Tice promoted; Castro accused; playoffs open

For most teams, coaching a national punch line of an offensive line to inconsistent, if not anemic, results for two seasons might earn you unemployment.

For the Bears, it earns you a promotion.

Jay Glazer of FOX just reported that the Bears are making line coach Mike Tice their offensive coordinator, three days after Mike Martz left the organization. Tice won't, however, be entirely in charge of the offense; the Bears are putting him in charge of their running game and will pair him with a passing game coach. Glazer intimates that the Bears will commit to a more ground-based attack.

I suppose the move is defensible because of the way the Bears' last two seasons played out. Martz started each of the last two years calling typical Martz offense; the Bears struggled as Jay Cutler about got killed; the Bears forced Martz to go more conservative; they had success (at least when Caleb Hanie wasn't on the field.) Assuming they retain Matt Forte and Khalil Bell, you'd have to think they'll remain one of the NFL's better running teams going forward.

I think this is a farce. It puts more restrictions on a general manager that still hasn't been hired. That person now has to come into an environment with an unconventional coaching alignment forced upon them and has to acquire personnel that fits a run-heavy attack instead of, you know, trying to build the Bears into a 21st century offense.

While I won't deny that the Bears have been at their best when running the heck out of the ball, that doesn't mean they're incapable of passing. They are, with their personnel, just incapable of doing what Martz wanted to do. When seven-step drops and in-the-pocket rigidness were replaced with quick throws and roll outs, Cutler and the Bears were having success ... until he got hurt. They should try to build on that and turn into a modern, capable offensive team. Instead they took another step backward.

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There was more bad news this morning. The Cubs' franchise player, Starlin Castro, has been accused of sexual assault, according to CBS Chicago. I don't know what to say about the alleged incident, which happened last fall. The details are still extremely murky, and Castro hasn't been charged with a thing ... yet. I do know this is bad for him and bad for the Cubs. How bad will be made more clear when Chicago Police complete their investigation.