It’s been a busy day for the Chicago Bears.

Just hours after the team announced that it had fired long time general manager Jerry Angelo, offensive coordinator Mike Martz announced his resignation. After his meeting with head coach Lovie Smith, Martz announced that he would not return to Chicago citing “philosophical differences over how the team could run its offense.” In a move not unrelated, quarterbacks coach Shane Day also chose to not return.

Right off the bat, commentators and fans alike wondered if Martz and the Chicago Bears could co-exist. Martz has always been a pass-oriented coach, while the Bears entire organization has always been committed to being a running team. Martz’s tenure was full of questions surrounding his play calling and pass/run balance. It seems that the discrepancy between Martz and the organization has finally caught up and they have chosen to go their separate ways.

While I’ve certainly had my questions about some of Martz’s decisions over the last two seasons, you wonder how this move will affect the development of the Bears offense. If I’m honest, prior to the injuries of Jay Cutler and Matt Forte, the offense looked decently threatening. For the first time in Martz’s time with Chicago, the offense starting looking like they were “getting it.” Combining with Jay Cutler’s clear improvement in the ball protection category, the offense looked like one that was good enough to carry the team far. It speaks to Jay Cutler’s quality that all of the Bears receivers virtually disappeared once he went down. Hopefully, the fact the players will all have to learn another offense won’t set back the progress they have made. Though, I have a feeling it will.

I would have liked to see Martz stick around. Had Cutler and company actually had a strong receiver to lead the corps and a consistent offensive line, I think they would have excelled. As it was, the final five games prior to Cutler’s injury saw the Bears score 39, 24, 30, 37, and 31 points. This was an offense that was getting the job done with virtually no consistent presence at receiver and an offensive line that varied greatly in quality from week to week. Whether that was Cutler, Forte, Martz, or a combination, the results were there. I hate to see Martz go right now. While I don’t have major problems with either, I think I would have rather seen Lovie Smith go before Martz.

It’s a business I guess.

Brian is a lifelong Chicago Bears fan, having lived in Illinois his entire life and having followed the NFL throughout.

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Martz Resigns

When Caleb Hanie threw 36 passes in Chicago’s loss at Oakland, critics howled that Mike Martz called too many passes, even though the Bears also ran for 172 yards in that game.

Martz listened. Chicago has thrown fewer than 30 passes in all four games since. And lost all four.

By the way, for all those who think Martz passes too much, the Bears did throw at least 30 times in four of the five games before that Oakland game. And won all five of them.

So, to recap, in the last 10 games, Chicago is 4-1 when it throws at least 30 passes and 1-4 when it throws 28 or fewer, and people still say Mike Martz throws too much.

Another history lesson:

When Ron Turner got ahold of Jay Cutler, the Bears threw 563 passes in 2009, the eighth-most in the NFL. Chicago ran 373 times that year, 29th-most in the NFL.

In one year, Chicago went from No. 8 in the NFL in pass attempts to dead last (No. 32) when Mike Martz took over as offensive coordinator, yet somehow his greatest fault was throwing too much? The Bears threw 52 times more than they ran last year. This year the Bears are 28th in the NFL in pass attempts and No. 8 in rushing attempts. In two years under Martz, the Bears have averaged 34.5 more passes in a season than rushing attempts, about one-sixth the 190-pass gap they had under Ron Turner. That’s about as balanced as you possibly can get running vs. passing.

And Mike Martz doesn’t just call runs. He makes those runs work. The Bears have averaged 4.5 yards per carry this year. That’s their highest mark since they also averaged 4.5 yards in both their 1985 Super Bowl season and their 14-2 year in 1986. The Bears also have more yards rushing in any season in the last 20 years except for 2005. They need 173 yards against Minnesota on Sunday to have their best running season of all in two decades.

And yet the Chicago Tribune web poll this week was whether or not Mike Martz was to blame for Chicago’s five-game losing streak. Forty-two percent said yes, that he should have adjusted the game plan more after Jay Cutler was injured.

Adjusted it to what? He kept calling more and more runs, but runs don’t lead to points without a few passes. The Bears ran all over Green Bay in the first half last week, yet still scored only three points until they turned Josh McCown loose in the second half.

In what has been a Jekyll and Hyde type season for the Chicago Bears, offensive coordinator Mike Martz has expressed interest in returning to Chicago next season. The question is do the Bears want him?

While you don’t want to lean too much on excuses, I think it’s fair to say much of the Bears’ collapse this season was due to the unfortunate amount of injuries they sustained to key players. When healthy, the Bears looked like a formidable opponent. The point is taken that injuries are a part of the game and a team should be prepared to carry on through them, but it can’t logically be thought that a team can sustain itself consistently when losing a starting quarterback and running back —especially when they are as essential as Jay Cutler and Matt Forte are to the Chicago Bears.

The point I’m getting at comes back around to offensive coordinator Mike Martz and his recent comments on his desire to stay in Chicago after this season. Essentially, you can’t really blame Martz for what happened to the offense post-Cutler and Forte. In reality, the Bears offense actually looked middle-to-upper tier prior to Cutler’s injury. During their five game winning streak prior to losing Cutler, the Bears scored 39, 24, 30, 37, and 31 points in those five games. Those are good point totals. Additionally, coming from someone that watches a whole lot of Bears football, these are nutty numbers for the Bears —who often have relied on a methodical, clock-controlling offense. Is this from Martz? That’s hard to say, but since he’s at the helm, he gets some credit. However, since Martz left his powerhouse St. Louis Rams in 2005, the highest yardage ranking his offenses have managed is 19th (2007 Detroit Lions) and the highest points scored ranking is 16th (’07 Lions). These certainly aren’t “offensive mastermind” numbers.

Most of the above looks like criticism. It’s not really meant to be, just some light number crunching. There are clearly countless unmentioned factors that go into all the numbers and stats listed above. Martz’s coaching history is full of gaudy numbers —mostly put up by the once-potent St. Louis Rams and their “Greatest Show on Turf.” The offenses he coaches don’t seem to have consistent results. Usually, the results come from having exceptional personnel on the field. While I will admit that to be the case in most instances throughout the NFL, Martz certainly falls into it. Regardless of why offenses succeed or fail, the Bears’ offense was unquestionably better this season prior to all the injuries. That’s enough for me to be alright with Martz coming back for another go. I also know it takes time for players to learn an offensive scheme.

As long as the Bears keep upgrading personnel and can stay healthy, they should continue to improve offensively. With that in mind, I’ll take Martz for another year.

Brian is a lifelong Chicago Bears fan, having lived in Illinois his entire life and having followed the NFL throughout.

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Martz, Williams Want to Return

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — The Chicago Bears placed quarterback Jay Cutler and running back Matt Forte on injured reserve on Tuesday, meaning they will miss the season finale at Minnesota this week.

The moves were hardly surprising given Chicago‘s recent struggles.

The Bears (7-8) have lost five straight since Cutler broke his right thumb late in a win over San Diego on Nov. 20, and things took another bad turn two weeks later when Forte sprained the medial collateral ligament in his right knee against Kansas City.

Cutler, who was scheduled to have surgically inserted pins removed Tuesday, threw for 2,319 yards with 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

Forte finished with 997 yards rushing and 490 receiving and was selected to his first Pro Bowl hours after being placed on IR. He’s the first Chicago running back to make it since Neal Anderson following the 1991 season.

With Cutler and Forte on IR, the Bears elevated defensive tackle Jordan Miller from the practice squad and signed guard Mansfield Wrotto.

Chicago also announced on its website that rookie offensive lineman Gabe Carimi had surgery Tuesday on his right knee to repair connective tissue around his patella and medial collateral ligament.

The first-round pick started the first two games before injuring his knee and briefly returned to practice before having an arthroscopic procedure on the knee in November.

He is expected to be ready before the start of training camp.

Cutler’s injury sent Chicago into a tailspin, knocking out of contention a team that appeared on its way to the playoffs after last year’s run to the NFC title game.

The Bears were eliminated with a loss at Green Bay on Sunday, but they were just about out of it by the time they arrived at Lambeau Field.

One reason was the lack of a reliable backup quarterback.

Chicago put in a waiver claim on Kyle Orton after Cutler went down, but Kansas City had priority and got him. The Bears wound up signing Josh McCown, who was coaching quarterbacks at a North Carolina high school, and passed on going after Donovan McNabb after Minnesota let him go.

Meanwhile, backup Caleb Hanie struggled and went 0-4 as the starter. McCown got the nod against the Packers and performed better, throwing for 242 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions in his first NFL appearance since 2009, but the Bears saw their playoff hopes vanish in a 35-21 loss.

A healthy Forte might have made a difference, but his season ended when he took a hit to the knee against Kansas City. It didn’t help that backup Marion Barber committed costly mistakes in losses to the Chiefs and Denver the following week.

He had a touchdown catch in a 10-3 loss to Kansas City called off because he lined up illegally, forcing Chicago to settle for a field goal, and things only got worse for him the following week.

Barber got pushed out of bounds on a run near the end of regulation, helping give Denver enough time to tie the game. In overtime, his fumble led to the winning field goal

NEW ORLEANS—

Ten things to take away from the Chicago Bears’ 30-13 loss Sunday to the New Orleans Saints:

1. The question was posed to Olin Kreutz in a loose Saints locker room Sunday afternoon: Had he seen that Mike Martz gameplan before? You know, the one where the run is more of an inconvenience or a bore than anything else. You know, the one where Martz is intent on putting his routes on display for a big show and for defensive coaches to fear. The man takes a rap for being ego-driven at times and this is why.

“Oh, I don’t know that,” Kreutz replied.

Sure he does. Of course, the former Chicago Bears center wasn’t going to say anything. But you bet he recognized the return of the rogue play-caller. Even as Kreutz sat on the New Orleans bench studying the Bears defense while his defensive teammates were on the field, he had to have an idea what was going on. Martz was putting Jay Cutler in a difficult position to succeed, and where there were plays to be made, Cutler didn’t capitalize. It’s what you’ve had to wonder about since training camp opened — which Martz would show up?

The Bears got good in the second half of last season when the play-calling balanced out. In the final nine games, they ran the ball more than they passed it seven times. The two times there were more passes? Both of those games were losses. A direct reason why? Maybe not. The New England Patriots pounded the Bears’ defense in Week 14. But it’s fair to correlate success in the victories with the running game.

Before we go any further, realize any efforts to spin the run-to-pass ratio in Sunday’s 30-13 loss to the Saints as play calling by necessity are wrong. The Bears didn’t wind up with 52 pass calls (45 Cutler passes, one scramble, six sacks) and 11 run calls because the game got out of hand early in the fourth quarter. When the score was 16-13 after New Orleans defensive end Turk McBride blew around tight end Kellen Davis on the left side to sack and strip Cutler at the Bears’ 29-yard line, 10:02 remained on the clock in the third quarter.

“We expected to see about 50 percent of the plays (be) blitzes,” Davis said. “I was just a little bit late off the ball on the sack. We’ve just got to do a better job. I have no doubt the Packers are going to try to blitz us next week. We’ve got to go watch the tape and make the corrections. We tried to fight through it but it just didn’t happen. We didn’t get many breaks. It’s just one of those days, man.”

That was the first sack allowed. At that point Martz had called 29 passes and 10 runs, nearly a 3:1 ratio. The Bears trailed by a field goal largely because the defense had repeatedly forced the Saints’ John Kasay to kick field goals. More punishment followed. Cutler got kicked in the throat and that made it hard for him to speak afterward. He was sacked a total of six times – all in the final 25:02 of the game.

In the end, the Bears had 12 rushing attempts, tying for the second-fewest in franchise history, accomplished four times previously. The most recent? Remember the ugly 41-21 home loss to Arizona in 2009? The Bears had 12 rushes that game and three weeks later they had only 11 in a 36-10 loss at Minnesota. Offensive coordinator Ron Turner was fired five weeks later.

Martz came close to 11 last season. Twice, the Bears rushed the ball only 14 times in 2010. Twice, they only 16 times.

Should Martz have balanced out the play calling more?

“I don’t know,” Cutler said. “You have to talk to Mike about that. You get in a hole like we were down two, three scores, you’re going to have to throw the ball a little bit. With Matt (Forte), I think we have to get Matt going early on. We have to set the tone with him and get the ball to him because he’s obviously one of our better players.”

Forte busted off a 42-yard run on the first play of the second offensive series. It was the pivotal play on an 87-yard scoring drive that provided an early 7-0 lead. Fill-in right guard Chris Spencer made a nice block and Davis had another good one to spring Forte. He got just eight more carries the rest of the game.

“We didn’t really run the ball after that a lot,” Forte said. “When you get behind you’ve got to throw the ball like that. It’s kind of a tough situation.

“A lot of times there were more guys than we could block. We’ve got to get better at the hot routes.”

That’s the second part of the equation here. The analysis of six sacks in the second half starts with the play of the line and the play selection, but this wasn’t man-on-man blocking being defeated. The Saints didn’t have a one-man wrecking ball. New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams blitzed heavily, overmatching the Bears with more defenders than they could block. In those situations, the hot routes should be there.

Williams rolled the dice like he was in a casino and Martz and Cutler never made him pay with anything other than dump-offs to Forte, who made a regular season career-high 10 receptions. You might recall Forte also made 10 catches in the NFC Championship Game last season. The results of that game and this one are proof that it’s never good to have a back catching that many balls. Sure, it’s a sign of a receiver with great hands and all that good stuff. More importantly, it’s a sign the offense is broken and lacking wide receivers to make critical plays.

Consider also the Bears were playing with a new right guard in Spencer, and rookie right tackle Gabe Carimi was lost at halftime with a right knee injury (more on that later) forcing Frank Omiyale into action. If Martz took those factors into account, it hardly showed.

2. Nobody has played in more Bears-Packers games than Doug Buffone, who spent 14 seasons in a Bears uniform from 1966 to 1979. In the first 10 years of his careers, the rivals squared off annually in preseason giving them three meetings a year.