Photo via daylife.com
Will the real Mike Martz please stand up, because Chicago Bears fans are terribly confused. They cannot reconcile Martz’s reputation as the mad genius behind the Greatest Show on Turf with what they see of the 2011 Chicago Bears offense. Remembrance of the St. Louis Rams 1999-2001 Super Bowl offense haunts Martz at every coaching stop since he left the Rams in 2005.
@edsbs Having Mike Martz as your offensive coordinator is Pets.com territory, as in things that sounded like a good idea in 1999
Martz falls from the Don Coryell coaching tree by way of John Robinson/Ernie Zampese through Norv Turner. Coryell’s downfield offensive system featured a powerful ground game balanced by strategic deep passing strikes. The system produced three Super Bowls for the Dallas Cowboys in the Nineties (Turner) and a win in Super Bowl XXIV for Martz and the Rams.
Chicago fans want Super Bowls. The Bears challenged for the 2010 conference title when they rushed on 47.1 percent of their offensive plays. That’s Bears football. Chicago fans desperately want more of that run-oriented offense. They are confused when they do not see the balance.
Chicago suffered an embarrassing 30-13 Week 2 loss to the New Orleans Saints when the Bears ran on only 12 of 63 plays (19%) with little success. Matt Forte ran 10 times for 49 yards – 42 were on one run. Last Sunday, the Bears suffered a 27-17 home loss to division rival Green Bay Packers in a game where quarterback Jay Cutler was Chicago’s leading ground-gainer (11 yards). Matt Forte? Nine attempts, two yards.
@Scott_CEOofSUH YOU TAKE THE BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER YOU GOT RIGHT NOW AND ONLY GIVE HIM 9 RUSHES B??? REALLY MIKE MARTZ???
Yet, for all the angst at the run-pass balance, the Bears may be closer to the 1999 Rams than fans realize….
Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk caught 87 passes for 1048 yards and five touchdowns for the Super Bowl Rams. Faulk accounted for 23 percent of St. Louis’ receiving yards on a squad that featured Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce and Az-Zahir Hakim.
Who is the leading receiver for Martz’s 2011 Bears? Running back Matt Forte, whose 287 receiving yards accounts for 33 percent of the passing offense and one of five Chicago touchdown receptions this season. Forte has caught 78.6 percent of the passes targeted to him.
No one named Holt, Bruce or Hakim appears on Chicago’s roster. Indeed, Chicago media analysts fret that the best Bears receiver is unheralded, undrafted rookie free agent Dane Sanzenbacher (9 Rec, 66 yards, 2 TDs).
“It doesn’t matter whether you believe Forte is an elite back or not (I don’t). The Bears can’t win if offensive coordinator Mike Martz keeps ignoring him. Making Forte’s involvement even more necessary is that he’s the kind of back who might run the ball 20 times before he cracks off a long run.”
~ Bears have no clue how to start fixing offense, September 25, 2011 -suntimes.com.
Whatever Martz is doing, he is not ignoring the running back. Other than Cutler, no Bears player has had more touches (57) of the ball than Forte or more yards (406) of total offense.
So, what are the issues with Chicago’s offense? With everything in football, start with the offensive line. The Bears had 16 negative rushes of their 51 total attempts. They have also allowed 14 sacks and 22 QB hits against 2010 playoff teams. Fans are rightfully concerned how the NFL’s 31st-ranked offensive line will stand up to Ndamukong Suh and the Detroit Lions defense amongst others.
Receivers are an issue. Exclude Forte and Sanzenbacher’s numbers from the receiver stat line and the other guys catch a sickly 44 percent of the passes targeted to them. Sixty percent is the minimum acceptable performance for a successful receiving corps.
What’s an offensive coordinator with a reputation to do?
It is too late to talk to the GM about finding a legitimate No. 1 wide-out. Roy Williams is not that guy. Martz has little choice but to try and get more out of him.
The offensive line may stand up better when it runs into less blitz-happy defenses. The temporary absence of first round pick Gabe Carimi at right tackle isn’t helping either. Of course, everyone has seen the video of the blitz-happy Saints pounding Jay Cutler into the turf. Another issue is keeping Matt Forte in to pass block, which then takes him out of the pass pattern. Marion Barber’s return from injury should boost the offense in terms of the power running game.
Wait for the receivers to catch something, anything, in the downfield offense. Martz may not have time to wait, but he will cook up something.
“So what i see is that with Martz as HC or OC, franchises win on average around 3 more games than without him, even tough with 3 of 4 franchises he was only responsible for 50% of the team.
“If I look at the 11 total seasons, the difference is about 4 more wins per season. Even tough he was responsible for only 50% of the team in 5 of 11 seasons (each one with the Rams, Bears, 49ers, two with the Lions).”
~ How Effective is Mike Martz as a Coach? – advancednflstats.com.
Mike Martz may pay the price for the Bears’ talent issue at the end of the season, if not sooner. But the blame for the talent deficiencies on the offensive line and at wide receiver should be blamed on Jerry Angelo and the front office, not Mike Martz. In truth, Bears fans will miss Martz when he’s gone.
