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Marc Trestman: Should The Chicago Bears HC Be On The Hot Seat?

By Jordan Campbell

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Sep 22, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Chicago Bears head coach Marc Trestman before the game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

As Laurence Holmes put it on Sunday evening on 670 The Score, the Chicago Bears are a poorly coached, undisciplined team.

That statement alone is enough to put Chicago Bears head coach Marc Trestman on the hot seat.

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    • Earlier this week, before the Bears’ collapse against the Carolina Panthers, there was an article ran by Steven Rosenbloom in the Chicago Tribune. Rosenbloom’s article featured a picture of Bears’ general manager Phil Emery and head coach Marc Trestman at a podium with a caption that suggested someone should be fired if the Bears lost to the Panthers.

    The Bears lost to the Panthers, and as hard as it is to believe, Rosenbloom may be right.

    But, the question becomes who would the Bears fire first; Emery or Trestman?

    It seems entirely too premature for the Bears to fire Emery. General managers typically have a long shelf life with an organization. Emery is currently in his third year as the Bears’ general manager. In those three years, Emery focused on improving the Bears’ offense, but in the process of that, the defense suffered. This past off-season, Emery began working to improve the defense and there has been an uptick in the defensive production this season.

    Throughout his tenure as Bears’ general manager, Emery has made one coaching change. That change was firing Lovie Smith after the 2012 season and hiring Marc Trestman to be the team’s new head coach. A second head coaching change may be in the future for Emery and the Bears if the team continues on their disappointing path this season.

    The first year of Trestman, 2013, was fun and different. The Bears finished the 2013 season with a record of 8-8 but were one win away from winning the NFC North division. With a .500 finish in Trestman’s first year as a head coach, there was optimism that the Bears would be a legitimate playoff contender in 2014. After the additions of Lamarr Houston and Jared Allen, that optimism turned into expectations. With those inflated expectations, Trestman entered his second season as a head coach in the NFL with the goal of making the Bears a disciplined football team.

    Five games through the 2014 NFL regular season and Trestman is failing at his objectives.

    Discipline? Entering play on Sunday, the Bears were among the 10 most penalized teams in the NFL this season. The Bears had a total of 39 penalties entering play on Sunday and that number will climb drastically as the team was penalized 10 more times on Sunday in their loss to the Panthers.

    The Bears loss to the Panthers follows a dangerous pattern in the Trestman regime. Under Trestman, when the team loses, more times than not the team is beating themselves. That was the case on Sunday when the Bears had two fourth quarter turnovers against the Panthers. That was the case in the Bears’ Week 1 loss to the Buffalo Bills when quarterback Jay Cutler had a late fourth quarter interception. That was the case last season in Minnesota when Trestman attempted to win the game on an unnecessary second-down field goal attempt.

    Over-reacting? That could have been the adjective used after the Bears loss to the Bills. But after Sunday, the signs point to the Bears being a team that is poorly coached and undisciplined.

    For that, the blame falls on Trestman. That is also the reason why Trestman may find himself on the hot seat if the Bears continue their disappointing pattern.

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