I've been very critical of Da Bears' Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz. And rightfully so. But this past Sunday, Martz called a game like his job is on the line at the end of the season. (That's because it is).
I know that he had almost eight months to game plan for the Falcons, but I'm giving him credit because he seemed to have used that time wisely. Atlanta uses a lot of Cover 3 on defense along with some Cover 1, as opposed to Da Bears who use Cover 2 as a base defense. In a Cover 3, the defense deploys THREE defensive backs to COVER a deep third of the field; ergo, Cover 3. Martz attacked Atlanta's Cover 3 defense with an OVS (outside vertical stretch). The OVS is a three-level route concept with a fade (9), corner (7), and a man in the flat. The fade is a deep route, the flat is a short route no deeper than 15 yards, and the corner is in between as far as route-depth goes, which runs outside of the numbers. This forces the deep backs, usually a safety, to make a choice on which route to jump. But here's the kicker, no matter which of the deeper routes they choose to defend, the other will be open. It's a pick your poison situation.
That's why we saw Roy Williams and Johnny Knox make wide-open receptions during Sunday's contest. It was nice play-calling on Martz' part, along with the proper route-depth and execution by the receivers. Of course, a lot had to do with QB Jay Cutler who was able to spread the ball around and complete passes to eight different receivers. Cutler completed 22 passes on 32 attempts for 312 passing yards and 2 touchdowns. Cutler's offseason work to improve his footwork and throwing mechanics made a difference. He can be better though, in hitting his receivers in stride to extend the play with more YAC (yards after the catch).
While the Offensive-line wasn't particularly impressive from an individual standpoint, they were decent as a unit. They were able to allow Cutler the time to make his seven-step drops and for the receivers the get their proper route-depth to get their timing down respectively and execute the plays called. The offense was effective, but giving up five sacks is still unacceptable. They need to work on that as an entire unit as two of the five sacks were Cutler's fault for holding on to the ball too long.
The play-calling was nearly impeccable. Martz also did a nice job calling run plays and screens early at Atlanta's defensive-ends to try to neutralize them as they were aggressively trying to get up-field and reach the QB. Matt Forte has amazing vision. With a few blocks and a Weatherspoon mistackle, Forte sprung for a for a 56 yard touchdown on a screen-pass.
In early 3rd down situations against the Cover 1, Martz used motion to create a bunch formation, which will allow at least one of the receivers to get a free-release off of the line of scrimmage. He often uses a lot of pre-snap motion to create a lot of moving parts or "window-dressing" to confuse the defense, create a mismatch, and make it tough for the secondary to get a good read. All this, in turn, will help beat most defenses, particularly the Cover 1.
Martz also kept it simple in knowing that you if just get the ball to your play-maker in space, good things can happen. This is what occurred when he called a missile screen, or bubble screen for Devin Hester. Hester is crazy-good in the open-field, especially when he gets blocks down-field like he did when he brought the ball down to the 1 yard-line. My only gripe is that has to FINISH the play. Even though they didn't have a camera angle with indisputable evidence, I'm sure he did, in fact, cross the goal-line with the ball. But make it a no-brainer, jump, dive, do something! I bet if he was still receiving bounties from the University of Miami he would've made sure the ball was clearly across the goal-line.
And finally, the play-designs on a few that Martz called, were simply brilliant. It turned out to be just an incompletion, but the play where Cutler rolled right and sold the play to the defense perfectly and over-threw a WIDE WIDE WIDE-OPEN Kellen Davis, was just masterful. I'm anxious to see what else he has in that voluminous playbook.
The offense made three red-zone appearances in the first half and only accumulated nine points. The incompletion was one result of that, but that's WAY too many points being left on the field.
That can't happen, especially on the road in New Orleans.
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