Chicago Bears discipline issues are traced to the top
Much of the anger from many Bears fans is directed at head coach John Fox. This is his third year in charge and the team is still performing such sloppy, undisciplined football. Some also blame him for the injury issues, having refused to make any changes to the training staff despite a record number of losses since last year.
Sports Mockery has been told that a locker room divide is starting to form and Fox is at the center of it. This source experienced the atmosphere first-hand. What they had to say was more than little concerning.
“The lack of overall discipline drives me nuts. It’s a broad word, but it’s all encompassing. Running the right route, progressions in the passing game, blocking, tackling, etc. Every team battles injuries. Every team has got guys. Every team on any given game day has a chance to win. Discipline, man. It Starts from the top and it filters to your players.”
Tension is now brewing between the offense and defense
It’s hard to deny that this is a direct jab at Fox. He’s the man running the show and the show is going off the rails. The mental errors alone are getting too high to count. That isn’t it though. The explanation also covered how they’ve seen this sort of thing happen before with a previous team. Much of it having to do with the head coach’s bad habit of playing favorites to one side of the ball.
“There was a wall that separated the offense and defense. One was more highly coveted than the other. From what I’ve seen and experienced, it looks like it’s happening again. There has been tension between the sides.”
This is a big deal. Many times in NFL history there were teams that had a solid defense and a woeful offense. Almost always a schism developed between the two units, leading to problems in the locker room. Defensive guys feel resentful for having to play harder and longer to cover up the shortcomings of the offensive guys.
Too many times the Bears defense has been out on the field late in the game completely gassed from playing so much in previous quarters. Not only that but Fox appears to be making matters worse with his favoritism of the defense. In truth this shouldn’t be a surprise.
Bulk of Fox’s history suggests lack of offensive investment
People love to talk about Fox and his prior success in Carolina and Denver. Given these latest comments about selective favoritism, I went back and looked over the history of his teams. Since becoming a head coach in 2002, Fox has fielded a top 10 offense four times. That’s four times in 16 years. If one were to take away the years he had Peyton Manning at quarterback, it was one time in 13 years.
Conversely his teams have produced a top 10 defense a total of eight times. Now of course one could say that makes sense. Fox has a defensive background after all. Then again look back on the drafts his teams had prior to Chicago. From 2002 to 2014 with the Panthers and Broncos his teams’ first pick was 9-4 in favor of defensive players. Three of those four offensive players were taken to help service the defense too. One was an offensive tackle and the other two were running backs.
Twice his team has taken a quarterback or wide receiver with the first pick. Both times they were a disaster: Jimmy Clausen in 2010 and Kevin White in 2015. If that doesn’t scare people about what’s going on with this Bears team, nothing will.
