Questioning The Smarts Of Mike Martz






Were it not for a particularly crazy Joe Horn TD catch, perhaps the lynch mobs surrounding the home of Rams coach Mike Martz would have something else to do this evening. Or perhaps not, as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bernie Mikalsz explains.

The Rams reached a new low Sunday in losing 28-25 to the New Orleans Saints in overtime. The defense was soft. The special teams were incompetent. The coaching was incoherent. And the running game was virtually nonexistent.

All the Rams had going for them on this day was Bulger setting up to pass with a target on his chest. With Rams coach Mike Martz stubbornly refusing to run the football against the NFL's 31st-ranked rushing defense, Bulger was turned into a sparring partner for Saints pass rushers who punished him with body blows.

Martz is in the process of damaging another quarterback's career. After getting hit repeatedly in Martz's wide-open offense, Kurt Warner turned into a panicky, burned-out, beaten-down quarterback in his final two years in St. Louis. The New York Giants have put Warner in a safer, more quarterback-friendly offense. And with the added protection, No. 13 seems to be reviving his confidence, having performed impressively in consecutive wins over Washington and Cleveland.

And Bulger? With a QB rating in the mid-90s, Bulger clearly has played better in his losses than Warner did during his long losing streak at the end of his run here. But more on point, Bulger will be the next victim to suffer from the Battered Quarterback Syndrome. In the last two games, both losses, Bulger has dropped back to throw the ball 90 times. That figure is actually closer to 100 if you cite the plays that didn't officially count because of penalties. Bulger has been sacked 10 times and rocked by many other direct hits. Bulger's been on the turf so much, they ought to put a police chalk outline around his body.

And Martz's reaction to all of this is to keep dialing up passes. The passing-running ratio over the last two games has reached stunning, loony-tunes proportions: 90 passes, only 30 runs. This is a high-risk, high-reward offense. Sure, we're treated to wonderful entertainment when Bulger hooks up with Bruce and Holt. But more things can go wrong when you pass the ball instead of running it. Sacks. Tipped balls. Interceptions. Fumbles. Dropped passes. Bad throws. Holding penalties.

Moreover, your quarterback gets rag-dolled. When your offense is so one-dimensional, the defense can attack the QB without fearing or respecting the run. For much of the second half, and especially late in the game and overtime, the Saints' linebackers were retreating into pass coverage, all but issuing an engraved invitation for the Rams to run the ball.

And again, Martz refused. He's apparently on some berserk mission to prove that he's right and everyone else is wrong in emphasizing the need for a more balanced offense.

If this latest outbreak of Martz madness continues, we'll see Bulger vanish, too. He'll stagger out of here with brains scrambled, headed to another team, or to a hospital room.

Posted: Mon - September 27, 2004 at 08:47 PM      

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