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Martz lashes out at players
By Jeff Gordon
STLtoday.com Sports
11/08/2004
Rams coach Mike Martz is tired of taking the fall for poor player performance.
So "Mad Mike" was "Really Angry Mike" on Monday – and he said as much during his news conference at Rams Park.
“This is my fifth year doing this,” Martz said. “I’ve never tried to mislead you, sugar-coat anything. If I’ve screwed something up, I’ll tell you. I try to take a bullet whenever I can for somebody to help them.
"There comes a time when some of these guys just have to play. They just have to play.
“Players make plays. That’s the way it is. That’s not a cop-out or brushing it off on guys. I’m upset. We’ve got some guys we’re counting on, they have to step up. That’s the way it is.”
Here are some other highlights of his heated chat with reporters:
-On his team’s sloppy play against the Patriots:
“That’s a good football team, they played very well. The mistakes we made in that game we obviously can’t do against a good football team. The fumbled punt . . . the fake field goal, obviously, the fumble before the half ends up being a six-point swing, potentially . . . those are the kinds of things that put the defense on a short field.
“The intensity was good, but we did not play well in certain areas. Those are things we have to rectify. We met today and made some changes. We kind of understand what needs to be done at this point; now it’s a question of getting it done.”
-On what changes may be made:
“We understand what our problems are, what we need to address. There may be some personnel changes. Just a couple things we have to address. There are things we can do. The problem is not real hard to identify. The solution is hard. I’m confident we will get that done.
“There are some things that rose up in this game that I didn’t believe were problems in the past. There are some areas that we’ve played very well in that we did not play very well in (Sunday). The consistency is what we need out of the guys.”
-On what went wrong on the Patriots’ fake field goal:
“We practiced that all week, the exact same thing, several times. Walked through it, talked about it, ran it. What had happened is they had lined up quickly, we were going onto the field, the two corners decided they were going to switch. One corner had a sore shoulder. As they were switching, (the Patriots) got the pass off.
“It’s one of those things. They recognized it, but they were caught in the middle of changing over. It ended up becoming a comedy of errors, really, more than anything else. The smart thing to do would have been to call time out. We recognized it . . . call a timeout is what you would have liked to do against the fake punt in Miami, too.
“It’s inexcusable, really. I’m really kind of at a loss for words on that."
-On holes in the rush defense:
“That is one of the issues that we needed to address. I think I have a pretty good understanding looking at the tape, what we needed to do. I talked to (defensive coordinator) Larry (Marmie) for quite some time this morning. I talked to our players. I have a pretty good feel for it.”
-On the holes in pass protection:
“We just didn’t play well there. They know that. It’s not a secret, we all saw it, we didn’t play very well. We’ve played much better in the past. I’m confident we’ll do that again. I’m disappointed, very disappointed, in the way we all played. We’re better than that, I think.”
-On changing his pass protection calls as the game progressed:
“Yeah, we did. The thing I got caught up in is there was such a mismatch, cover-wise, to throw four wide receivers out there, I just felt like we could block them. At the end of the game, we were.
“Right before the half, when Marc (Bulger) scrambles out of there and unfortunately makes a bad decision to try to throw the ball, we get the fumble, we had them all in blocking, basically – and we got pressure. Then what do you do? We have that sack coming out at the beginning of the second half where we got one, two, three, four, five, six guys, seven guys blocking and we get beat.
“When you’ve got a guy to block, you’ve got to block him. There weren’t any magical schemes that Bill (Belichick) did or they did. There wasn’t anything magical about it. When you’ve got to block a guy, you’ve got to block him.”
-On the failure to exploit receiver Troy Brown playing cornerback:
“We were able to get a guy or two open occasionally. Troy, for all his credit as a DB . . . it doesn’t take much to play defensive back when all you ever do is grab ahold of guys. We've got (pictures of Rams receiver Shaun McDonald) running across the field with (Brown) in his hip pocket. For the first seven yards, he’s got ahold of (McDonald's) jersey. I wouldn’t get too excited about him as DB.”
-On whether he fears for Bulger’s safety:
“Nah, shoot . . . we’ve got six or seven quarterbacks . . . of course I’m worried about his health. I’m worried about all our guys. I understand the issue with Marc.”
-On whether he considered throwing more slant passes to counter the pass rush:
“We did. We’re in the shotgun and we threw a bunch of slants, I think. Got it going. Then you’ve got to start getting some chunks when we’re down. We max protected, we changed up.”
-On the continuing failure to force turnovers:
“We’re not getting enough guys on the ball. We’re not gang-tackling. We’re not getting enough people on the ball carrier, plain and simple.
"We’re not getting off blocks, we’re not getting to the ball, not getting the ball out. It’s very clear. . . . They have to get off blocks and all 11 on the ball carrier, not rely on one or two guys to make a play.”
By Jeff Gordon
STLtoday.com Sports
11/08/2004
Rams coach Mike Martz is tired of taking the fall for poor player performance.
So "Mad Mike" was "Really Angry Mike" on Monday – and he said as much during his news conference at Rams Park.
“This is my fifth year doing this,” Martz said. “I’ve never tried to mislead you, sugar-coat anything. If I’ve screwed something up, I’ll tell you. I try to take a bullet whenever I can for somebody to help them.
"There comes a time when some of these guys just have to play. They just have to play.
“Players make plays. That’s the way it is. That’s not a cop-out or brushing it off on guys. I’m upset. We’ve got some guys we’re counting on, they have to step up. That’s the way it is.”
Here are some other highlights of his heated chat with reporters:
-On his team’s sloppy play against the Patriots:
“That’s a good football team, they played very well. The mistakes we made in that game we obviously can’t do against a good football team. The fumbled punt . . . the fake field goal, obviously, the fumble before the half ends up being a six-point swing, potentially . . . those are the kinds of things that put the defense on a short field.
“The intensity was good, but we did not play well in certain areas. Those are things we have to rectify. We met today and made some changes. We kind of understand what needs to be done at this point; now it’s a question of getting it done.”
-On what changes may be made:
“We understand what our problems are, what we need to address. There may be some personnel changes. Just a couple things we have to address. There are things we can do. The problem is not real hard to identify. The solution is hard. I’m confident we will get that done.
“There are some things that rose up in this game that I didn’t believe were problems in the past. There are some areas that we’ve played very well in that we did not play very well in (Sunday). The consistency is what we need out of the guys.”
-On what went wrong on the Patriots’ fake field goal:
“We practiced that all week, the exact same thing, several times. Walked through it, talked about it, ran it. What had happened is they had lined up quickly, we were going onto the field, the two corners decided they were going to switch. One corner had a sore shoulder. As they were switching, (the Patriots) got the pass off.
“It’s one of those things. They recognized it, but they were caught in the middle of changing over. It ended up becoming a comedy of errors, really, more than anything else. The smart thing to do would have been to call time out. We recognized it . . . call a timeout is what you would have liked to do against the fake punt in Miami, too.
“It’s inexcusable, really. I’m really kind of at a loss for words on that."
-On holes in the rush defense:
“That is one of the issues that we needed to address. I think I have a pretty good understanding looking at the tape, what we needed to do. I talked to (defensive coordinator) Larry (Marmie) for quite some time this morning. I talked to our players. I have a pretty good feel for it.”
-On the holes in pass protection:
“We just didn’t play well there. They know that. It’s not a secret, we all saw it, we didn’t play very well. We’ve played much better in the past. I’m confident we’ll do that again. I’m disappointed, very disappointed, in the way we all played. We’re better than that, I think.”
-On changing his pass protection calls as the game progressed:
“Yeah, we did. The thing I got caught up in is there was such a mismatch, cover-wise, to throw four wide receivers out there, I just felt like we could block them. At the end of the game, we were.
“Right before the half, when Marc (Bulger) scrambles out of there and unfortunately makes a bad decision to try to throw the ball, we get the fumble, we had them all in blocking, basically – and we got pressure. Then what do you do? We have that sack coming out at the beginning of the second half where we got one, two, three, four, five, six guys, seven guys blocking and we get beat.
“When you’ve got a guy to block, you’ve got to block him. There weren’t any magical schemes that Bill (Belichick) did or they did. There wasn’t anything magical about it. When you’ve got to block a guy, you’ve got to block him.”
-On the failure to exploit receiver Troy Brown playing cornerback:
“We were able to get a guy or two open occasionally. Troy, for all his credit as a DB . . . it doesn’t take much to play defensive back when all you ever do is grab ahold of guys. We've got (pictures of Rams receiver Shaun McDonald) running across the field with (Brown) in his hip pocket. For the first seven yards, he’s got ahold of (McDonald's) jersey. I wouldn’t get too excited about him as DB.”
-On whether he fears for Bulger’s safety:
“Nah, shoot . . . we’ve got six or seven quarterbacks . . . of course I’m worried about his health. I’m worried about all our guys. I understand the issue with Marc.”
-On whether he considered throwing more slant passes to counter the pass rush:
“We did. We’re in the shotgun and we threw a bunch of slants, I think. Got it going. Then you’ve got to start getting some chunks when we’re down. We max protected, we changed up.”
-On the continuing failure to force turnovers:
“We’re not getting enough guys on the ball. We’re not gang-tackling. We’re not getting enough people on the ball carrier, plain and simple.
"We’re not getting off blocks, we’re not getting to the ball, not getting the ball out. It’s very clear. . . . They have to get off blocks and all 11 on the ball carrier, not rely on one or two guys to make a play.”
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