By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch
Monday, Dec. 20 2004
Rumors to the contrary, Rams coach Mike Martz has no plans to step down, and
Rams president John Shaw said the team has no plans to shove him out the door,
either.
"He's not in trouble," Shaw said in a telephone interview Monday night. "The
team is struggling right now and having a hard time winning games. We have to
work on getting it better."
Shaw said firing Martz has not been contemplated by the organization.
"It totally hasn't entered my mind," Shaw said. "His record speaks for itself.
He has the complete support of (owner) Georgia (Frontiere) and myself at this
point."
Martz is 51-32 in nearly five seasons with the club, including three playoff
berths, two division titles and one Super Bowl appearance.
Earlier in the day, at his regular Monday afternoon news conference, Martz
responded to media reports that he might resign if things didn't go well for
him the rest of this season.
"No, I would never resign from this job," Martz said. "I love this job. I would
never leave these guys. I wouldn't do that to this staff or these players. Like
I've told you many times, I'm too connected to this group - to this team.
There's no team that I would rather coach than this team regardless of the
record.
"There's something special about these guys. We're building. We've got a real
solid crew of young players, and it's going to eventually be a terrific
football team. I'm not going to ever walk away from something like that."
As he has mentioned in the past, Martz said he's coaching because he wants to
coach, not because he needs the money.
"I love being here," he said. "And that hasn't changed. We're going to forge
on, and get this thing back up and running the way it should be. And that's how
I look at it. I don't know any other way. That's just how I live my life. I'm
one of those guys where the glass is always half full. Not empty. And
sometimes, it's hard to look at it like that. But no. No. This guy's not going
anywhere. No way, Jose."
When asked if he thought the team's last two games might factor into his job
security, Martz said: "I don't know how to answer that. I guess you should
probably answer that. I can't tell you that.
"I would assume that we're going to play as well as we possibly can these last
two games. We know what our shortcomings are. We understand what needs to be
done, and where we need to fix things and get better at."
That being said, the team's performance over the past two months has been just
short of abysmal. After a 4-2 start, the Rams have lost six of their past eight
games. Making matters worse, the team hasn't really been competitive in any of
those six most recent losses.
Beginning with the shocking 31-14 loss to previously winless Miami on Oct. 24,
the Rams have been outscored 34-14 in those six setbacks, with five of the six
coming on the road. Most mind-boggling to Martz is the team's offensive
ineptitude the past two games without injured quarterback
Marc Bulger.
The Rams have scored only 14 points in their past two games with Chris Chandler
as the starting quarterback. And seven of those points came from the defense -
Leonard Little's 61-yard return of a recovered fumble against Arizona.
Sunday's 185 yards against the Big Red was the seventh-lowest offensive output
for the Rams since their move to St. Louis in 1995.
Chandler's ineptitude, and the fact that the Rams were starting two
inexperienced offensive linemen in Larry Turner and Blaine Saipaia, obviously
had something to do with the offensive struggles. Nonetheless, the fact that
the team had a season-low 10 rushing attempts against Arizona's 30th-ranked
rushing defense remains baffling. As does the fact that first-round draft pick
Steven Jackson, who's averaging 5 yards a carry, didn't play.
"Marshall (Faulk) stayed in the game for protection purposes," Martz said. "All
the things that they were doing, I'm not sure that Steven would have been able
to deal with. In fact, I know he wouldn't have been able to deal with some of
the pickups that we were asking him to do."
It was a puzzling statement considering Martz said about a month ago that he
had complete confidence in Jackson's blitz-pickup abilities.
Martz also repeated on Monday the startling admission that he didn't really
know whether Jackson was in the game against Arizona.
"How can I know?" Martz asked. "How can I call plays and do all that stuff, and
watch the defense? In the past, I'd say, 'Make sure that so-and-so is in
there.' Or if Marshall came out, which he very uncharacteristically would, I
see that. But I just don't concern myself with that.
"I (leave) that judgment to Marshall (Faulk) and to (running backs coach)
Wilbert (Montgomery), and well I should. I trust both of them very much. And
the judgment was that we needed Marshall in there for the protections.
Obviously, he ran very well. And very tough."
Faulk gained 22 yards in 10 carries - an average of 2.2 yards a carry.
"Why
Steven Jackson's an issue in not playing ... it kind of surprises me,"
Martz said. "It takes me back a little bit."
