Marv Levy spent last season analyzing Bears games on radio and TV with former Bears Dan Jiggetts, Richard Dent, Steve McMichael and Keith Van Horne.
“I was following the Bears pretty closely. I know them pretty well,” Levy said Tuesday. “McMichael, I survived with my sanity.”
Levy also is surviving his first year as general manager of the Buffalo Bills, who come to Soldier Field on Sunday with a 2-2 record, better than expected by some.
After last season’s 5-11 tumble, 87-year-old owner Ralph Wilson went to his “youth movement” and hired the 80-year-old Levy to replace Tom Donahoe.
Levy, a Chicago native who still has a home here, hired Dick Jauron as his coach after observing Jauron work for the Bears under a general manager, Jerry Angelo, who hadn’t hired him.
In turn, Jauron hired Perry Fewell as his defensive coordinator. Fewell was Lovie Smith’s secondary coach last season and also worked with Jauron in Jacksonville. Fewell brought the Tampa Cover-2 defense to Buffalo, and it has been good enough to beat Miami on the road and Minnesota at home last week.
“We are playing pretty well and a lot of it is some spillover from the Bears,” Levy said. “Perry’s style is similar to the swarming style of the Bears, and the players have bought into it real well.”
Levy has a master’s degree from Harvard and Jauron is from Yale. To no one’s surprise, they have managed to get along quite well.
“Funny thing. When Dick put his staff together I said, `It’s your call, but I have one guy to recommend for defensive line,'” Levy said. “He said, `Gee, I already have a guy in mind.’ I said, `Who’s that?’ He said, `Bill Kollar.’ I said, `That’s the guy I was going to recommend.'”
The Bills spent their first five draft choices on defensive players: three defensive backs and two defensive tackles. Two rookie safeties, Donte Whitner and Ko Simpson, start and two rookie tackles, Kyle Williams and John McCargo, are part of the defensive line rotation.
Part of the beauty of the Cover-2 system is its simplicity.
“You can learn assignments pretty quickly and now your ability is going to hang out; you’re not all uptight about assignments,” Levy said. “It’s a defense that teaches hustle and fundamentals. It stresses more fundamentals than X’s and O’s, to tell you the truth. The players like it, buy into it and play it well.”
It’s one reason the Bears have been able to incorporate a rookie safety, Danieal Manning, as well. Two rookies at safety are a gamble in any defense, but the Bills were forced to play two when veteran Troy Vincent was hurt.
The Bills start two ex-Bears, left tackle Mike Gandy and right guard Chris Villarrial, but Villarrial is injured and Levy admits, “Our offensive line is still a work in progress.”
It points to what rapidly is becoming the Bears’ biggest matchup advantage: their defensive line against whoever is trying to block them.
“Tommie Harris has five sacks already?” Levy asked. “That’s great when you have tackles who can do that in that style of defense. The Bears’ ends and ours are tremendously mobile. Our defensive ends are not well known yet, but [Aaron] Schobel and [Chris] Kelsay and [Ryan] Denney, we rotate them. But we don’t get the same type of pressure from our interior guys that Tommie Harris is providing.”
Rotating the defensive line is imperative, especially in the Cover-2.
“If you want them to play the style of defense the Bears play, and I hope we play, if you want guys to swarm, you can’t ask a guy to run at 100-yard-dash pace for a mile,” Levy said.
Levy, who turned 81 in August, said the novelty of his age has worn off a bit but, “I still get inquiries to do a story from AARP magazine. Joe Paterno said it better. If people would stop telling him how old he was, he wouldn’t know how old he was.”
Levy’s inexperience as a general manager will be the next story if the Bills can’t return quickly to the Super Bowl-level he attained as their coach.
“It has been fun. It is vastly different from coaching,” he said. “On game day the coach makes 200 decisions and has 30 seconds to make each one. I sit up in the press box and look wise.”
With their ex-Bears players plus Jauron and Fewell, the Bills have plenty of Soldier Field experience. Jauron can tell his young safeties of when he was a rookie safety with the Lions playing his first game in Soldier Field.
It was 1973 and the Bears turned to a rookie QB, Gary Huff. Jauron intercepted three passes, running them back for a total of 167 yards, still the record for a Bears’ opponent.
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If that isn’t enough to make the Bills feel comfortable on the lakefront, Levy can tell them this: “I played a game there in 1942 in high school, so I have some experience.”
Meet the Chicago Bills
Marv Levy, general manager (right). Born in Chicago, graduated from South Shore High School, still has residence in Chicago.
Dick Jauron, head coach. Coached Bears from 1999-2003. Record 35-46. First season in Buffalo.
Perry Fewell, defensive coordinator. Coached Bears’ defensive backs in 2005. Coached Rams’ defensive backs under Lovie Smith in 2003.
Turk Schonert, quarterbacks coach. Drafted by Bears in ninth round in 1980. Credited with helping develop Bills quarterback J.P. Losman.
Charlie Coiner, tight ends coach. Assistant Bears special teams coach 2004-05. Bears’ offensive quality control coach under Jauron 2001-03.
Mike Gandy, left tackle. Bears’ third-round draft choice in 2001 by Jauron and former personnel chief Mark Hatley. Has started all 20 games since joining Bills in 2005.
Chris Villarrial, right guard. ’96 fourth-round Bears draft choice, has started 35 of 36 games for Bills since signing as a free agent. Suffered high ankle sprain last week and won’t play.
Daimon Shelton, fullback. Played for Jauron and Bears in 2001-02. Has started 27 games since signing with Bills as a free agent in 2004.
Anthony Thomas, running back. Bears’ 2nd-round pick in 2001. Joined Bills this year after he playing nine games for Dallas and New Orleans last season. Backs up Willis McGahee.
— Don Pierson
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