Mike Martz

[Ram Quixote]

My main memory of that game was screaming at the refs to finally call the Pats D for repeatedly holding Marshall Faulk.

Perhaps that's why Faulk didn't get enough touches, at least in receptions.

What really annoyed me, was Madden calling the Rams lucky after McGinest was finally called for holding Faulk, as if the hold had nothing to do with why Warner tried to run it in and ultimately fumble.

Btw, the head ref went hard at the ref who threw the flag. And on the times they show that game on NFLN, you don't see that Kukar spent 5 minutes trying to get him to pick it up. But you can see that Kukar is angry about having to call the penalty.

 

[Dagonet]

No to Martz! We don't have the pieces to make that work.

In this offense... Schotty needs a little of Martz imagination, sure.

But... Let's face it; Schotty isn't a creative or brilliant offensive mind. He can manage an offense... But he's not earned league wide praise to this point for a reason.

In some regards it's surprising Fisher is supportive of his style... Because defensively they are aggressive... Offensively they have no balls.

Why is there no inappropiate by your post? I would have clicked on it.. lol

 

[Rambitious1]

Just because a guy is an OC doesn't mean he is strong in all aspects of being an OC. Mike is great with QB's and receivers. He works well with RB's, especially those who can catch the ball. However, he tends to overlook other aspects of his domain.

Mike was given the head coaching position of the Rams too soon. After the 1999 Super Bowl win, the FO, fearing other teams would offer Mad Mike huge dollars to lure him away from St. Louis, pressured Dickie V into early retirement so they could promote Mike to HC and thereby retain his services. That's not the way it was suppose to be! Mike was supposed to learn how to manage all aspects of a team from the obsessive Dickie V over a three year period before Dick bowed out. The Super Bowl win changed everything as the FO got too paranoid and panicked about losing Mike.

This weakness of Mike is not unique. Coaches simply have their strengths and weaknesses. Savvy superiors will cover the weaknesses of their coaches while working with them. A smart, strong GM would have curbed Mike's tendency to acquire "gadget" players in favor of building a more balanced team, with all units served well. Nothing wrong with allowing a coach to play to his strengths as long as one is aware of and will cover his weaknesses too.

For the most part that's true. However, with the Rams and Martz the contractual personnel/final say belonged to Martz, so in this case it did not matter how strong or weak the GM was. Martz had final say on personnel matters and he knew it.

 

[Yamahopper]

No to Martz! We don't have the pieces to make that work.

In this offense... Schotty needs a little of Martz imagination, sure.

But... Let's face it; Schotty isn't a creative or brilliant offensive mind. He can manage an offense... But he's not earned league wide praise to this point for a reason.

In some regards it's surprising Fisher is supportive of his style... Because defensively they are aggressive... Offensively they have no balls.

Martz didn't invent the forward pass but he helped prefect it. He took a lot of Coryells principles and adapted them. True the Rams now don't have GSOT pieces, but they aren't required. It works at any level. You don't have to HOF WR's to run the same routes. Then again you're not going get HOF WR's running 7 yard crosses.
The 2 things Martz was good at was clearing out areas and pulling coverages to a dif. part of the field so the WR could get single coverage in a position to catch and run with the ball.
The other thing is Martz wasn't a mad bomber, but he always to seem to put a vertical element in every route he ran. Maybe just a step or two but he like to have the receiver already turned a small bit upfield if he could. People can go back and watch the GSOT highlights and see the subtle differences in route shapes than now.
As far as Bradford, I think of a interview Warner did back in the day where he talked about how he had to relearn when the ball should come out. He said he was uncomfortable at first, but once he got used to it he could see the advantage.

Schotty has unlimited access to game film for all teams. He can see what works and doesn't. It's up to him on how he wants to use it.

 

[RamsOfCastamere]

He started slow, but Schotty won me over with the Tavon fake reverse and the Bailey double reverse.

 

[jap]

No to Martz! We don't have the pieces to make that work.

In this offense... Schotty needs a little of Martz imagination, sure.

But... Let's face it; Schotty isn't a creative or brilliant offensive mind. He can manage an offense... But he's not earned league wide praise to this point for a reason.

In some regards it's surprising Fisher is supportive of his style... Because defensively they are aggressive... Offensively they have no balls.

Traditionally, defensive-minded HC's tend to be conservative offensively. The only exception to that rule I can think of off the top of my head was Tom Laundry, the inventor of the 4-3 and flex defenses.

 

[jrry32]

Personally, I would not want him. I have a lot of respect for Martz and hate the way he was pushed out...but that time has passed.

 

[The Rammer]

He started slow, but Schotty won me over with the Tavon fake reverse and the Bailey double reverse.

He'll ya! Love watching those plays

 

[fearsomefour]

Cameron Spikes was a guy I was sure was going to pan out at G.

 

[iced]

He started slow, but Schotty won me over with the Tavon fake reverse and the Bailey double reverse.

fwiw, tavon was injured and bailey was starting in his place

 

[moklerman]

Well, Martz did get 1,300 yards and a pro bowl berth out of Roy Williams and 98 receptions and 1,000+ yards out of Mike Furrey one year so it's not like he needs elite talent at WR to get production. I'd love to see Martz as the Rams' OC but it's a fantasy that'll never happen.

 

[RmsLegends]

For the most part that's true. However, with the Rams and Martz the contractual personnel/final say belonged to Martz, so in this case it did not matter how strong or weak the GM was. Martz had final say on personnel matters and he knew it.

It was written in his contract he had final say, but he had to have both Armey's and Zygmunt's approval and as well Shaw retained the power to veto any move.

 

[Rambitious1]

It was written in his contract he had final say, but he had to have both Armey's and Zygmunt's approval and as well Shaw retained the power to veto any move.

No offense, but that does not make sense to me.
He had final say but needed Armey and Zygmunts approval?
That's contradictory.

 

[RmsLegends]

No offense, but that does not make sense to me.
He had final say but needed Armey and Zygmunts approval?
That's contradictory.

Exactly, but it is no secret ya can read interviews by Armey and others and they admit that all decisions were made by consensus. An that is a big problem when ya are facing other organizations with as much intent and drive as yourself to be the best. There is no accountability and easy to point the finger at the other guy when it begins to go wrong, but that is what the Rams did told one guy he had the final word then said but ya have to have approval of these two other guys as well. So the problem is when ya have important decision making at the top level in a dog eat dog world. An then create a 3 headed monster to make those decisions ya end up with consensus decisions based upon the least common denominator which is compromise. So we built a team based on each guy compromising for consensus.

An history teaches me when our country decided on the great compromise as the answer to the slave question all that happened was down the road we ended up split in two and at war, So the same thing happened with Rams organization ya had a split and a war and one of the heads got canned while he was on medical leave. Which is another reason I don't think Martz was the weak link here as he was still able to make the playoffs and still post some winning seasons amongst this conflict, but soon as they canned him the wheels sure fell off this car.

Now I don't excuse Martz for his part in what happened, but I can rest assured the facts have pointed out the team was much worse and well what does a winning season look like since he left.

So yea ya are right we ran our organization based on one big contradiction and important decisions based upon the least common denominator of compromise. So we had no clear direction and all these many years later we are still trying to find direction. An the real ones who have suffered are us the fans.......LOL

So yea the organization was dysfunctional from the top down during this madness an like I said I do give Martz credit he was still able to have some winning seasons with the infighting and the poor way personal decisions were made during the ego wars.

 

[Thordaddy]

We lost because we didn't have a healthy right tackle

 

[jap]

No offense, but that does not make sense to me.
He had final say but needed Armey and Zygmunts approval?
That's contradictory.

There simply was no "final say" with Shaw and Ziggy running the Horns into the ground against all the coaches' efforts.

 

[brokeu91]

I'll echo what others have said. I think what we could definitely use Martz for is to maximize the talent of Sam Bradford. I think Martz is EXACTLY what Sam needs to fulfill his potential. Martz would be the one to force Sam to push the ball downfield and make him trust his instincts and accuracy. He could also teach him how to throw receivers open and teach him to take a few more chances.

 

[CGI_Ram]

I will say this, for the Rams;

Schotty > Shurmur
Schotty > McDaniels

I tend to pick on Schotty... But now that we have some pieces together, I'd like to see the offense come out and set the tone for a change.

We haven't seen that since Martz was here. I think that's why we cling to the concept of bringing him back. (But it will never happen)

 

[Memphis Ram]

I remember posting an article years ago on how Martz had the final say option, but never really used it.

Anyway, wouldn't want him a OC, but the more I think about it, he'd make a pretty good QB coach.

 

[Rambitious1]

There simply was no "final say" with Shaw and Ziggy running the Horns into the ground against all the coaches' efforts.

Without some specific evidence, we are just going to have to disagree on that.
Especially when Martz held a press conference when he was coach, to reiterate the fact that he did have final say. Shaw/Ziggy did nothing (certainly publically) to refute that.