WCG Game Ball of the Week: Bears OC Mike Martz

… with Martz gettin the gameball . He went from pass every down to a solid mixture of run and pass .

Because I’m awesome.

37 + minutes time of possession. True that the defense played an awesome game. True that the offense didn’t take advantage of all the opportunities the defense gave them,but the offense sustained long drives and almost never went 3-out. In the NFL playing keep away from the other team results in victories.

We had a shutout. That’s defense – Rod Marinelli gets a game ball before the guy in charge one of the most ineffective offenses int he league. We have the best defense in the NFL – leading in all important categories, or second-to, and you’re handing it to Martz?

3 sacks from Peppers surely gets any player game ball. He caused endless chaos. 186 yards passing, no passing TDs, pointless Forte runs up the middle for no gain … and you want to hand the game ball to Mike Martz? Amrtz has cost us a few losses already, Marinelli has kept us in each and every game … I just don’t get the love for Martz. We should be 9-1.

Putting your QB in a chance to make them (which Martz… or Martz and Tice and Co. did), was paramount to this week.

6 of the 10 3rd down conversions made were Cutler passes (2 of the 10 were Cutler Scrambles)…

The rest? Three sacks (one was also holding on Webb), a kneel, a scramble that didn’t quite make it, and two incomplete passes.

Beautiful. Minus the sacks.

Game….ball

it is beyond me why Martz should get the game ball—because he decided to run the football? Yeah he hasn’t been running a Ron Turner bland offense, but the Chicago Bears are the Chicago Bears. We are made by and broken by our defense. What this team has returned to this season should be the focus of Bears fans, but instead we give credit to offense for scoring under twenty points in a SHUTOUT. We’ve become so spoiled by our defense that we don’t give enough praise to what has become, without question, the “Monsters of the Midway” revival Lovie was trying to push during training camp. The Bears have got it together defensively. That is our identity. Embrace it, Chicago!

You can say thank you for not losing the game for us.

I don’t know how a game ball goes anywhere but defense in a shutout. I don’t care what team you are playing, what their injury report looks like, and how bad their OC does calling a game…

It is ridiculously hard to get a shut out in the NFL these days. All it takes is 1 mistake all game, from the defense, offense, or special teams. For a defense to shut out a team it takes amazing discipline, especially late in the game when the other team gets urgent and you know you have a 2-3 score lead.

There have been two shut outs this YEAR in the NFL. The game ball has to go to the guys who made us #1 in points per game allowed.

Is Martz and crew being more effective? Yes. But Ron Turner could have won this game, it didn’t take offensive magic. Martz can have a game ball when we get offensive magic, not when the defense shuts a team out. Now, had the score been 45-0, we would have a different conversation.

that Martz had a good game plan for this one, it’s hard to ignore the shutout. Miami was playing with 3rd string guys at QB and on the o-line, but the defense played as well as any defense could have; they didn’t give up any points. I like what the offense did in controlling the game and they did outscore Miami by 16 points, but I think the tip of the scales has to side with the defense in this game.

That I will reserve my true beliefs about Mart’s offense for next year. See, next spring we have these crazy things called 1st and 2nd round draft picks (I know, right, I forgot those existed). If, and this is a big if, IF we spend at least one of them on a quality starting OL-man, the line could improve? But give the recievers and Cutler another offseason and the rest of this season to get their timing right and routes perfected. Imagine, when Hester and Knox, don’t need to think about what each play call is, they just know what to do. And Cutler can take seven steps, look left and toss to a spot because he trusts his receiver to be there.

A winning record this year will be good for me and playoffs will be a great bonus. But, next year is when I expect this team to make some strides and be a contender. But as a Chicagoan, I always seem to find myself saying " We’ll be better next year."