Dan Pompei's story on the front page of the Tribune sports section today made for some interesting reading. Pompei attempts to debunk assorted "gripes" that Bears fans have with offensive coordinator Ron Turner's playcalling.
This column is likely to make Pompei the least popular man in Chicago. Turner is hated and despised by most Bears fans, and the denizens of fireronturner.com have already expressed their outrage.
It's pretty clear that the fans are going to want Turner scapegoated if the Bears fail to meet expectations this season. I struggle to form a strong opinion about Turner, because my perception of him is jaded from his days as the head coach at Illinois. There's no doubt Turner did a terrible job during his tenure in Champaign, but being a poor head coach does not necessarily make one a poor offensive coordinator. I have to find a way to put aside my leftover hate from the Illinois days when evaluating Turner's work with the Bears, and that's not always easy.
Sometimes, I think Bears fans blame the offensive coordinator as a kneejerk reaction. It's a Pavlovian response almost. After all, this is the franchise that brought you Gary Crowton, John Shoop and Terry Shea, all of whom were terrible offensive coordinators and all of whom were worse than Turner ever will be. Still, for better or for worse, the perception in Chicago is that all Bears offensive coordinators suck no matter what. I figure people are going to want Turner gone, even if the Bears make the NFC title game.
Looking at the "gripes" that Pompei enumerates, there is only one of his points that I would definitely agree with. The gripe: Turner is too conservative and he won't open up the offense. Pompei disagrees, saying that 22 percent of the Bears completions have gone for 16 yards or more. By way of comparison, the Colts are at 18 percent, the Patriots 15 percent and the Cardinals 14 percent.
Contrary to what critics say, I think Turner has always believed in the vertical passing game. I recall Turner's very first game at Illinois in 1997 against Southern Mississippi. Illinois kicked off and its defense got a stop. USM punted and Illinois took over first-and-10 from its own 25-yard line or whatever. First play from scrimmage of his tenure, Turner calls a bomb. Illinois quarterback Mark Hoekstra cranked it up and threw it as far as he could. The pass fell incomplete. As a matter of fact, I think it was underthrown and out of bounds. But the crowd rose as one and gave a standing ovation. The crowd loved the PLAY CALL so much that they applauded an incomplete pass by the home team. I had never seen that before and I've never seen it since in all the games I've attended.
Turner always believed in taking deep shots at Illinois, especially when he had Kurt Kittner and four future NFL wide receivers on his roster in 2001. This year, I think most Bears fans don't understand that opposing defenses are concerned about quarterback Jay Cutler's big arm, and they're trying to take away the deep ball. Combine that with the Bears shoddy pass protection and you can see why Turner is picking his spots on deep passes these days.
Aside from that point, I'll defend Turner no further. If the Bears fire him at the end of the season, it won't bother me. However, I'm not going to call for his head either, because I don't believe Turner is the guy preventing the Bears from making a Super Bowl run. In fact, the Bears weak offensive line and lack of a running game - along with an aging, injury-prone defense - will prevent the Bears from winning this year. Turner will just be the guy fans target when this is all over.
Hello this is Carl from Chicago one of the "denizens" of Fireronturner.net.
We too are U of I alumni and there is no shame in being angry at Ron Turner for how he did his best to wreck the Illini football program. That should be a strike AGAINST him from the day he set foot on the job with the Bears; after all the experience was relevant in that he was embarrassing Illinois.
This Pompei article was a sad hack job in favor of Turner. Thank you for pointing that out.
I do want to scold you a bit for having such low expectations of our offense. It is true that Turner is better than Shoop or Shea, but they were truly the absolute worst. Why is it that it is OK to just not have the absolute worst offensive coordinator?
Why can't we find someone in Chicago that brings out the BEST in our team? Why do all of our offensive players flourish elsewhere?
But thanks for the shout out.
FIRE RON TURNER!