Mike Martz does not want to be John Wayne

If only it were as simple as Mike Martz describes it.

The Chicago Bears offensive coordinator asked for you to place all of the blame squarely on him for the stinker the team produced last Sunday night in a 17-3 loss to the New York Giants.

The Bears surrendered a franchise record 10 sacks, got two quarterbacks knocked out and totaled only 110 yards offense, the lowest output by the Bears since Cade McNown openly admitted he wasn’t prepared for a 2000 game at San Francisco when the Bears managed only 104 yards and failed to cross the 50-yard line.

Yes, it was that bad Sunday night, and any time you get compared to McNown, that’s ugly.

“Let me just tell you guys this, I just feel terrible," Martz said. "The defense had a great effort. I just tried to do way too much in a short week with these guys. They are not ready for that.

"We have a bunch of young guys trying to learn how to play and we lost our poise, got on our heels and couldn't do much of anything right. That's an old coach's fault right there. … .

"Preparation for that game, we felt good about it but it was just way too much for these guys to deal with so just leave it at that.

"These guys are going to be fine. I promise you they will be just fine. We'll make sure of that. We're going to make some adjustments. Got a little bit too aggressive in terms of what we were doing and I am a better coach than that."

The Bears didn’t look like they were trying to do much and for the most part they were beat – or decimated – by four-man rushes. It’s never as simple as a coach saying he didn’t have his team ready, or he was trying to do much. The truth of the matter is the Bears had issues in their 3-0 start and they positively have not been able to run the ball.

"I've gone through this before and I hate to admit this to you, I'm not trying to be John Wayne,” Martz said. “John Wayne died a long time ago. It's painful to stand here and tell you this, but that's just the way it is."

At least we’ve cleared that up. Martz isn’t trying to be Wayne. And Wayne is no longer among the living.

Follow me on Twitter: BradBiggs

Click here to win cash today playing fantasy football with the NFP and FanDuel

Upcoming Games