Trestman, like many teachers, is misunderstood

[mac bear]

I hated teachers when I was a kid. They didn't reach me, so I blamed them.

I was the one with the issues, back then, they just didn't have a clue how to connect with me, save sports, and then labels came out, and we attach ourselves to them accordingly.

I keep hearing all this fire Trestman talk, and I think it will happen. Sadly.

We live in a world now (and professional sports franchises, and money, propagate this) of quick fixes and snap decisions. Trestman is having a huge problem now... it HAS to be in the locker room. Something happened, that everyone is 'silent' about verbally, but LOUD on in their actions. This 'thing' that happened has propelled us and fast into a laughing stock of the sports world.

Quick fix (that ironically might take a long time to fix), fire staff, clean house, hit reset. Boom. The screamers and whiners complaining that it's all a debacle (who really know fuck all) will be temporally appeased, and they'll set upon their course of blogs and posts about 'what should happen next' according to their genius and typing skills. Then, of course, when things either go according to plan, or inversely, they'll start the complaint/realism train up again, and off we go... we Bears fans have seen this film many times.

I think Emery is old school. Wants to build from within, create an atmosphere, even today, where the team wants to be Bears. You know, homegrown, proud to be here... school analogy, proud of school colours thing.

Enter the hire of Trestman. As far from Ditka, physically, and on the sideline as you can be (philosophy, not what I hear when I read and hear from Ditka on Trestman, but we've never spoken, so...). Trestman is a teacher.

And many teachers get blamed for when the players do shit. Many times it's fucking true. The teachers suck, in it for themselves, can't connect, wrong philosophy, bad class... tired, close to retirement, you name it. Plenty of reasons to hate on teachers.

BUT every now and then, there are good ones. In it for the student... er, player. Want to develop the whole person, not just the 'subject'. Consider the players as people not just numbers.

When shit hits fan in this environment, with a caring, 'father/mother' figure teacher, and then you compound that with the stresses of win now or we'll burn your shirt or tweet of your daughters or you're fired and your standard of living will be shot... well, this is what we are living now.

I think it would be a mistake. I think there does need to be a cleaning of the house, but it's got to be a cleaning of the house of those who don't buy into what Trestman and Emery are selling. Not the other fucking way around. AND it subsequently may take a little while.

Two years ago, Trestman AND Cutler said it'll take three years to learn the offensive system. Three. What they failed to tell us, and why the fuck to they need to, is that year two MIGHT suck.

Welcome to year two.

As for the D, well, that's a whole other text. Tucker may be that teacher I hated... but I don't know him.

 

[HeHateMe]

While I can appreciate your desire to romanticize this situation, I'd hope it is purely for a creative writing exercise.

There are plenty of models for winning out there, both short term and long. This one is certainly novel, but not winning.

Trestman might be a teacher, but he is no philosopher king. His book was inspiring, but the application of his coaching modality here has resulted in failure, one that is of historic proportions.


This is sports entertainment business, and what fans are getting from the bears right now is none of those three, unless you find making a mockery of the sport and the business entertaining.

 

[airtime143]

The kids in Trestmans class are running up and down the hall screaming
One of his kids is trying to bribe another kid with his chocolate milk as incentive to fight by the monkey bars, and he even scoffed when the principal told him to quit being dumb.
Another one of his kids ditched a study session to open a lemonade stand.

Trestman was supposed to be someone who could get the wolfpack reading group up to the Tiger reading group level, but they seem to have backslid in to the bunny group instead.

Meanwhile, his classroom assistant has gotten the math group... which used to know that 2+2=4... to fall completely apart and they are so bad at math they have answered "blue" when asked what 1+1 is.

Sure- Maybe Trestman is a good, caring teacher with great intentions trying to get his students to clean their cubby holes and not run with scissors.... But maybe there is a reason why a teacher certified in K-6 shouldn't apply that skillset to a college prep calculus class.

 

[PolarBear]

You might be right. I actually like Trestman and Emery. I think they have the right mindset and plan but have just failed to execute.

I will start with Trestman and the offense. The guy seems very intelligent, he understands how to build an offense, how to run it and he is able to draw up some really creative and imaginative plays that make you go "wow". Emery has given him the tools offensively with two stud receivers and a solid TE. Forte has been one of the best since he entered the league. Emery brought in the necessary talent to build a formidable offensive line. I think everyone on offense bought into the system, we heard all the talk about how this offense was going to be big time this year all throughout pre-season, the Cutler MVP talks and that we had the best WR duo in football. They all thought that surrounding the very physically gifted Jay Cutler with arguably the best weapons in all of football and an offensive mastermind/QB guru that it would help him decrease TO's and boneheaded plays. In accordance with your analogy, it's like taking that rebellious, trouble making kid and putting him in a class room with a bunch of straight A students and hoping that it will help him improve his grades and get his head right when really, all he does is bring down the rest of the class. It's not that Jay isn't a fit for this system, it's now clear that Jay Cutler is just not a quality starting QB in the NFL. In the end, Jay Cutler will hurt you more than he will help you. He is tied with Blake freakin Bortles for most TO's in the league and he has 10x the talent around him and has been in this league longer. There was no more excuses left for Jay Cutler this season and he has shown that no matter what situation he is in, he will never win anything substantial in this league no matter how much talent you put around him.

But this collapse isn't all about Cutler. The defense has been horrendous. There are a couple reasons for this

1. Talent - Due to Jerry Angelo's inability to acquire any future, defensive playmakers to eventually take over for the likes of the aging Urlacher, Peppers, Briggs and Tillman, Phil Emery was put in a hole from the beginning with this defense. Pretty hard to fill those spots when the rest of the cupboard is bare. Not one future playmaker waiting in the wings because Angelo spent years trying to put together an offense that could match the defense and he failed miserably.

Coaching- Fired Lovie Smith, the players coach. None of the vets wanted to see him leave and were and obviously still are bitter about having to say good bye to Lovie, Marinelli and those guys. Than Trestman comes in, an offensive mind to be HC and we go and hire Mel Tucker. The Bears go from Lovie Smith and Rod Marinelli to Mel Tucker. What do you think the reaction from the veteran defensive players under Lovie was going to be? That's like having your hot English teacher be replaced by a 75 year old blind dude. You can tell Briggs's head and heart hasn't been with this team since Lovie left and he seems like he is a bit of a cancer really, Tillman has been injured but even he wasn't quite the same. Peppers underachieved. Absolutely no faith in the coaching from the veterans on this team, the players who are supposed to be the leaders.

Injuries - So many injuries to players on defense both this year and last. It's a part of the game and the Bears should have a next man up type thinking but when your trying to rebuild a part of your team that was already thin, injuries don't help.

The final reason for the collapse of the Chicago Bears, the loss of Dave Toub. Honestly, DeCammillis has been just as bad as Mel Tucker. I have never seen such horrible special teams play from the Bears. A huge strength went to being a huge weakness for this team.

I am actually not a huge Trestman hater and I am definitely not an Emery hater. I think Emery has done a good job and pretty much everyone on the board thought so too before this season. Now everyone wants to fire him because he is the guy who hired all these coaches. Emery put together a very talented roster but due to numerous factors I mentioned throughout this article, this team hasn't gotten it done.

Cutler, Tucker and DeCammillis are the guys who need to go now. I am willing to wait and see on Emery and Trestman but wouldn't be appalled if Trestman was let go. I would be concerned if we let Emery go though. I think he can be a quality GM.

 

[Bearly]

Here's the problem. We heard all about how long it takes to implement this O last year. We were willing to wait and see, especially after the stats from last year. We expected a to see a rhythm and more consistency develop. Instead, the O is stagnant and D's already have us figured out. OK, so implement more or different aspects of that huge playbook. Where the fuck is it, other than a few tricky play calls and setups that don't work often enough. Alignments? BFD. Where are the subtle adjustments to attack D's tendencies instead of them knowing all of ours. There is a normalcy to teams catching up to what you're doing after the first time through but you adjust back. We could have all lived with a couple games where it's obvious we're not fooling anybody but you gotta change up again to compete and it's not there. Oh, and the D is worse, even considering the personnel differences.

For me, Trestman and Tucker go. Don't know what Trestman's issue is but it's clearly not working. Tucker is easy enough to dismiss. Hard to know about Kromer and the D assistants but elevating or allowing them to do their actual jobs (Kromer) can't be worse than what's happening now. I give Emery another round as I think he's a solid foundation if he hits on his next HC.

 

[Alterego]

I had many teachers that knew their subject matter better than anyone else around. Problem was they lacked the talent to translate the information to the student thus making it a horrible class. Trestman seems to be outthinking/overthinking everything instead of making things simpler and easier to understand. Hence the attempted field goal on 3rd down last year.

 

[Warden of the Northeast]

Trestman is like a Philadelphia school teacher, he has no control over his classroom and he allows the inmates to run the asylum.

 

[DaaBears]

A thread of 2000 word essays.

 

[iueyedoc]

I was on board with Trestman when the offense was improving, but there are some disturbing things have to be considered.

1) The offensive play calling is becoming predictable in a Trestman sense. In the past it was run 2 yrds right, run 2 yards left, throw an incomplete pass, punt. Now it's throw long to a double covered WR for a jump ball, jet sweep for no gain, drop back and survey the field for 5 seconds before shockingly being sacked (maybe strip sacked turn over), punt.

2)That Mr Rogers thing only works if your winning. Sure build the man, but if the man sucks, kick him to the curb. There are guys on the team that want to win desperately, and when they continue to trot out inferior talent (Shea) and loafs (Lance), any guys that are willing to go to war for you eventually give up.
There is a time to be Phil Jackson and a time to be frothing Bill Cohwer/locker punching Ditka. Right now he needs to be more the later

3)Revisiting the BBQ vacation and to a lesser extent, the BM Inside the NFL thing, those seem like canaries in the coal mine now. BM at least is going hard still. When Briggs asked for a day off during week 1 prep with no explanation, none was required, and he ended up slopping down a few racks of ribs in Cali, could any worse message be sent by the team about responsibilities or by Briggs about his dedication?

 

[Packer Fan]

I had many teachers that knew their subject matter better than anyone else around. Problem was they lacked the talent to translate the information to the student thus making it a horrible class. Trestman seems to be outthinking/overthinking everything instead of making things simpler and easier to understand. Hence the attempted field goal on 3rd down last year.

2nd down by the way.


Trestman is either stupid or a flat out liar. His probability explanation for not using a timeout against the Ravens last year proves this. He is either just plain stupid when it comes to probability or he thinks he is so god damn smart that he can make up bullshit and people will believe him.

I wouldn't want him teaching me.

 

[Spartan]

What kind of silly nonsense is all this? Who knows arrest an enough to say if he's misunderstood or not? Don't make it harder than it is? He's predictable and a lousy motivator and as much as Lovie knew nothing about offense, he knows nothing about defense.

 

[Alterego]

2nd down by the way
.


Trestman is either stupid or a flat out liar. His probability explanation for not using a timeout against the Ravens last year proves this. He is either just plain stupid when it comes to probability or he thinks he is so god damn smart that he can make up bullshit and people will believe him.

I wouldn't want him teaching me.

ouch, I forgot. way to rub salt in the wound

 

[Packer Fan]

What kind of silly nonsense is all this? Who knows arrest an enough to say if he's misunderstood or not? Don't make it harder than it is? He's predictable and a lousy motivator and as much as Lovie knew nothing about offense, he knows nothing about defense.

How do you plan on offense if you know nothing about defense or vice versa?

 

[Spartan]

How do you plan on offense if you know nothing about defense or vice versa?

Apparently, not at all well.

 

[Broc]

1) The offensive play calling is becoming predictable in a Trestman sense. In the past it was run 2 yrds right, run 2 yards left, throw an incomplete pass, punt. Now it's throw long to a double covered WR for a jump ball, jet sweep for no gain, drop back and survey the field for 5 seconds before shockingly being sacked (maybe strip sacked turn over), punt.

Um you blame the "play calling" but 2 of the 3 examples you cite are due to QB issues not the play calls.

I'll say it again, I fail to see how Trestman's offensive system and play calls are to blame for Cutler choosing to throw a jump ball to a double covered WR or being indecisive with his reads and holding the ball to long and to low and getting stripped/sacked. Trestman's offense and play calls work just fine when they're being run correctly and the QB isn't making Special person decisions both at the line and during his reads.

I highly doubt Trestman is coaching Cutler to make these Special person decisions with the football and is probably just as pissed as any one of us when he is watching the film and see's how badly Cutler is butchering his offense. Unfortunately Clauson is worthless so it's not like he has any better options and with the money they're paying Cutler he's pretty much stuck riding him out until he either gets injured or they draft someone who's better and can beat him out.

Personally I think it's not only dumb but completely short sighted to throw Trestman under the bus for the failures of Jay Cutler this season and his inability to run the offense effectively. We FINALLY have a legit offensive mind in the building and people want to run him out the door already because they're impatient children that want instant gratification and refuse to place obvious execution issues at the feet of the players and instead want to scapegoat the coach as if swapping in a new coach will magically solve Jay Cutler's issues.

The answer is upgrading the QB position, not canning the coach and bringing in yet another new coach and system expecting different results. We've tried that with Cutler enough already. How many coaches do we need to sacrifice at the altar of Jay before we give it up and just admit he's not the answer. I was willing to give him this season as a last shot with a legit coach, and playmakers all around him but he's just not getting it done. Draft Hundley or whoever and I don't give a shit. Lovie was allowed to burn thru a billion different OC's and DC's so I don't see why Trestman can't be allowed another chance with a legit DC and QB who's are not fucking idiots.

 

[DaaBears]

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

 

[Bearly]

I was on board with Trestman when the offense was improving, but there are some disturbing things have to be considered.

1) The offensive play calling is becoming predictable in a Trestman sense. In the past it was run 2 yrds right, run 2 yards left, throw an incomplete pass, punt. Now it's throw long to a double covered WR for a jump ball, jet sweep for no gain, drop back and survey the field for 5 seconds before shockingly being sacked (maybe strip sacked turn over), punt.

2)That Mr Rogers thing only works if your winning. Sure build the man, but if the man sucks, kick him to the curb. There are guys on the team that want to win desperately, and when they continue to trot out inferior talent (Shea) and loafs (Lance), any guys that are willing to go to war for you eventually give up.
There is a time to be Phil Jackson and a time to be frothing Bill Cohwer/locker punching Ditka. Right now he needs to be more the later

3)Revisiting the BBQ vacation and to a lesser extent, the BM Inside the NFL thing, those seem like canaries in the coal mine now. BM at least is going hard still. When Briggs asked for a day off during week 1 prep with no explanation, none was required, and he ended up slopping down a few racks of ribs in Cali, could any worse message be sent by the team about responsibilities or by Briggs about his dedication?

Speaking of 5 sec. Do we ever snap the ball with more than 5 sec left on the play clock so the D can Tee it up?

 

[Angry Boomer]

Speaking of 5 sec. Do we ever snap the ball with more than 5 sec left on the play clock so the D can Tee it up?

Amazing we dont get more "delay" penalties..Its always down to the last second

Bears break the huddle like they are going for a root canal

 

[Desperado34]

Dan Bernstein explained it best yesterday . As hilarious and outlandish it was, his point of Marc Trestman was spot on.

There is that character from Aliens who is the general, in charge of a bunch of rugged mean special forces fighters. The problem is the general is a suit. A geek. Doesn't know what to do when the fire opens, but knows all about the strategic portion.

But when shit hits the fan. The dude got flustered "umm eek ohh no the flank was supposed right left etc etc" the.n boom. Everyone dies.

 

[Foul Phil]

Um you blame the "play calling" but 2 of the 3 examples you cite are due to QB issues not the play calls.

I'll say it again, I fail to see how Trestman's offensive system and play calls are to blame for Cutler choosing to throw a jump ball to a double covered WR or being indecisive with his reads and holding the ball to long and to low and getting stripped/sacked. Trestman's offense and play calls work just fine when they're being run correctly and the QB isn't making Special person decisions both at the line and during his reads.

I highly doubt Trestman is coaching Cutler to make these Special person decisions with the football and is probably just as pissed as any one of us when he is watching the film and see's how badly Cutler is butchering his offense. Unfortunately Clauson is worthless so it's not like he has any better options and with the money they're paying Cutler he's pretty much stuck riding him out until he either gets injured or they draft someone who's better and can beat him out.

Personally I think it's not only dumb but completely short sighted to throw Trestman under the bus for the failures of Jay Cutler this season and his inability to run the offense effectively. We FINALLY have a legit offensive mind in the building and people want to run him out the door already because they're impatient children that want instant gratification and refuse to place obvious execution issues at the feet of the players and instead want to scapegoat the coach as if swapping in a new coach will magically solve Jay Cutler's issues.

The answer is upgrading the QB position, not canning the coach and bringing in yet another new coach and system expecting different results. We've tried that with Cutler enough already. How many coaches do we need to sacrifice at the altar of Jay before we give it up and just admit he's not the answer. I was willing to give him this season as a last shot with a legit coach, and playmakers all around him but he's just not getting it done. Draft Hundley or whoever and I don't give a shit. Lovie was allowed to burn thru a billion different OC's and DC's so I don't see why Trestman can't be allowed another chance with a legit DC and QB who's are not fucking idiots.

I agree with this.

There have been too many plays that you can look back on that Cutler misses the open man and instead throws to the player being double or some times triple covered by opposing defense. And what about during the press conferences when Trestman is asked about the running game and why the Bears are not running it more, his response has been that they are calling run plays and that Jay is opting out of them.