Thread: Mike, Seeing is Believing and We Haven't Seen Much Yet!!!!

I know there are those who are gonna point out "what else can he say" and I get ya' but isn't anyone else besides me getting tired of hearing the same old crap out of Martz and Lovie. You'd think they were joined at the hip sometimes.

If this team slides backwards again all this game playing has to end sometime and better sooner than later. To me there is no question that both Martz and JA should be fired following the season. JA for his inability to get the offesive talent needed to maximize Jay Cutler's potential in this offense and Martz for refusing to alter his approach to fit what he has.

I'd keep Lovie around than for no other reason that the players love playing for him. Get him an offensive minded GM and an OC who can make something out of the guys we have until the new guy can fill all those holes JA couldn't, or wouldn't. It seems to me that the handwriting is on the wall. Both of those guys knew what we needed to upgrade and JA blew the Oline while Martz made another boner of a choice bringing in Williams and making him a #1 WR when he was barely an #3 in Dallas.

It's high time these two clowns joined a different circus.

Bears must let Martz be Martz


If Smith interferes too much he could make matters even worse

Bears offensive coordinator Mike Martz addresses the media. (Chris Sweda, Chicago Tribune / September 21, 2011)

Dan Pompei On the NFL October 2, 2011


Some people think the answer to getting more balance in the Bears offense is to have coach Lovie Smith give the leash a hard tug whenever offensive coordinator Mike Martz starts getting wild.

This isn't a pragmatic solution for two reasons.

The first is Smith is a defensive coach with no hard experience on the offensive side of the football. He is smart enough to know his limitations. (He's right but it's a poor match up to put a gung ho pass oriented OC with a conservative, run oriented, defensive minded coach)

The second is too many chefs will spoil the offensive soup. Play-calling really is not a team effort.

Some coordinators, however, benefit from having an overlord, or even some sort of senior advisor, making gentle suggestions. (Good let's get one and soon)

When Martz was at his finest, he was the offensive coordinator of the Rams in 1999 and the head coach was Dick Vermeil, an accomplished play-caller himself. Vermeil had called plays in high school, in junior college, at UCLA, as offensive coordinator of the Rams and as head coach of the Eagles. (And this has been the only really good match in Martz's entire career)

So Vermeil's words carried weight.

"I would make suggestions during the ball game," he said. "I wouldn't put demands on him. I don't remember ever overruling him. I brought him there to run the offense, and he is outstanding at what he does."

Sometimes, it took restraint.

"As a play-caller, he used to make me pucker a little bit from time to time," said Vermeil, who now is retired. "But our team was so far along at that time that we could handle it. The end results of his contributions were just outstanding." (And this team isn't which is why it isn't working)

Martz was in the press box that year, as he is this year. He would relay the play to the quarterbacks coach on the sideline, as he does this year. In between series, Vermeil sometimes would tell him what he thought, or what he would like to see.

Vermeil had been around long enough and made enough mistakes at that point to know he needed to trust his offensive coordinator.

"Usually if a head coach is not totally confident and satisfied with the play-caller, he tries to interject his own thoughts," Vermeil said. "More often than not, you end up with a hodge-podge. When you are very, very confident in your coordinator, you let him do it, but you still can make suggestions. I made up my mind I was going to let Mike do it and help him every way I could." (Easy to do when that OC is having success and very foolish when he's not)

Smith has taken the same approac h. But given their different backgrounds, Vermeil was in better position to help Martz than Smith could be. (If he want to keep losing yeah)

The Bears offense has to be Martz' show — for better or worse — for now. (This is the most unfortunate part but he's right. Now we're all in the double bind of hoping he fails so they'll fire him at the very same time we hope the team wins)

Comprehend the trendReceiver graveyard

After he bolted town, Muhsin Muhammad notably said Chicago is "where receivers go to die." Muhammad, who retired in 2009, remains the Panthers' all-time leading receiver with 9,255 yards.

The Bears all-time leading receiver, believe it or not, still is good old Johnny Morris with 5,059 yards.

Morris retired in 1967 — 44 years ago — before the NFL-AFL merger, before the passing era really began, before the Beatles broke up.

No other NFL team has a career receiving leader who retired in the 1960s. Seventeen teams have a career receiving leader who played into the 2000s. Nine have one who stopped playing for them in the 1990s. Three have one who stopped playing for them in the 1980s.

Two NFL teams — the Jets with Don Maynard and the Chargers with Lance Allworth — have one who stopped playing for them in the 1970s. It's worth noting that both of those players are Hall of Famers.

The Bears are the NFL's oldest franchise, yet the only team with a career receiving leader with fewer yards than Morris is the Bucs' Mark Carrier. But he accumulated 5,018 yards in five fewer years than it took Morris to get 41 more yards. (So we solve this by signing Roy Williams? I guess we do need to think about signing a top WR next year because if we don't fire Martz all we get is another repeat performance)

Numbers gamesWrong way

Remember when Jim Marshall picked up a fumble and ran the wrong way for the Vikings? The Bears offense should be able to relate — it keeps going the wrong way.

So far, the Bears offense has lost 311 yards — more than 100 yards per game according to Stats, Inc. Only the Rams have gone backward more (357 yards).

The Bears offense has committed 24 penalties — fifth highest in the league — for 173 yards.

Jay Cutler has been sacked 14 times — tied for most in the league — for a league high 105 yards lost.

And the Bears have had 16 plays "stuffed" for a loss of 33 yards. (This is really an interesting stat. We lose over 100 yards per game to penalties, sacks and losses on running plays. This doesn't even count the yardage lost on plays called back by a penalty. Put that in there and the number really soars)

The Bears have lost yardage on 31.4 percent of their run plays, by far the worst in the league. The Falcons, the second poorest, have lost yardage on 17.2 percent of running plays. (Guess that ends the idea that we run block any better than we pass block doesn't it?)

Front office chessTight end gamble

When the Bears decided to trade Greg Olsen to the Panthers, part of the reason they did it was Kellen Davis. The coaches thought Davis was a better fit for their offense, and the front office didn't mind the idea of having Davis on the field more.

The Bears drafted Davis in the fifth round of the 2008 draft because they were impressed with his combination of size and athleticism, and they still are. They also like his work ethic and personality.

The knock on him up has been his inconsistency, but this is the first year he really has had a chance to play.

Davis is going into his fourth season and his contract is expiring. The Bears knew Olsen didn't have a future in Chicago with Martz. They wanted to find out if Davis did, and the way to do it is to play him. (Maybe they should try throwing to him then. Lining him up only as a blocker isn't gonna tell you much)

He has been playing ahead of veteran Matt Spaeth even though Spaeth probably is more consistent. Davis, however, has more potential.

So far, Davis' play has been up and down, or inconsistent. The team wants to be patient with Davis, thinking if they can live with some of his growing pains, they might end up with a heck of a player.

dpompei@tribune.com

Twitter @danpompei

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Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune
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To me Pompei contradicts himself here. First he claims that the Bears and Lovie need to let him go his own way since no one else has the offensive experience to do it but then he shows us just how futile this offense has been.

Just look at how much negative yardage we've piled up in only 3 games while trying to march to Martz's tune. And as I said this doesn't even consider the yardage given back from penalties like a couple of long runs Kahlil Bell had. Nor does it count ST call backs like Knox punt return TD that wasn't. If you want to win games how can you not step in? It's hard for me to believe that even Lovie couldn't call a better game than Martz has been doing.

To me it's laughable that the Bears leading receiver is still Johnny Morris who was really a flanker and not a split end. The top WR in the game have 3 to 4 times that much yardage and even Ricky Proehl who spent a year with us had almost 9000 career yards which puts him in 52nd place all time. LMAO!

Let's get some combination of people in the coaching room and the front office who can fix this busted ass offense before the entire defensive core starts collecting their NFL pensions.