Bernstein: Storm Clouds Gather Over Martz, Smith
Get ready for a week of forced bonhomie in the otherworldly Halas Hallways, with Mike Martz, Lovie Smith and Jay Cutler denying even the least bit of offensive conflict as they smile unconvincingly through gritted teeth.
We may remember yesterday as the game that sparked the inevitable -- Martz's videogame playcalling so disconnected from on-the-ground reality that everyone from the broadcast booth to the huddle itself sensed something bizarre and amiss.
The same thing happened in Detroit. And San Francisco.
The seeds of conflict were planted at the Meadowlands two weeks ago, when Cutler was planted into the ground an NFL-record nine times in the first half. It took days before we sorted through all the lying in the aftermath, finally learning that Cutler's concussion occurred earlier than the team said, and that Martz needlessly imperiled a quarterback who admits that much of the second quarter was a blur.
Martz's phony-baloney mea culpa, you'll recall, involved him taking responsibility for asking too much of the offense, which seems even sillier in the wake of yesterday's plan.
What was that, exactly, anyway?
Seven step drops to your own goal line? Treating a one-point disadvantage as if it were 20? Risking -- and then taking -- a third-quarter sack to take away a field goal chance? Pass patterns that more than once had two receivers in the same spot? Wasted timeouts due to misaligned formations? Short-edged protections for a skittish QB coming off a concussion? 0-12 on third down conversions?
Not that Martz was helped by the personnel, either. Neither tackle opened well enough to the outside to pick up blitzing defensive backs. Cutler's ability to find the hot receiver still seems as foggy as it was against the Giants. Johnny Knox and others were breaking routes opposite timed throws. Greg Olsen is not open.
This is why the Bears decided to make Martz unavailable for postgame interviews this season.
He will not talk to the media until Wednesday, by which time the stories will be arranged neatly, and the worries of fans and media will be dismissed as just so much negativity and noise around a first-place team.
But anyone who has heard Smith after games before took note of his tone yesterday. The normally anodyne drawl was edgy. The words were sharper.
There will be no Buddy Ryan vs. Kevin Gilbride moments with this crew -- they are too tightly controlled and concerned with image. Still, something has begun.
Say what you want about Smith, but defensively-bred head coaches are, traditionally, conservative thinkers when it comes to the other side of the ball, especially when an offensive line is shaky and a quarterback is running for his life. This age-old, fundamental conflict helped bring an end to Martz's tenure at his two previous stops.
GM Jerry Angelo, another product of the defensive coaching tree, was quoted before the game on WBBM-AM as wanting to see "...a little balance." In other words, they're not crazy.
The offensive coordinator, however, just might be.
