Is This Lovie?

I'm not a huge Lovie Smith fan. If I had to choose a side, however, I'd probably say that I'm for him as a coach. I mean, I'm not regularly calling for his head in this space, like I would be if Dave Wannstedt were still in charge. I honestly think the Bears could do a lot worse.

But the Bears are not a well-coached team.

That was overwhelmingly evident during last week's game. A well-coached team should be at its best coming off a bye week. The Bears, well...

Against the Falcons, the Bears made so many mistakes that I'm wondering if they spent the entire bye week pulling bongs, as I would have done when I was in my 20s, like most of the Bears are. They were absolutely awful. Here are some of the moments when the team was clearly lacking focus:

1. Burning a timeout on their opening possession. THEIR OPENING POSSESSION. Shouldn't they be ready to run their first dozen plays, seeing as how they had two weeks to prepare? That's more than a day per play.

2. Said possession ended on an ill-advised third-down pass by Jay Cutler deep in Atlanta territory, costing the Bears a sure three points.

3. On Roddy White's 40-yard TD reception that tied the game at 7, the Bears had two guys covering three receivers on the right side of the offensive formation. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is rarely a successful defensive tactic. This was also one of several plays when the Bears were still lining up at the snap of the football. In the Bears defense, Atlanta went to the no-huddle, a move never before seen in the annals of football history.

4. Alex Brown being offsides twice in the first half. Incidentally, that's the same number of tackles he had in the game.

5. Allowing Tony Gonzalez to get loose in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. On third down. With nine seconds left in the first half. Sure, the guy has the most TD receptions in NFL history among tight ends, but clearly he's not worthy of any defensive attention on a do-or-die red-zone play. Between allowing a TD here when they should have been able to limit the Falcons to a field goal and the Cutler pick, that's a 7-point swing.

6. Getting a holding penalty on the second-half kickoff. I know penalties are common on kick returns, but c'mon. After a desultory first half, you would think a good halftime reaming would have led to flawless execution for at least one play. Nope.

7. Zack Bowman intercepts a Matt Ryan pass, and promptly fumbles. Luckily, Danieal Manning recovers. On the bright side, other than the interception, Bowman fumbling was his only impact play so far this year.

8. The very next play after fumbling at the goalline, Matt Forte coughs it up again, this time losing possession. I understand fumbling once, but the second? After costing the Bears a minimum of 3 points and possibly 7, he should have been benched for the following drive. He wasn't.

9. After the (second) Forte fumble, the Falcons drive from their own 2 to the Chicago 36 and face a 4th-and-4. The smart play for Atlanta would have been to go for it, but mercifully they play it safe -- as most wuss NFL coaches would -- and punt, giving the Bears possession still trailing by just a score. But wait! 12 men on the field. Falcons retain possession. 12 men on the field on a special teams play is totally unacceptable. This isn't one of those 12 men on the field because a guy was running to the sidelines and couldn't get off in time. Oh no. This was just 12 guys lined up for the snap. It is the return man's job to count the players on the field. Apparently, counting, like being a No. 1 receiver, is yet another job for which Devin Hester is ill-suited.

10. Nathan Vasher atones for Hester's mistake by intercepting Ryan on the very next play. But like Bowman, Vasher fumbles the ball away. This time, the refs bail him out by calling him down by contact, even though replays showed he was not. I believe Vasher had replaced Bowman at this point. This is like getting syphilis as a cure for chlamydia.

11. After Cutler finds Greg Olsen for the game-tying touchdown with about six minutes left, the Bears special teams allow Eric Weems to return the ensuing kickoff 63 yards, basically putting the Falcons in field goal range. Atlanta capitalizes on the stellar field position, and actually score a TD to go up 21-14. The Bears have had very good special teams over the last several seasons, but this game was not coach Dave Toub's finest hour.

12. On the Bears last-ditch effort to tie the game, Cutler leads a nice drive and the Bears get a first down at the Atlanta 14. On 2nd-and-10, Frank Omiyale gets a false start penalty. I don't really blame Omiyale; I'm sure he just assumed the refs would be giving him a head start; you know, so that he'd at least have a fraction of a chance of actually blocking somebody.

13. On the very next snap, Earl Bennett gets called for offensive pass interference on a pick play. This was awful execution in that Bennett basically just ran into the man as if he were blocking, instead of selling it that he was actually running a pattern. For the love of God, someone please explain to me why this guy is still getting snaps at the expense of Johnny Knox. Oh yes, his amazing rapport with Cutler. Which thus far has led to zero touchdowns.

14. After nearly overcoming a 3rd-and-25 with a 24-yard Cutler-to-Bennett connection -- there's that unparalleled connection the two have! -- on 4th-and-1 from the Atlanta 5, Orlando Pace forgets the count and jumps early. I couldn't think of a more appropriate finish, even though the final play was actually an incompletion to Desmond Clark. But by that point, I had no doubt in my mind that the Bears would fail to convert.

And that's about it. I know what you're thinking: Gee, only 14? Just imagine how many there'd be if Lovie weren't a decent coach.

But while emphasis on execution isn't among them, Lovie does do some things well. His teams are generally ready to play; the Bears have rarely been blown out during his tenure. The Bears also play very hard, and I think that stems from the players' real affection for him, which is critical for a coach with Smith's tactical limitations. While a truly great coach -- think Bill Parcells -- can have a team both hate him and thrive, for the merely so-so ones, being well-liked is crucial. And Lovie is 48-37 (.565 winning percentage) as Bears coach, including a 43-26 (.623) mark over the last five years. That's pretty good.

Having said that, this Bears' season, as my friend Jeff pointed out, is shaping up a lot like last year's -- they're in every game, never really taking control against teams they should dominate, and doing just enough to lose down the stretch in a handful of winnable games. And if the Bears miss the playoffs for a third straight season, Lovie will be on a seriously hot seat. As well he should be.

But until then, I'll still hold out hope that with the most talented QB the Bears have ever had, Lovie will do a good enough job to get them 10 or so wins. This week in Cincinnati would be a good time to justify my faith.