The Rams need to rethink where they place Mike Martz. It's not a matter of whether he's a talented man or an asset to the franchise - it's a matter of him not being a good head coach. Often, the cameras show Martz between plays seemingly bewildered and confused. Plays don't get called in to the huddle until the last possible second. Timeouts are burned without hesitation or forethought.
In my mind, Mike Martz is not comfortable with the job of head coach and he hesitates to make decisions. I think his place is up in the box where he came from. Let the man call the offensive plays. Let him focus on that one aspect of the game. It appears to be too much for him to handle all of the duties of head coach, so why not let him focus on what he excels at?
The past few years, the Rams have shown up to preseason games totally unprepared. While other teams seem to have actually figured out how to play together, the Rams look like they just got off the bus at summer camp and don't know who anyone else is. It's not bad football - it's pathetic. It has always been my understanding that the Rams hold these camps to prepare for the season. You know - to get into shape, to watch tape, run plays, perform drills and bond with each other. But the sloppy play on both sides of the ball during the preseason demonstrates that none of this work has paid off. We go out and get spanked, or else we just look totally disorganized. After this past week's nightmare in KC, Martz took some of the blame by saying
"I did a very poor job getting this football team ready to play. This is my fault as a head coach. We came out here and flopped around and acted like we didn't know where we were. And that's a coaching issue. Always is. Always will be. You can blame the players, but that's my responsibility. That won't happen again. We'll make sure these guys are ready to play."
That's a great soundbite and I appreciate what he said. However, I have some problems with his last statement. When will he get the team ready to play? Next game? Next week? Next season? Martz has consistently fielded teams during the preseason that look like the local Boys and Girls club midget team. It would appear that Mike doesn't consider the preseason to be all that important. In fact, over the past few years the Rams have taken several weeks of the regular season to finally find their stride. Is he dealing with injuries and selfish hold-outs? Sure, he is. But those things don't have any impact on a teams organization on the field and off, nor do they affect the physical conditioning of the players. That's from a lack of hard work and leadership through the preseason camps.
From a pure coaching perspective, Martz is incredibly frustrating to behold. His nickname is Mad Mike, which was given to him with respect to the plays he has concocted. I like the nickname because I believe that is a great way to describe his coaching strategy - maddening. He leaves his quarterback with no time left to execute a play with any sense of rythm. He consistently runs plays that don't work, or haven't worked up to that given point in a game. He randomly wastes time-outs. He changes his complete complete strategy at will, often leaving even seasoned announcers jabbering on about how shocking a decision or play call was for the current situation.
Now today Bernie Miklasz writes a little kiss-up piece about how Martz gets no love from the coaching community, NFL or the local fans. He throws out this nugget:
"So why the lack of respect for Martz? Rams fans still haven't forgiven Martz for the Super Bowl loss to New England. And fans still hold Martz responsible for last season's home playoff loss to Carolina. Martz went conservative at the end of the fourth quarter, choosing to kick a tying field goal instead of going for the winning touchdown. (Oakland coach John Madden used the exact strategy in a 1977 AFC playoff game at Baltimore; the difference is, the Raiders won in overtime.)"
Should we have beaten New England? Yes! Fans tend to remember poor coaching and even worse execution from an incredibly talented group of players. Should we have beaten North carolina? Probably. I think what irked the fans the most is that Martz, the Mad Genius of the Greatest Show on Turf, went belly up and tried to play the safe card. Why? All year long we lived and died as he called huge plays, crazy plays and incredibly risky-go-fo-the-goal plays. Why would we accept this pathetic turn in strategy and attitude? Even the players looked shocked on the field after that call. Let the offense win it or lose it next time Mike.
Bernie goes on to speak lovingly of the incredible numbers the Rams have posted under Martz. He talks of outrageous offensive scoring and a very good win percentage over the last five years. That's all very true, but this is the world of athletics. You are only as good as the last game you played, the last season you either dominated or fizzled in. Let's face it. All of the numbers look great on paper, but most of those were generated on the front end of this five year timespan. What the fans have seen in the last two years is an inability to finish. We want to win. We want to win it all. Is that demanding too much? I don't think so. After all, isn't the goal of the sport to win?
The Rams offense has racked up an amazing 17 points over two losses so far this season. What should we shout and scream about? Should we act like we are pleased with the way things are going with our team this year? Should we focus on the last five years, and the statistics generated in that time frame? Should we pound our chests and say "But we won the Super Bowl in '99..."? Should we accept terrible play, horrible clock management, a lack of passion to play and poor coaching?
While Bernie makes linguistical love to Mike, I will refrain from joining the insanity. We should be playing better than we are, and that's all that matters at the moment.
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