I wrote this week that Bears coach Lovie Smith needs to rein in his offensive coordinator, Mike Martz, after Martz called 52 passes and 11 runs in the Bears’ loss to the Saints. Martz has since admitted that he needed to do a better job of balancing the Bears’ offense.
“If you’re looking for blame, just blame me. It was one of those things that happened. I did a poor job of coaching, and we didn’t play very good,” Martz said.
Smith didn’t exactly throw Martz under the bus this week, but he did say the Bears’ offense needs more balance. That raises the question of why Smith didn’t demand more offensive balance during the game, by telling Martz to call more running plays. Martz said that Smith leaves the offensive play calling to him on Sundays.
“That’s kind of not how we do things,” Martz said of Smith ordering him to call more runs. “Lovie has great trust in what we’re doing and understands that. I think he understood too a lot of the issues that we were dealing with.
Martz will need to do a better job dealing with those issues on Sunday against the Packers.
