Mike Tice is a rather infamous name in Chicago Bears history these days. He was a solid offensive line coach who managed to fix a lot of problems the team had in 2010 and 2011. However, things went south really fast when head coach Lovie Smith made the odd decision to promote him to offensive coordinator in 2012. A position the man had never held before in his career. Asking him to replace the far more proven Mike Martz was asking a lot.
Too much as it turns out.
It became apparent almost right away that Tice suffered from a lack of imagination. His playbook was basic and became easy to diagnose for defenses. He only seemed to focus on getting the ball to the primary playmakers like Brandon Marshall and Matt Forte. While this was great for their personal stat lines, it made others in the offense bitterly resentful.
One of them being wide receiver Earl Bennett.
The former Bears standout took to ProStyle Media to talk about what playing for Tice was like that season. Suffice to say, it was underwhelming, to put it mildly.
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Every other day Coach Tice would approach me with a grin like the Grinch. Never really asked me about my feelings about the playbook, upcoming opponents or how was I doing. His first comment would be, “You know you’re my wife’s favorite player.”…
…The constant “you’re my wife’s favorite player,” and lack of being a part of the game plan had me wanting a damn trade. Listen, I don’t care how much your wife adores my skills on the field, I just wanted the damn ball man. You could have kept the small talk to yourself and let my play do the talking on the field. I’m sure after a dismal season she was no longer my fan and perhaps looking for a favorite play caller too.
Tice debacle contributed to Chicago Bears firing Smith
Under Martz in 2011, despite not having Jay Cutler for the final six games, managed to finish 24th in total offense. The next year under Tice, who had Cutler for all but one game as well as the newly arrived Marshall finished 28th. From November 11th to December 16th, the Bears managed to score more than 20 points just once in six games. The five games where they failed to were all defeats and contributed to their missing the playoffs despite finishing with a 10-6 record.
One could say Smith’s decision to replace Martz with Tice was the single-biggest contributing factor to his getting fired after the season ended. Perhaps if he’d simply kept Martz or found a more experienced offensive coordinator, this could’ve been avoided. Instead it led to a full purge of the coaching staff that ended up ushering in the Marc Trestman era. It’s not hard to understand why Bennett remains so resentful to this day.
