Mike Martz Approval Rating: Round Three

however, I reserve the right to change my mind. Certainly the offense lost the game for the Bears in the Redskins game. Some of that is on

Cutler, needs to play smarter
WR’s TE’s, need to finish routes, fight for the ball, and learn their playbooks
O-line, freaking block somebody already
TE’s, freaking block somebody

Martz, while it is not his fault for players not executing like they were supposed to. He needs to call games that will put his players in the best position to succeed. That is not 40 passes to 16 runs. Especially on a night where Chester Taylor is averaging 6.7 yds a carry and Matt Forte is averaging 4.1.

Martz seems to have a much higher ceiling to me that Ron Turner ever did, but he is his own worst enemy too.

For the following:

 - Changing OC at this point in the season would be counterproductive – who would fill in if Martz was fired?
 - Like I’ve said before, Martz didn’t go from offensive guru to stupid overnight – players have to execute.
 - Cutler has made some very bad decisions which were not Martz’s fault

Don’t read more into the above than there is. I’m not absolving Martz. Neither am I absolving the players, or any one else on the Bears. It is a team sport.

—Cutler is 51 of 90 passing with 1 TD, 5 INT, 19 sacks. Point is that’s what happens when you put it all on the QB and refuse to run the ball

—Mike Martz directed #Bears are the only team in the NFL that has not scored a point in the third quarter this season.

—#Bears ranked 30th in the NFL in offense. Is that what Ted Phillips had in mind when he said status quo was not acceptable?

—Lovie: “We have ourselves in position to make a run.”

—Mike Pereira, the ex-NFL VP officiating, says Lovie Smith & #Bears dropped the ball not challenging the Cutler fumble.

—Martz says J’Marcus Webb made a “quantum leap” at right tackle in the loss to Redskins

—Mike Martz saying on WWBM-AM 780 that #Redskins CB DeAngelo Hall “guessed” well in 4 pick effort.

The myopic hindsight of the average sports/NFL/Bears fan is on high display today.

I think that our offense needs an OL before we start to lynch Martz and Cutler. This line is so bad. Cutler is going to die out there pretty soon. My Grandparents could be a better Line than this bunch.

cheese and rice 70 sacks for the year? that would be crazy, anyone know off hand what the record is for most sacks in a 16 game season?

Play calling yesterday was much better, but turnovers killed us. Thats that. Martz job is to call plays that move the ball down the field and ultimately into the endzone. We moved the ball all the way to the one for a td (if lovie challenged instead of taking the challenge home with him) but it was a fumble. Which was followed by 4 picks and another fumble.

Had the offense had 0 turnovers yesterday, I (dont say we because i dont speak for WCG) would have praised the coaches on both sides for calling an excellent game.

The defense played their hearts out……again MINUS LANCE BRIGGS…people are overlooking that with him we would have had 4 more forced turnovers.

Martz called the plays and for the most part the offense began to execute well, but those drive killing turnovers killed us, plain and simple.

I give the coaches a B- for a job they did yesterday. Lovie’s decision to not challenge was a MAJOR turning point, but that was not the last play of the game, that was not even in the 4th quarter. We had MANY more chance to put the game away but we did not. We have no idea how the skins would have played down 11, or 7pts. That one decison did not cost the game, did it hurt our chances? Yes it did but that alone was not why we lost.
Rush Rod called another good game on defense forcing 6 fumbles and 2 ints and TD
Dave Toub-Solid
Mike Tice- Line started to block, no the really did our running backs were able to gain some yards.
Mike Martz- Yesterday we had success running the ball which we really havent had, Martz could not say oh we cant run it, The bears were getting yards in chunks, pounding the skins may led to a forte or taylor td or maybe 3 pts.
Lovie- Should of challenged a play later! but it is what it is as NO IT ALL said.

9 more games, I still believe in Jay Cutler, and my Chicago Bears if you dont shame on you!
Still #1 in the north, is it a pretty #1? HELL NO. Will i take it? Too late already did

Good night!
May Ditka bless you and yours
BEAR DOWN!!!!!

a good game plan for one opponent isn’t necessarily the right one for every opponent. The problem isn’t the percentage balance, it’s the fact the the Bears are not making any serious commitment to run the football at all. Especially when this is EXACTLY the stretch of the schedule to do it. The O-line is struggling, the defense is tired, and Cutler is being battered on almost every play. The Bears should be running the ball to:
1. Allow the o-line to develop a sense of cohesion and trust.
2. Physically wear down the opposing D-line during the game.
3. Reduce the number of QB hits on Cutler.
4. Retain longer TOP and give the opposing offense less clock to grind down the Bears defense.
5. Actually score on 1st and goal from the 1-2yard line without putting Cutler at risk.
6. Increase the chances that the WRs can complete their long routes and complicated pass pattern combos because the opposing defense has to honor the run and the “speed” of our WRs can get them actual separation.
7. Give Forte more chances to break that long run for a TD.
8. etc……

for me anyway … I don’t really care about balance as much as I care about consistency and getting into a rhythm with the play calling. I think there were flashes of that in the 3rd quarter especially – though both of those drives ended in an INT or fumble.

The last drive Cutler hits Knox on two mid-range passes and then opts for the bomb on first down, which Hall picked off. I think it has more to do with decision making on the field than the play that is called. Jay is guilty of telegraphing where he wants to go – he’s not comfortable with every receiver on the field – I get that, but spread it around a bit. Olsen has been nonexistent for a while – whether that’s due to Martz, Cutler not seeing him or Olsen not being open – I don’t know.

This business of setting up the pass with the run or vice versa doesn’t fly in this offense. I agree we should run more, but with the way we block it’s really farkin difficult. It’s just difficult to do anything with any type of consistency with this O-Line. So I don’t blame Martz’s system so much as I blame the offensive execution. They can make plays – they just don’t make them.

The answer was that it happened twice before and both of them were Mike Martz teams. The upside is that both of those teams made it to the Super Bowl in their respective years (one win and one loss), so maybe there is hope.

turnovers, not the play calling, that cost us this game. 4 INT’s and 2 fumbles is not good. The offense seemed to move the ball they just kept giving the ball back to Washington. In week 1 we were able to overcome our mistakes, not this time.