January 31, 2005: An Open Letter to Mike Martz
Attn: Mike Martz
St. Louis Rams
One Rams Way
St. Louis, MO 63045
Dear Mr. Martz,
On Sunday, September 26, 2004, members of the BMTG noted a particularly bad call made by you during your overtime loss to the New Orleans Saints. Not wishing to use one instance to justify joining the bandwagon of people who are seemingly criticizing you for everything you do, we decided to track your decisions throughout the 2004 NFL season to determine if the vast amounts of criticism leveled at you by many in your industry is warranted. Each week, with the guidance of Rams devotee Brother Nature, we posted questions and comments for you on the BMTG website, usesoap.com. The commentary was related directly to your head coaching during the games and we have compiled those questions here for your convenience.
Week 3: “Why did you squib kick with a three point
lead and about 30 seconds left in the game?” New Orleans used the great
field position to their advantage and quickly moved into field goal range.
They tied the game, then won in overtime.
Week 4: The 49ers were so bad against your team in the first
half that they took away any opportunities for you to make a bad call. In
the second half, the Niners reliance on the
two-point conversion and refusal to kick for easy points ended up ensuring
that you would not be placed in a position to make any bad calls on the night.
Week 5: Brother Nature was so giddy about the comeback victory
by your team that he was unable to objectively criticize you. The one question
he came up with was, “Why didn’t you take one shot at the end
zone at the end of regulation before kicking the tying field goal?”
Week 6: Due to much more exciting options (Red
Sox game 5 of the ALCS) you got a free pass. Brother Nature was unable
to provide timely insight into your game management.
Week 7: The first question that came to mind was, “How
in the world do you lose to the winless Miami Dolphins?” Even Buffalo
and Cincinnati managed to beat the Fins, and this was at a time when both
Buffalo and Cincinnati were considered bad teams. The official question for
this week, as submitted by Brother Nature was, “Why did you accept the
holding penalty with 30 seconds left in the first half, giving Miami another
third down attempt which resulted in a 42 yard touchdown pass and a jolt of
confidence for the struggling Dolphins?” If you had declined the penalty,
Miami would have faced fourth down and would probably have attempted a long
field goal of 49 yards. The longest field goal this season for Miami up to
that point had been 45 yards.
Week 8: Your team was on a bye week, which gave you a free
pass for the week. The BMTG correctly
predicted, however, that you would have something good for us the following
week.
Week 9: “Where did you learn clock management?”
You were down by 18 with 3:43 left in the game, had the ball on the three
yard line on first and goal, giving you the opportunity for a quick touchdown.
Throw quick passes against a depleted New England secondary? No, instead you
chose the following sequence: First play is a run for one yard. Clock runs
down to 3:12 before the next snap. Next play is another run, this time for
a loss of three yards. Clock runs down to 2:28, when The Scarecrow calls a
timeout with one second left on the play clock. On the third play, The Scarecrow
completes a pass short of the end zone and your team continues to show no
desire to stop the clock. The officials stop the clock for you as they assess
a holding call on one of your players, resulting in third and goal from about
the 13 with 2:19 to play. Those three plays took 1 minute and 24 seconds,
with the end result of a loss of 10 yards and the use of one timeout. The
next play was not seen because it was time to switch to NFL Prime Time. Granted,
your team did not have a great chance to catch up, but your clock management
showed that either you gave up or you don't know what you are doing. Instead
of running, you could have done what you love to do - throw the ball. Quick
passes into the end zone would have given you a good chance of scoring without
using much time.
Week 10: “Why did you use both of your challenges on
one drive in the first half?” The first challenge was understandable,
but the second was highly questionable. If you had competent people giving
advice on when to challenge, one look at the play should have been enough
to tell you to save your challenge for later, when a crucial situation might
come up.
Week 11: The question for you was permanently delayed for
this week as Brother Nature was unable to recover from your team’s thrashing
at the hands of the Buffalo Bills.
Week 12: There were three questions for you this week, two
of them related to your curious choices on what to do on fourth down. First,
“Why did you call a fake field goal on fourth and seven in the third
quarter?” A field goal would have put you within one score of the Packers
(touchdown and two-point conversion), instead the fake had no chance of success
as Wilkins found himself alone facing three defenders. Then, in the fourth
quarter, “Why do you punt on fourth down when you are down by two touchdowns
and are in enemy territory (Green Bay 37 yard line)?” Even though it
was fourth and 17, punting away guaranteed that Green Bay would be able to
just run the clock down. The end result was a 21-yard punt and there was less
than two minutes left in the game when you finally got the ball back. And
finally, “How do you have a quarterback throw for 448 yards and have
only 17 points to show for it?”
Week 13: “Why did you have your backup quarterback,
Crystal Chandelier, throw a pass on third and inches when your running game
was marching at will against the 49ers?” The Scarecrow had just been
knocked out of the game and Chandler was coming in cold. He did complete his
first pass to set up the third and short, but it was just foolish to call
another pass with Steven Jackson running so well.
Week 14: Chris Chandler, starting for the injured Scarecrow,
did a fantastic job of taking attention away from you by throwing six interceptions.
Therefore, there was no question for you this week.
Week 15: Things were so bad in St. Louis that the BMTG felt
it was not necessary to pile on this week.
Week 16: “Why did you call all of your timeouts before
the end of halftime when it was obvious that you would still not get the ball
back?” Philadelphia had first down with 42 seconds left and was content
to run the clock out. You took two timeouts and forced Philadelphia’s
exhibition quarterback to kneel down three times before the half could come
to an end. Was the purpose of this to get Philadelphia’s yards per carry
number down? Koy Detmer was credited with three runs for a total of –3
yards on the “drive.”
Week 17: Relating to your play selection at end of first
half, “When you had a first and goal at the two-minute warning, why
not run the ball and use some clock?” The first play was a reverse resulting
in a run out of bounds and a loss of three yards, the second play was an incomplete
pass, and the third play was an intercepted pass. Hardly any time was run
off the clock, giving the Jets plenty of time to do something. In the end
it did not matter as the Jets punted and you used one play to score on a 44-yard
pass, leaving the Jets one minute to burn.
In the end, the BMTG has concluded that there are far too many questionable moves made by you during games and has decided that the endless waves of criticism are warranted. If you wish to discuss any of the questions outlined above, Brother Nature has agreed to make himself available to you. He can be contacted at brothernature@usesoap.com.
Sincerely,
(SIGNED BY THE BMTG BIG FOUR)
CC
St. Louis Rams
Rudi Bakhtiar, CNN Headline News
Dr. Mary Schenkenberg, Princiapal, St. Louis University High School
Vince Ferragamo
Pat Haden