30 Day Challenge: The Coach Who Got Away From the Chicago Bears

Each day in the month of June, we’ll roll out a fresh topic to get Chicago Bears fans thinking. Be sure to chime in with your answer in the comments so we can all get to know our WCG members a bit better.

This one may be one of the biggest “what if’s” in Chicago Bears history, so let’s set the table.

2012, the Bears finished 10-6, and unfortunately miss the playoffs. Despite an 81-63 career record (including a trip to the Super Bowl) with the Bears, a mark making him the third winningest head coach in Bears history, the Bears fired Lovie Smith following the conclusion of the 2012 season.

The Bears wanted to modernize their offense, and while Lovie’s defense was without question his strength, his offense only finished in the top 10 once in his 9 years in Chicago.

Enter Bruce Arians

The Bears interviewed 13 candidates for their head coach vacancy. Among them was Bruce Arians, who was fresh off winning NFL Coach of the Year, leading the Colts to a 9-3 record in the stead of Chuck Pagano, who took an extended leave of absence to undergo treatment for leukemia.

Quickly the field was narrowed down to three candidates.

• Bruce Arians, who had 9 years of experience in the NFL as an offensive coordinator, and had four offenses finish 14th or better in that time frame.
• Darrell Bevell, who had 7 years of experience in the NFL as an offensive coordinator, and was 3 years removed from calling the 3rd highest scoring offense in the NFL in 2009 with the Vikings.
• Marc Trestman, a head coach for the Canadian Football Leagues’ Montreal Alouettes. He compiled a 72-54 career record, including back-to-back Grey Cup victories.

To me the choice seemed obvious at the time, the up and coming interim head coach who just won Coach of the Year for the work he did in Indianapolis.

Enter… Marc Trestman?

On January 15th, 2013 the Chicago Bears named Marc Trestman their 14th head coach in team history, Bruce Arians was given a call at 3am informing him of the move, a call that came as a surprise to Arians, who by all reports felt like he knocked the interview out of the park. Just two days later Arians agreed to be the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

At first it looked like both teams may come out as victors. The Cardinals finished with a 10-6 record, while finishing 12th in yards and 16th in scoring, huge improvements from 32nd and 31st under Whisenhunt the year previous.

The Bears on the other hand finished 8-8 but scored the 2nd most points in the league and gained the 8th most yards while setting numerous team records including touchdown passes, passing yards, completion percentage and passer rating. Receiving duo Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall both topped 1,200 yards receiving, a franchise first.

While historically it was the worst defense in Bears history, setting records in...