn’t the guy to lead
the Bears to the next level. He has eight games to prove me wrong, but I will be shocked
if he does. Even a playoff run might not be enough to sway me on Jauron because he simply
appears to be in over his head in the Windy City. The winning streak raised hopes and
expectations in Chicago about where the Bears might be headed, prompting some of the
patrons at Soldier Field to dust off the hallowed Super Bowl Shuffle that rang in the
championship of the 1985 team.
That’s a little much, especially when Jauron has led the Bears from mediocrity to
surprise status in three seasons. I’m not sure Chicago can be a true contender with
Jauron at the helm, and I would hold off on any "Coach of the Year" talk when it
comes to his performance this year.
Lady Luck has had a lot more to do with the rise of the Bears this season than Jauron,
and he better enjoy his day in the sun while he can. |
