Lovie on play-calling imbalance: 'We'll clean it up'

Lovie on play-calling imbalance: 'We'll clean it up'
By Brad Biggs, Tribune reporter

1:05 p.m. CDT, September 19, 2011
The Chicago Bears' play-calling got far enough out of balance Sunday that coach Lovie Smith has pledged to “clean it up.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Martz called only 11 running plays in a 30-13 loss to the New Orleans Saints and the Bears had just 12 rushing attempts -- including one scramble by quarterback Jay Cutler -- the second-fewest rushes in a game in franchise history.

“I know the balance as far as running/passing wasn’t there,” Smith said. “All I can say is we’ll get it better. We can’t win football games with that kind of balance.”

Martz called 52 passes (45 pass attempts, six sacks, one scramble) and 11 runs, more one-sided than anything he did last year in the first half of the season when the Bears regularly ignored the running game.

Matt Forte had a 42-yard run on his second carry of the game against the Saints, the pivotal play in an 87-yard touchdown drive that staked the Bears to a 7-0 lead. He got eight carries the rest of the game and just one in the second half.

Asked if he was surprised, Forte said, "Surprised? Yeah. Ten rushes is not really a whole lot."

With 10:02 remaining in the third quarter, the Bears trailed 16-13 and there had been 29 passes called and 10 runs.

How does that happen?

“Just happened. Happens like that sometimes,” Smith said. “We’ll clean it up.”

The Bears have run the ball more than they’ve passed it in eight of the last 11 regular-season games. They’re 8-3 in those games and the three losses were in the games with more passes. Has Smith spoken with Martz about a game plan that looked an awful lot like what the team worked so hard to get away from last season?

“Yeah, we speak a little bit from time to time,” Smith said. “Yes, I have. I’m not going to sit here and tell you the reason why, I’m just going to tell you we have to get the balance a lot better and we will. We didn’t do that yesterday for a lot of different reasons.”

Was Martz’s play script influenced by the thought the Bears would struggle running the ball vs. the Saints?

“I’m going to tell you again, we didn’t have the balance that we needed,” Smith said. “I’m not going to give you anymore reasons why. We’ll have it better this week. That’s my answer.”

We’ll have to wait for Wednesday to get Martz’s answer.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,7742636.story

Lovie: You went full retard. Everybody knows you never go full retard.
Martz: What do you mean?
Lovie: Check it out. Bill Walsh, 'West Coast offense,' looks pass happy, acts pass happy, not pass happy. Roger Craig, Tom Rathman. Chuck and Duck, sho'. Not retarded. You know Tony Dungy, and the Colts. Passed a lot, yes. Peyton Manning's team, maybe. Not sure he called actual plays. But he gave the pill to Addai. That ain't retarded. You don't buy that? Ask John Shoop, 2004, "Air Coryell." Remember? Went full retard, went home empty handed...

Well, I hope they straighten it out. Gotta love having an OC that you have to keep telling how to do his job because he gets in ruts that cost games.

The game-plan/play-calling was ridiculous and no adjustments were made when it clearly wasn't working. What baffles me most is why Martz stayed pass-happy even AFTER:

1. The Saints were blitzing almost every down.
2. Forte was the only O weapon who showed up.
3. Williams & Bennett (our only bigger, possession type WRs) were both out of the game.
4. Carimi out, OMG in, pass pro gone
5. The other pass catchers (Hester, Knox, Sanz) either went to sleep, couldn't get open, and dropped multiple catchable balls.

WTF??? All of this pointed to a desperate need to gain some yards on the ground. Did we run any draw plays? Did we run at all in the 2nd half? The game was still very winnable well into the 3rd!

I was also really surprised (pissed!) that MM went away from the type of passing that was so effective vs. ATL. A few screens to Forte, Knox, Hester could/would have resulted in some big gain opportunities and would have made the Saints think twice about sending the house at Cutler on every down. Of course, it would have also helped a lot to still have Carimi & Bennett in there since every opposing team knows that Omiyale can't block anyone and Johnny Knox can't catch anything unless he has at least a full yard of separation on all sides.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by short faced bear

Lovie on play-calling imbalance: 'We'll clean it up'
By Brad Biggs, Tribune reporter

1:05 p.m. CDT, September 19, 2011
The Chicago Bears' play-calling got far enough out of balance Sunday that coach Lovie Smith has pledged to “clean it up.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Martz called only 11 running plays in a 30-13 loss to the New Orleans Saints and the Bears had just 12 rushing attempts -- including one scramble by quarterback Jay Cutler -- the second-fewest rushes in a game in franchise history.

“I know the balance as far as running/passing wasn’t there,” Smith said. “All I can say is we’ll get it better. We can’t win football games with that kind of balance.”

Martz called 52 passes (45 pass attempts, six sacks, one scramble) and 11 runs, more one-sided than anything he did last year in the first half of the season when the Bears regularly ignored the running game.

Matt Forte had a 42-yard run on his second carry of the game against the Saints, the pivotal play in an 87-yard touchdown drive that staked the Bears to a 7-0 lead. He got eight carries the rest of the game and just one in the second half.

Asked if he was surprised, Forte said, "Surprised? Yeah. Ten rushes is not really a whole lot."

With 10:02 remaining in the third quarter, the Bears trailed 16-13 and there had been 29 passes called and 10 runs.

How does that happen?

“Just happened. Happens like that sometimes,” Smith said. “We’ll clean it up.”

The Bears have run the ball more than they’ve passed it in eight of the last 11 regular-season games. They’re 8-3 in those games and the three losses were in the games with more passes. Has Smith spoken with Martz about a game plan that looked an awful lot like what the team worked so hard to get away from last season?

“Yeah, we speak a little bit from time to time,” Smith said. “Yes, I have. I’m not going to sit here and tell you the reason why, I’m just going to tell you we have to get the balance a lot better and we will. We didn’t do that yesterday for a lot of different reasons.”

Was Martz’s play script influenced by the thought the Bears would struggle running the ball vs. the Saints?

“I’m going to tell you again, we didn’t have the balance that we needed,” Smith said. “I’m not going to give you anymore reasons why. We’ll have it better this week. That’s my answer.”

We’ll have to wait for Wednesday to get Martz’s answer.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,7742636.story

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Well if that's really an accurate statement rather than a sarcastic one then Lovis should be made to spend his entire offseason studying offensive theories and game plans. It should be written into his contract because I think we're all getting tired of a HC and GM who don't know shit from shinola about offensive football.

We finally get ourselves a franchise QB and we can't even get the right offensive system and talent around him. It's a complete farce to think that Mike Martz will ever make Jay Cutler into the QB he's capable of being. Jay works hard on his mechanics in the offseason by himself and last week against Atlanta the results were obvious. This week Martz keeps getting him dumped on his ass when the Oline can't protect him and his mechanics go all to shit again. Get rid or Martz and get a guy here who can design an offense around Jay Cutler and not try to make Jay Cutler fit into this over the hill bullshit that Martz pedals 10 years after it's heyday.

They were challenging us to beat them through the air. They blitzed us, and we just couldn't deliver anything to get them to stop blitzing..

Given the same situation, I would have blitzed just as much.

Our calls weren't about the lack of run calls. When they stack the box, you can't pass OR run.. We couldn't pass, and most certainly wouldn't have been able to run. If we had a balanced play called game, we would have been three and out all game...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ski-Whiz

They were challenging us to beat them through the air. They blitzed us, and we just couldn't deliver anything to get them to stop blitzing..

Given the same situation, I would have blitzed just as much.

Our calls weren't about the lack of run calls. When they stack the box, you can't pass OR run.. We couldn't pass, and most certainly wouldn't have been able to run. If we had a balanced play called game, we would have been three and out all game...

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I agree that they had seven and eight guys in the box and rushed 6 or seven of them a lot choosing to use a lot of press and man coverage and it worked. No matter how we flooded the zones Cutler never had adequate time to set up and got through his reads. The dumpoffs to Forte were about all that were gaining yardage.

No chance to go downfield like we did against Atlanta which is where Knox seems to shine. No time for the routes to develop. But MP is right. If you follow the philosophy of take what they give you then draw plays and delays should have been effective as well as screens yet Martz totally ignored that and had Cutler looking downfield and getting creamed nearly everydown.

No rollouts or a moving pocket to avoid the rush like the Packers do so well with Rodgers. Just the same lame ass play calling down after down. No adjustments to pick up their blitzes, nothing. That game was still winnable until Davis blew that block and neglected to let Cutler know so he could cover. WTF is up with these guys? That's just common sense football. Most of the time our defense plays like a machine with great hustle and instincts yet the offense plays like they all just met ten minutes before the game.

Maybe when we get rid of the only dependable big target we had in order to improve our blocking at TE someone should make sure the TE knows how to block and when he misses that bad to at least give a holler that he's comin'. They brag about how this scheme allows us to block DE's one on one with out TE's but that's another theory being disproven. That missed block cost us 7 points and we're damn lucky it didn't cost us Cutler too.