Martz should hold his pal accountable
By
Bernie Miklasz
Of the Post-Dispatch
Sunday, Jan. 16 2005
ATLANTA - It was the kind of sorry, no-account effort that would, under normal
circumstances, get a defensive coordinator fired.
Unless, of course, you are the head coach's pal.
Rams defensive coordinator Larry Marmie may not have a job for life, but surely
head coach Mike Martz will bring him back. It will be a long offseason for
Marmie. He will incur the wrath of Rams fans, and he will wonder why he
couldn't get his guys to play hard with the stakes so high.
In one of the most pathetic defensive performances in NFL postseason history,
the Rams were run out of football's Vicksburg, all but cowering under the
extreme force of Atlanta's unique, multi-dimensional running attack.
What happened Saturday night in Atlanta was ludicrous ... or with a nod to
Atlanta's hip-hop star, Ludacris.
In Atlanta's absurdly easy 47-17 victory, the Martz-Marmie combination was
ravaged for 327 yards rushing. The Falcons side-stepped fallen Rams defenders
to advance to the NFC Championship Game.
Tripping and suffering a fluke injury was about the only risk for Atlanta's
"DVD" production team of halfback Warrick Dunn, quarterback Michael Vick and
power back T.J. Duckett. Vick could have broken an ankle trying to skip and hop
over Rams scattered around the floor of the Georgia Dome.
"We are sick right now," Rams safety Antuan Edwards said.
Actually, they should have called in sick.
Falcons coach Jim Mora must have gone temporarily mad because he took a foolish
risk in leaving Vick in the game for as long as he did. Mora could have had
Vick take a knee in the final two minutes to run out the clock, but Mora tacked
on another TD instead. Was heaping a little extra embarrassment on Martz really
so important?
Fortunately for Atlanta, Vick left the building unscathed, and virtually
untouched. The Rams couldn't even rent this DVD, let alone tackle it.
"It felt like we were playing with handcuffs on," Rams defensive end Bryce
Fisher said.
Now and then, the Falcons showed mercy by attempting a pass. Usually teams try
to avoid running up the score by keeping the ball on the ground. Not this time.
On the ground, the Falcons ran it up and rubbed it in.
Marmie apparently schooled the Rams defenders on the rules of two-hand touch
football because they barely hit anyone all evening. There's more physical
contact in the Atlanta nightclubs. The Falcons smacked the Rams defense in the
mouth, opened a few cuts, and the Rams' defensive squad all but fled to
Savannah ... soon followed by the Rams' punt-coverage unit, which was
humiliated by returner-sprinter Allen Rossum.
How helpless were the Rams?
"Our linebackers and safeties were calling out the plays the Falcons were going
to run," Fisher said. "And we still couldn't stop them. They shoved it down our
throats."
Well, so much for the illusion that the Rams had reinvented themselves,
supposedly morphing from an 8-8 pile of mediocrity into a Super Bowl contender.
The Rams discovered early that this wasn't Seattle. The fast and furious
Falcons are the new generation of offense. They picked up the baton that the
dazzling Rams' offense (1999-2001) dropped.
This brought back memories of covering the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. The
Falcons were a track team, leaping over Rams disguised as high hurdles. Dunn
won the gold, Vick the silver and Duckett the bronze.
On defense, and on punt coverage, the Rams tried to play a game of tag ... and
lost. That was unforgivable. Yes, this defense lacks muscle and big-play
ability, so deficiencies will be exposed. This team doesn't have one linebacker
capable of stepping into the hole to intimidate with a thundering hit. But
limitations aside, where was the desire to compete? This is the NFL postseason.
Surrender isn't an option. You give it all you have or turn in your helmet and
find a new career.
"The team showed a lot of character this season to make it to the playoffs,"
defensive tackle Ryan Pickett said. "We could have thrown in the towel, but we
fought back."
Not on Saturday; this fight was stopped early. The Rams defense didn't come
close to putting their hearts on the line. As Fox analyst Daryl Johnston said
of the Rams' defense in the first half: "They are not playing. They are not
matching the intensity of the Falcons."
And that was an understatement.
Players on the Rams defense should feel ashamed after watching gutsy teammate
Marc Bulger never lose his will as he absorbed terrible punishment. In passing
for 299 yards and two touchdowns, Bulger revealed more toughness and courage
than every member of the Rams defense combined. Bulger endured a vicious
beating, and appears to have played the second half with a broken thumb. But he
always got up to go at the Falcons again. How can the defensive personnel look
Bulger in the eye?
Physical ambivalence aside, the Rams' defense also seemed to line up
incorrectly at times, shifting into fronts that the Falcons easily exploited.
That's why it's fair to hold Marmie accountable. His defense wasn't prepared.
Not emotionally, not strategically, not in any way. It was a total failure.
In the past Martz hasn't hesitated to fire a special teams coach for
disgraceful, unacceptable results. Question: Will Martz apply the same standard
to his buddy Marmie?
Saturday night, the Rams defense handed out free passes to the Falcons. I'm
sure Martz managed to save one for Marmie.
Linear Mode
