[CBFF] Angelo: 'O' due for an overhaul :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Bears

[Tom Shannon]

Angelo: 'O' due for an overhaul :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Bears
<http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/710990,CST-SPT-angelo24.artic
le> 


Angelo: 'O' due for an overhaul 


OFFSEASON WORK | Predicting '08 recovery, GM stresses 'we have to do some
thinking' 


December 24, 2007

BY BRAD <mailto:bbiggs at suntimes.com>  BIGGS bbiggs at suntimes.com 

At the end of ''Animal House,'' a red-faced Kevin Bacon stood in the mayhem
of the parade gone bad and declared, ''Remain calm! All is well!''

That was the overriding message Bears general manager Jerry Angelo delivered
Sunday when he used the team's radio broadcast as a platform to assess the
disappointing season. Speaking with play-by-play voice Jeff Joniak in a
taped pregame interview, Angelo acknowledged that the bulk of the Bears'
offseason work will be done on the offensive side of the ball, with a close
look not only at personnel, but the scheme. 

Angelo said repeatedly that the Bears will return to success. Not addressed
was the status of Lovie Smith's coaching staff or the unrestricted free
agents-to-be on the roster, including quarterback Rex Grossman.

''We're going to be a good football team,'' Angelo told WBBM-AM (780). ''We
could have been a good football team this year; there were no reasons that
we couldn't. We just didn't get it done. So at the end of the year, we'll do
everything in our power to make sure that we accurately assess what went
wrong and those things that we can correct will be corrected. We won't be
emotional with this. It's going to take a little bit of time.'' 

Angelo hasn't spoken with reporters since Halloween, leaving coaches and
players to explain the dramatic collapse by last season's NFC champions.
Angelo is expected to meet with the media sometime in the week after
Sunday's season finale against New Orleans. 

''We thought we would get ourselves into a rhythm by midpoint during the
season,'' Angelo said. ''No reason to believe we weren't going to see that
during some point in the season. We just didn't. I think [the 20-13 loss at
Minnesota] Monday night was another game that showed the ineptness of our
football team. Throughout most of the season, we just haven't been able to
play a total game.'' 

Only three of Sunday's offensive starters were drafted by Angelo and college
scouting director Greg Gabriel. While the defense entered with a worse
statistical ranking than the offense, Angelo said offense is where the
scrutiny will come. 

''That's where most of our time is going to be spent -- not all of it, but
most of it,'' he said. ''We have to do some thinking in areas of what we're
doing on offense. I've talked to Lovie about that. Once we get the season
over, obviously [coordinator] Ron [Turner] will be involved in that very
heavily as well. 

''Just see what direction we're going into, look at our players, etc., to
make sure that when we get into the offseason that we're hitting on all
cylinders. We had Greg Olson, Devin [Hester] infused in the offense; we had
[Cedric] Benson start out slow, starting to come around and he gets hurt. So
there are still some things that are unknowns. We have to get those
questions answered, and then we have to assess what we're doing, from a
scheme standpoint to a personnel standpoint, so all that meshes together.
Those types of things that you have to look at very acutely and make sure
that you do it rightly and get the thing up and going again.''