But Lovie Smith needs to fire Bob Babich.

I thought it might happen Monday, but then Smith went into his usual mode: ''We're always ready to make extreme modifications if we need it. When you're a first-place team, I don't think we need to [take] extreme measures.'' This is the Lovie Doctrine, after all. But Smith's credibility with the team is going down now.

Every day Babich stays on as the Bears' defensive coordinator is a day Smith puts himself above the team. Smith let Ron Rivera leave after the Super Bowl. And Smith put his woefully unprepared friend in the job.

Why? Because Rivera wanted to do a few different things with Smith's schemes. Smith wanted it his way.

His way lost to the Green Bay Packers 37-3 on Sunday.

During the bye week, the coaches were supposed to break things down, find the problem and adjust. Since then, the defense has gotten worse.

This isn't even about whether Babich knows what he's doing. It isn't about whether the schemes work.

This defense is not listening to this coordinator and not responding. It happens to good coaches, too. It happened to Scott Skiles with the Bulls. When it happens, it's time for change.

Smith has attached himself to this coach, this scheme. In one corner, you have Smith/Babich/ cover-2, and in the other corner, the players.

You can blame the players, as Smith clearly does by sticking with Babich. The defensive line cannot get in shouting distance of a quarterback. Adewale Ogunleye does nothing. If he'd like, Tommie Harris, the guy with the big contract, can sit shotgun in Babich's car when he leaves town.

The defensive backfield is a mess. Brian Urlacher isn't Brian Urlacher anymore.

And all of that leads the blame to general manager Jerry Angelo for not drafting well.

Perception vs. reality But most of these guys aren't too old. And these last two years of their prime, Babich's years, are lost now.

The defense has fallen like a rock ever since Babich took over for Rivera. It doesn't really matter if he's the reason for it.

''Bob Babich, is he the only one?'' Smith said. ''No. It's amazing when things go [wrong], we all put it on one guy. We all got failing grades.'' Yes, but you cannot fire the defense. And it's not time to fire Smith yet.

It was never comfortable how Babich got the job, with his resume, and with the established, proven guy kicked out. In sports, credibility is established when the job is actually earned. That was exactly the problem -- the first problem, at least -- that Cedric Benson had in the locker room, taking Thomas Jones' job before earning it.

Babich was a position coach at several smaller colleges, then was the head coach at North Dakota State. That was only six years ago. The first time he had been a defensive coordinator at any level? Last year, with the Bears.

The Bears haven't given up. But Babich does not inspire them.

Safety Mike Brown said it best in Green Bay: ''Once we come to grips that our defense isn't what it's supposed to be, we'll all be better off. Our perception is that we have a good defense. The reality is we don't.'' Even more telling was when Brown started putting big hits on Packers. The memories came rushing back. That's what all the Bears used to do on defense.

Now, Brown is the only one.

The Bears are in first place in name only, at 5-5. It's a three-way tie in a four-team division. But if they're planning to stumble along like this, play rotten defense and hope that the division is so awful that 8-8 will sneak them into the playoffs for a Cubs-like first-round drubbing, well, what's the point? Trying -- and failing The Bears weren't expected to be any better than this, but that's because the offense was a mess. Now, Kyle Orton and Matt Forte have been pleasant surprises, and the defense? It was supposed to be fast and fierce. That's where the bulk of the payroll is, and it's supposedly the bedrock of the franchise.

Babich has tried. Give him that. He tried coaching from a booth in the press box. That didn't work, so he went to the sideline to be more connected. That didn't work. After Sunday's game, he showed new emotion.

''There are a lot of things that went wrong, OK?'' he said. ''It starts with me, all right? ''We have to play better. We will play better.'' Not for Babich.

Smith did Babich a disservice by promoting him beyond what his experience called for. He might have been a fine coordinator someday.

As it stands, he offers nothing. I'm not even sure how responsible he is for the defense, whether he's running things or just acting as Smith's stooge.

But if anything can be made of this season, if this defense is ever going to play with passion, then Smith has to stop standing up for Babich and show his players that he's standing up for them.

Even though most of them don't deserve it, either.

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