[NU Sports] If Pittsburgh wins does the "curse" get broken?

[cherron604 at aol.com]

Both Chicago papers, as well as the 2 sports talk radio stations in town, have called out Lovie, OC Ron Turner and DC Ron Rivera for various coaching misdeeds.  Calling out Ron Rivera is pretty amazing - as an ex-Bear, he falls into that class of demigods that are rarely questioned (demigod because he was a sub in the 85 super bowl - the 3 starters at LB were Mike Singletary, Otis Wilson and Wilber Marshall).  Super Bowl Bears are automatically accorded 'Divine' status.  Some of the criticisms have included:
 
- Lovie - didn't play Rex Grossman in the last regular season game (despite the fact that he had only started one game in the last 14 months).  Didn't instill a sense of purpose in his team (they looked flat).  Allowed his team to get arrogant (they talked a lot before the game).  Ironically, the '85 Bears exhibited the height of arrogance, recording 'The Super Bowl Shuffle' after the loss in the Dolphins game.  But they won the Super Bowl, so a little arrogance is forgiven...
 
- Ron Turner (OC, ex-U of I coach)  Criticized for emphasizing the passing game, this despite a run-oriented offense (Thomas Jones, 1400+ yards rushing), and an inexperienced quarterback (7 career starts over 3 seasons).
 
- Ron Rivers (DC) Criticized for single teaming Steve Smith with Peanut Tillman (burned badly) and later, rookie Chris Thomas.  The Bears did have a Pro-Bowl corner, Nathan Vasher, but they never matched him up with Smith.
 
Some even intimated that the Rams lost interest in Rivera for their head coaching job after the game.
 
The ease with which Seattle handled Steve Smith has angered the Chicago fans even more.
 
Chuck Herron   Tech '85
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Beamsley <jeffb at hilgraeve.com>
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 16:06:25 -0500
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] If Pittsburgh wins does the "curse" get broken?


Seattle played the sort of defense on Smith that the Bears should have (and
could have) played.

It reminded me of the '85 bears loss to Miami where Ditka almost came to
blows with Buddy Ryan because Ryan refused to call off the blitz and put
another defender in pass coverage.  Chicago's bid for a perfect season came
to an end as Marino's quick release ate the Bears up with short gains.  In
this year's version, Carolina took advantage of Chicago's stubbornness
regarding single coverage on Smith and he repeatedly embarrassed whomever
was hung out there with him.

Anyone read anything in the Chicago papers calling Lovie Smith out for his
poor game plan and failure to adjust?

Jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of mlinhardt at netzero.net
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 3:11 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Cc: maureen at foresitewireless.com
Subject: [NU Sports] If Pittsburgh wins does the "curse" get broken?

Bentley played, but Essex was inactive.  

If the situation continues and Pittsburgh wins does it break the streak?  

To me the person has to be on the active roster to be considered.  I don't
believe they even would travel with the team to Detroit if they were
inactive.

NFL Inactives for AFC Title Game -- Trai was inactive
http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=nfl/news/abn40
00302.htm

Defense pulls the plug on Panthers -- Lots of good Bentley quotes especially
regarding Smith http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/football/256676_hside23.html


I thought we played well in the 1st half vs. the Ill-whine-I.  You say I am
nuts?  Well we played 34 seconds of great defense each possession only to
have them hit an off-balance NBA-range 3-pointer.  We on the other hand
could not hit any easy shots.  We trapped mercilessly and stole the ball
quite a bit.  We did not get dominated on the glass like we did against PSU.
Some more balanced shooting percentages and I think we could have won.

Marc Linhardt
Tech '93 


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