Lovie Smith’s first game as coach of the Bears already has caused him to glance over his shoulder at his last regular-season game as defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams.
“You would have to remind me of that,” Smith said Sunday.
The Detroit Lions are still staring him in the face, a bad memory that won’t go away until at least Sunday, after the Lions leave Soldier Field.
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Last Dec. 28 in Detroit, the Lions upset the Rams 30-20 in a game that cost the Rams home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. The Rams then lost their playoff opener in St. Louis to Carolina in overtime on a 69-yard touchdown pass, ending Smith’s three-year residence with the Rams on a definite downer.
But it was the loss to the Lions that sticks in his mind this week.
“What happened in that game was they were able to get after us pretty good,” Smith said Sunday, still upset at the thought. “Next question.”
The Rams blew a 20-10 halftime lead against a 4-11 team in a game the Rams had to win. Two turnovers by the Rams played a big role, but Smith didn’t offer that as an excuse, recalling instead the 342 yards racked up by coach Steve Mariucci’s 32nd-ranked Detroit offense.
Quarterback Joey Harrington passed for 238 yards and three touchdowns against a Rams defense that was healthy and motivated. And the Lions didn’t have last year’s No. 1 draft choice, receiver Charles Rogers, not to mention either of this year’s first-rounders, receiver Roy Williams and running back Kevin Jones.
“That was a big win for us,” Mariucci said. “We won two games against playoff teams–Green Bay and the Rams–and we have to build off of that.”
Smith and Mariucci have a history that began in 2001, when Mariucci coached the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West against the Rams and Smith in St. Louis. In five games between Mariucci’s version of the West Coast offense and Smith’s version of the cover-2 defense, including last year’s Lions game, Mariucci’s teams have averaged 25 points and 302 yards. The Rams won three of the five, thanks to a high-powered offense of their own.
“We have some familiarity with the defensive scheme they have,” Mariucci said of Smith. “How does that factor into our game against the Bears? They’ll have changes and wrinkles, completely different personnel, but Lovie’s a good coach. He’ll put a real solid defense in there.”
Smith said he already has watched last year’s Rams-Lions game a couple of times.
“We feel we know how they are going to try to attack us,” Smith said. “We have a background with Steve Mariucci, and, in general, if you look at when we put our defense together in Tampa, we had to beat the Green Bay Packers, which is all in the same [West Coast] family.”
Mariucci was an assistant under former Packers coach Mike Holmgren before Smith joined Tony Dungy’s Tampa Bay staff in 1996.
In 11 games between the Packers and the Bucs when Smith was Dungy’s linebackers coach, the Packers were 8-3, but the Bucs won two of the last three before Smith went to St. Louis, holding the Packers to 10, 15 and 17 points.
Creating turnovers is a priority of Smith’s defense. The Rams led the league in takeaways last season. But the Rams’ high-risk offense under coach Mike Martz also led the league in giveaways, which is why Smith appears to be losing hair.
Against the Lions last December, the Rams were protecting what looked like a comfortable 20-10 halftime lead when Lions defensive tackle Shaun Rogers sacked Rams quarterback Marc Bulger and forced a fumble at the St. Louis 24. Harrington hit former Rams receiver Az-Zahir Hakim on a 13-yard touchdown pass.
Detroit then forced a three-and-out, and Harrington drove his team 51 yards in eight plays and hit tight end Casey FitzSimmons on a 2-yard touchdown pass to go ahead 24-20.
The Lions then scored on two field goals after modest drives of 8 and 14 yards, the first set up by a Lions interception.
Rogers enjoyed a monster game against the Rams with his sack, forced fumble, three tackles, three quarterback knockdowns and four hurries.
It was the kind of game that helped convince Smith to make defensive tackle Tommie Harris his first pick with the Bears. Maybe Harris can help Smith erase the memory.