Offensive coordinator Mike Martz took a brief break from his game-planning to face the Rams this week to explain what happened in the final hectic minute.
He discussed the confusion in the final minute and how he really didn't learn what had actually occurred until he spoke on the phone this morning with former 49ers coach Mike Nolan.
* * *
"There was a lot of confusion there at the time. The other thing that I wish had happened," Martz said, "is that officials always come over and explain to you what's going to happen based on what they saw on the replay. And for whatever reason they neglected to do that. That's a courtesy that's always afforded. Why they didn't do that, I don't know.
"We did not know the ball was going to be on the 3 1/2 (actually, the 2 1/2) or obviously we never would've called that play. We thought we were going to be given back time on the clock, and somewhere around the 1-yard line. The play gained two yards, so it's a moot point whether it was the the 1 or 1 1/2. He would've scored."
Q: Why did you think it was at the half-yard line? (The ball was spotted after Frank Gore's run at the 1 1/2.)
Martz: That's what I could see out there. From where I was standing . . . then they walked it off at the last second and said it's going to start at the official's whistle. I thought the quarterback did a great job because the back (Gore) was supposed to motion out on the play. And he wouldn't have had time to motion out. He told him just to go ahead and line up out there.
"If they'd moved it back to the 10-yard line, we wouldn't have had time to change the play. It wouldn't have mattered. We had to run that play. So I thought that was unfortunate. We were trying to spike the ball. Had we been allowed to spike the ball, none of that would've happened. The clock was stopped and we could've gotten in the personnel we wanted. You can do a play you want."
Q: Why not spike the ball with four seconds left?
Martz: I didn't know it was the 3 1/2 until this morning. I didn't know. I left the stadium thinking we didn't make it from the 1 1/2 or 1 yard line. I couldn't believe we couldn't punch it in from the 1-yard line. I was upset with that. I couldn't see from where I was.
Q: Shouldn't the guys in the booth be feeding you that information?
Martz: "When they spot the ball (and wind the clock) and say, 'You got to spike it, you got to spike it.' There's no headset on. With 15 seconds you can't talk to the quarterback. What are you going to do."
Q: At what point are you watching the film and realize where the ball really was?
Martz: "I got a call from Mike Nolan this morning and he knew exactly what happened. He's the only one smart enough to look at the TV and he knew immediately. He's the only one who really knows football well to know exactly what happened."
Q: What did he say?
Martz: "He said, 'You got victimized by the replay.' Which is basically what happened. Because if we'd been allowed to get that spike . . . Just angry and frustrated with the way that whole thing developed. Nobody really to blame, other than a lack of communication."
Q: Before that when Jason Hill was stopped at the 1-yard line. What happened there?
Martz: "That was chaos that I created on the sideline. I did a bad job there. We were trying to spike it and I called a personnel change. And the personnel change went in when we were trying to spike it. There was a lot of confusion. I just went too fast with everything and created too much confusion. That's my fault, more than anything else. And then poor Shaun (Hill) is standing there waiting for everybody to get off the field. It was just a bad job of coaching on my part. I knew what we wanted to do. I called out two different things at the same time and it all happened at the same time.
"I wanted to spike it and (then) get the personnel group in." (The 49ers were trying to get their "tank" group on the field, which they use in goal-line situations.)
"I was excited. I knew we were going to score. I wanted to get the personnel group in quickly and we got this thing rolling. I screwed it up, basically."
Q: Were you impressed with how Shaun Hill calmed things down?
Martz: "I love his demeanor in the game. I don't like his mistakes. The one interception was just a very poor decision. The other interception he got fooled a little by the receiver. He was going one way and when he threw it, he took off going another way."
The underhand shovel pass that was intercepted was Gore's fault, Martz said. Gore broke a rule that Martz has when a quarterback is scrambling. Gore should have continued to run the direction he was going instead of going upfield.
Q: After the replay review, why did you think you'd get 12 seconds put back on the clock instead of :04?
Martz: "That's what we were told over the headset from upstairs. We have some experts up there who are affiliated with that. And not to go any further about it, (we were told) you should be getting 12 seconds back on the clock and we didn't get. Why we thought that, I don't know."
* * *
"I got a call from Mike Nolan this morning and he knew exactly what happened. He's the only one smart enough to look at the TV and he knew immediately. He's the only one who really knows football well to know exactly what happened."
Enough said.
So what does this mean really? "He's the only one smart enough to look at the TV and he knew immediately. He's the only one who really knows football well to know exactly what happened." Is this a jab at coach Singletary?
So how come Nolan never knew what to do when he was on the sidelines? Martz is an idiot. He screwed up the whole sequence, called the wrong plays. Maybe Tollner should be the OC for the rest of the year.
I thought he meant of all the people he's talked to or all the talkingheads going off about it? Nice to see him take the blame for the miscommunication on the spike. That was poor.
Matt, with the way this year is going, do you think Mike Martz will be back as OC? I doubt he will have many HC offers based on this season. Thoughts?
If he is back that would be some continuity.
What Martz is saying is that Nolan knows that the coaches can't hear anything from the sideline. Nolan also knew that the sideline did not get the word that the ball had been moved back. So Nolan figured that the play call for Robinson was designed for a situation in which they were closer than 2 1/2 yards from the end zone. Therefore, Nolan knew that it was not the call that Martz wanted to make, if he had known the ball had been moved back a yard. --Matt M.
Thanks for clearing that up for us Matt. That sounds reasonable that Coach Nolan would know that. I'm sure all coach's watching thought the same thing. Sounds like Martz meant of the people he had talked to.(Maybe?)
The explanation makes sense to me, but raises two questions:
1. What is the QB supposed to do when he has no timeouts and Martz sends in a play call that is obviously out of whack with the first down line or goal line. Run it as called? Make his own decision to fake the play and bootleg?
2. Was the confusion we saw in the last 12 seconds a product of Hill getting so few reps in training camp?
One other point, the ending is overshadowing the fact that Martz is perfectly capable of running an offense that suits the 49ers.
Refer to my post earlier this morning about Shaun Hill. He was the only one who kept his head. His poise was remarkable during the final minute when everybody was panicking around him. Heck, even after the ball was moved back, he has the poise to tell Gore to split out wide to the left instead of going in motion as was the design of the play. He knew if Gore went in motion, time would run out before the ball could be snapped. --Matt M.
On your last point, I agree with you. Some continuity would really benefit this offense, I think. Martz may take off if he gets a HC gig, but I am not sure he gets one at this point. I would not at all be upset if Singletary and Martz are around next year, barring a 2nd half disaster.
seems to me that m-martz was towing the company line when he said he was o.k. with 'sing's' promotion to h.c. but his comments regarding m-noland' high football i.q. did seem to be an indirect poke at 'sing.' this relationship may become a m-ditka v. b-ryan type powderkeg (without the win's) which could explode at any moment. 'sing' will make some mistakes along the way, after all this is his first h.c'ng gig, but the one thing i liked about last night was that his team played with fresh exuberance, energy, and greater passion. 'sing' will learn how to temper and direct his competitive nature in a more positive way as the season moves along. last night the niners played a better team and had them on the brink of defeat by being a few yards short, but what i saw was team that is going to make a true and concerted effort to change a losing culture and that bodes well for the future.
Is it normal for officials to start the play clock on when the ball is set again after a review or are they supposed to start the clock when the next play begins?
Sounds like GORE did make more than one mistake in the game, (the int, the falling down on the 1yrd line, the dropped pass on 3rd down).....but i guess we can't be mad at him..
Please, Mike Nolan the field general who screwed up on the sidelines so many times and got fired now understand while watching TV? Maybe he should have just stay home and watched TV and called in the plays for the last 3 1/2 years?
O.K., now that the loss is over and folks have had time to lick their wounds so to speak, wanted to mention that it was nice to see Zeigler got his chance to contribute to an "almost win". He had a nice catch and run. Don't think he got in many plays but did get to make a play. Way to step up.
Martz's "explanation" is insufficient to say the least.
Why call two plays in the huddle, make them both running plays (with so little time left), and make the second *contingent* on not losing yardage on the first run. Was Martz trying to make a point? To AZ, the TV audience, or Singletary?
On the last drive, Shaun played calmly and well. Why not give him at least one shot into the end zone, preferrably at Jason Hill who was also playing well, or to Gore?
How the h do you not know where the ball is spotted? Aren't your 'experts' up in the booth watching the replay too? Oh, yeah, the expert is Paraag.
If you thought there were 12 seconds why not spike it? Why not snap it and spike it with 4 seconds (or 1) left, just to get your sh*t together? - Notice, Martz really didn't answer that question.
If you have to rely on Mike Nolan to be your source of info a day later, you really have a problem.
Reality? Martz flat out panicked. Lost his composure like a school girl and didn't get it done. Now maybe we played crappy enough to lose anyway, but the point is, a good competent NFL team, given a chance to steal a win they don't deserve, finds that way to win. A bad team, with bad coaching, finds a way to lose.
Clearly, Singletary was less than thrilled with Martz at times and their philosophies are not compatible. It may well be that BOTH will be gone in 2009. But at the very least, it certainly appears that ONE of them needs to go. I vote Martz.
After watching the game I felt encouraged about the future of the team. Sucks that the 49'ers lost, but what I saw was a team that left there hearts out on that field and played tough physical football. Also, I like that Samurai Mike played the young WRs. We got some talent there with Hill, Morgan, and Zeigler. Now if we can at Crabtree from Texas Tech to go along with them and Arnez Battle, then I think that is a great young WR corp.
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pop Warner teams are more organized and on the ball! We, 49er fans, have to take off the rose colored glasses. Singletary is top quality person, but NOT a head coach. The head coach HAS to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. Martz is a joke! Hill is a decent back-up, nothing more. Last, but not least, LUCKY SPERM JED, the face of ownership. Where is his red nose and big floppy shoes, because he is a clown. Worst ownership in team sports, and that is saying something with Al Davis accross the bay. It all starts at the top, just take a look at the Dolphins,1-15 last year, 5-4 this year. Boycott the stadium! DO NOT renew season tickets! Send the thick headed Yorks a message,"we're mad as hell, and we are not going to take it anymore!!!!".
Hi Matt, How foolish for Martz to say that Nolan was the only one to see something on the field. In four years he couldn't see past the end of his nose. The worst game coach I've seen in my 55 years of watching the NFL. When teams are going bad they find creative ways to lose.
It is interesting reading all this hysteria. I mean - what can be easier to understand - they screwed up in the last minute? Why? Because there were lots of people in this situation for the first time. But what about trying to see the bigger picture? Assuming the Cardinals are a good team, the Niners made a big step forward, just by being competitive on the road, with the entire nation watching. And what were the changes that made them competitive? Singletary. Hill. Hill. Zeigler. VD. Rachal. Zeigler. All this, in just one bye week. You'all are complaining that the golden egg has a bit of mud and crap on it. Instead of noticing that you now have a goose that lays 'em. Sheesh. :)
Obviously, this season is lost, but what I want to see from this team, and Singletary, is be competitive all the way through. Play there hearts out, and leave everything out on the field. Last night was a good sign off that. Also, I for one would love to Singletary back with his own staff he assembles. Remember he is coaching with Nolan's staff. So it will be hard to assess his performance. We need to assess Mike Singletary for a full season with his own staff. Moreover, I love it that Singletary is playing the young guys like Zeigler, J. Hill, Rachel, and Morgan. Hopefully when Dashon Golston can get healthy have him start as FS instead of Roman.
What a shock. The people upstairs didn't know what was going on, the coaches didn't know what was going on and the players did not know what was going on. As a football fan I know the rules and what is going to happen with a challenge and the clock - how is it possible that these goofs don't know?
Sorry folks but this is not going to change while the Yorks own the team. It does not matter one bit if it's John or Jed calling the shots. The Yorks are idiots and there is one thing I know - its that idiots hire idiots, who hire Idiots who sign and draft idiots. The team brings dysfunction to a new level.
I love this team (always have always will) but I have zero hope that it's ever going to get better while the Yorks have control of this team.
We only have 2 people in this entire organization who should have anything to do with NFL football and they are Willis & Gore; unfortunatly with his medical history Gore only has 2 years left. Since the Yorks have taken over this team we have re-built it twice and are going to do it again for the third time in 9 years.
Last thought - Walt Harris, Mark Roman and Michael Lewis are garbage. Those three should not play one more down for the rest of the season and then they should be cut. The three of them combined couldn't cover a dead sloth from catching a pass.
Of course it might be useful for everyone to actually watch the replay, especially the one from behind the offense looking at the line play. It becomes clear what happened. Instead we get excuses.
This is not a joke (oh, but I guess it is in a sick sort of way ...). I received the following email tonight from the SF 49er's:
"As a part of our continuing efforts to ensure we are meeting the needs of our fans, we are working with a sports market research company that specializes in customer satisfaction studies. They will be conducting a focus group session to research fans' opinions, thoughts and general impressions on a variety of topics related to the 49ers and the game day experience. As a valued member of the 49ers family, we would like to invite you to participate in this group session."
Since 2003, after the York's fired Steve Mariucci for finishing 1st in their division and making the playoffs, this team has stunk. We fans, in the last four and 1/2 seasons, have suffered through two lousy coaches, a crumbling stadium and a team that is barely winning 1 out of every four games. The current team is on a six game losing streak and heading toward an early 1st round pick, and ownerships inspired response is to hire a coach who can't keep his pants on AND THEN hold a focus group to see if fans are happy. ARE YOU FRIGGIN' KIDDING ME???
This is a franchise heading no where.
My only saving grace is next year, when I don't renew my season tickets for the first time in 10 years, I will at least revel in the knowledge that I have not lined the pockets of the most inept ownership in the history of all sport.
Why DIDN'T we get 12 seconds on the clock?
it was an entertaining game thanks to arizona not being all that great....
my only comment is that players play the game coaches are on the sidelines....the QB is the captain on the field and by virtue of that moniker should be cognizant of time on clock, distance, and down count.
I think the turmoil probably was accentuated because i think the helmet microphone was not available once the ref made the replay decision....
so again i point to the QB as being the leader that should have made the decision and he didn't...
ok another comment...if martz took a swipe at singletary, i would take that as an indicator he will not be around next year nor will jto, and if smith liked martz that much he may not as well and maybe shouldn't be anyways since baggage is what it is.
It is going to be a rough rough off season maybe rougher than the past
blah blah blah...I am actually more pissed the cardinals will make the playoffs
I appreciate Martz's candor in this interview but I'm still a little apprehensive about all the honesty. Maybe Singletary created this open approach with the media after the Seattle game and then again after he said Martz called the final play of the Cardinal game. In this interview, Martz openly blames the officials, the guys in the booth (Paraag Marathe?), Frank Gore, and Shaun Hill, and himself for mistakes. He also says Mike Nolan is the only one smart enough to know what's going on which may or may not have been a back handed swipe at Singletary.
To avoid division, I think the 9ers need to keep some of this laundry in house and stop airing it in the media. As Don Corleone told Sonny when he spoke out of turn to a business associate, "Never tell anyone outside the family what your thinking again."
The play before the review did not stop the clock. Therefore, the clock continued to run from 16 seconds to 4 seconds, which is the point where replay officials signaled a halt so that they could review the play. When play begins again, it resumes from the point where it was halted (4 seconds), and the clock continues to run as soon as the officials have set the ball and the players are lined up. That's the rule. I knew it. Our coaches didn't. It's their livelihood--you'd think think they would know the rules of their own profession!
Absolutely pathetic. I lambasted NoWin for admitting that he was unaware of the down and distance in that pre-season game, and i say it again...any coach who is unaware of the distance required for a 1st or TD is unfit for the job. Disgracefully so. These excuses only compound the disgracefulness. As much as I rooted for Singletary, in two week's we have seen event's that would make Mike NoWin himself blush. New broom, please...
...and by "new broom" I mean get rid of:
1. The GM
2. The HC
3. The OC
4. The DC
5. The idiot in the booth (anyone else noticed how we usually lose the challenges we make and don't challenge the obvious errors?).
Plan to rebuild, in this order, Dorks:
1. Proven GM
2. GM hires HC with a philosophy
3. HC hires OC & DC to suit philosophy
4. OC & DC hire their position coaches
It's not rocket science. Just copy what the good franchises do...what we used to do. It all starts with getting the right GM. Then, the GM chooses the right coach, and so on. Hiring a HC before a GM was utter idiocy. Let's hope the York's have learned from this horrible mistake and never pull that stunt again.
Great post, I agree with it all. Only thing is, we've already re-built 3 times under the Dorks...this next time will be the 4th time. What makes you say that Gore only has 2 years left? Source or hunch? I know his knee's were injured in college, but are you saying they are degenerating, and that quickly? God I hope you're just speculating...
The problem is that Hill had no good choice. Martz sent a sub package in AND told him to spike it. If he spikes it, the Niners get a flag for having like 15 men on the field... a tad too many. I think we get a ten second run-off in addition to losing the five yards. Now I think Hill made the right decision... Martz just screwed up. If Hill had known that Martz was then going to call 2 running plays in a row and lose the game, you could argue to take the penalty, it would have forced us to pass.... but Hill couldn't know that Mad Mike was in brain vapor lock on the sideline.
Hill is a good backup QB who probably can't be a full-time starter, and he made his mistakes in this game... but his composure at the end there was far better than any of the coaches.
I would like take a step back from the hectic last drive and give a quiet defense of Coach Martz. I still have 9 games from last year on my DVR, and as I watch those games and compare them with this season, there is no comparison. The 49ers offense is a legitimate offense this season. True, has got significant flaws. But it is a system that can serve as a baseline for future improvement. The 49ers do have the potential makings of a pretty good, young offensive line. With a high #1 this season, we're in the mix for a very good OT, Andre Smith of Auburn would look mighty attractive at the other OT spot. It appears that for this offense to run optimally, two high quality OTs are needed, this year's draft would provide that final piece of the puzzle. With the emergence of Jason Hill and Josh Morgan, it appears that our WRs of the future are reasonably secure. Of course, that leaves the critical QB position, and that a very important position that needs to be filled, but we're not that far away from being a reasonably high functioning offense in the NFL.
Faithless: I went to a focus group in Jan. '05 and got $75 for my time, have they offered to pay anything? Let's hope this is a sign that they are going to clean house again...which they need to do. This is the Not For Long league, nothing need's to stay broken for long, look at Miami. We need that quality GM, though.
We can't keep re-building as if this is madden video game...there are real dollars involved.....can you guys just stop for a second, think and understand this is not your money to spend as you like....
Oneniner: What on earth are you talking about? You wanna continue losing and being laughed at? Don't quote any of my posts again, okay?
Matt, Would this episode have played out differently if Martz were in the booth? Removed from the chaos of the sideline would he have perhaps been a little more calm under pressure? If nothing else, putting Martz in the booth might mask the brewing tension between Martz and Singletary from the public. Also, the distance might have been more apparent to Martz from the booth - not sure on that, just speculating.
FIrst Lane Kiffin passes info to the Raiders after being fired, now Mike NOlan. I don't get why former coaches have so much access to their teams. Maybe Al and York should ban them from team contact.
The 49ers lost because of bad officiating, nothing will convince me otherwise.
Nay, Cards are one and out. Let's look at the opposition:
As a #4 probably, Arizona gets:
Dallas
Phil
Wash
Chicago
Minnesota/Green Bay
Carolina/Atlanta
No way Arizona beats ANY of them, whether at home or the road. See, the NFC West is NOT CHALLENGED and there's no motivation. Never has been since the former commish realigned the division. I hope Goodell realigns the West and takes out the lackeys we got in Seattle/Arizona/St. Louis. There's no rivalry like there was vs. NO/Atl/Car regardless that the alignment was poor, there's just no rivalry with Sea or Ari!
Our new look offense under Coach Sing: Whisenhunt on the 49ers' offense: "There was a lot more quick game, a lot more of the power scheme trying to run the football. And they got the ball out quick, which when we played them the first time, there wasn't as much of that. It was a different offense and we anticipated that because of the quarterback and because of what they were trying to get done."
I was commenting about your dumb opinion of cleaning house again. You make it sound as if we are going to find players to join the team easily as you do on madden.
I don't think rebuilding the entire team is the answer. We need to rebuild the O-line, and get depth on D-line. I think that would make all the difference.
Getting rid of McCloughan would be a big mistake. He hasn't even had a chance to hire a HC, other than promoting Singletary.
I also thought some of our young talent McCloughan has brought in did really well under pressure on MNF against AZ.
I actually vote to get rid of the whiners who give The Faithful a bad name. At least give our new GM a chance to do his job...
TJ Hooker - My comment on Gore is just a hunch & not fact. But that comes from knowing that most running backs only have 5 really good years as a work horse. Gore has already had 2 knee surgeries plus 2 shoulder surgeries & this is his third year at being the main RB.
Also don’t worry about oneniner – if he is disagreeing then you know that you are correct. You only have to worry if he agrees with you. Other then that it’s best to ignore him.
The 9ers did not have ball security and didnt finish the game, but the Refs did. Those Refs are tough to beat. Ive noticed that same ref doing this kind of thing. He would let them play rough and not call penalties in the beginning then start calling whatever he likes on whatever team because theres so many penalties on each play. I have to say though ive heard and i agree that that was one of the best MNF games ive ever seen, it wouldve been better if the 9ers won but that did not happen. Hopefully they can just try to go 9-7 and get a winning record since playoffs/wildcard are slim. If you go 7-0 you never know.
That would be awsome if the niners could string together some victories. I think the chances of winning out are improbable though.
All this talk about what happened on the last play is taking us away from the real issue, which was that after the first down spike, there should have been two passing plays into the end zone, followed by a run or pass of Martz' choice. That's conventional wisdom when there's limited time and the ball is in the red zone, and any dummy should know that. If Martz had been organized, they wouldn't have had to even spike the ball on first down and could have had up to four plays.
Martz is sort of a genius at devising offensive schemes. But he has the reputation of being bad on clock management and fourth down decision making, and this farce proved it. Singletary so far appears to be better at game day decision making. The challenges were pretty appropriate against Phoenix, as opposed to Nolan's dart board style. So Singletary's job is to make sure that there's a coherent plan in place for all kinds of common situations near the ends of games.
The more I look at our schedule, the more 4 or 5 wins comes to mind. Even the Rams is not a gimme. I don't know if it's a case of giving up or not having the talent to win games like this. We're not being plauged by injury so what is the answer to our team woes? We can't beat good teams, we let lousy teams beat us, where is the answer to our team woes and how is it fixed? Dump all our QBs and start anew? Sign the WR from FA or draft one or two? Can we get a Dline? Do we keep Singletary or find a new HC, and who is the HC going to be based on what this team has done? Will the HC be great, or another bad coach retread of so called 'we will win the West'? We have more questions now then ever, with limited answers.
One answer I have, Alex Smith should try again in 09 and dump JTO.
PROS-We played with purpose, something that was not happening under NoPlan.
CONS-Martz and Singletary don't have any chemistry yet.
PROS-Rookies and young guys getting playing time.
CONS-We still don't get any solid Safety play.
We're on the clock, beat the RAMS and COWBOYS and I'll wait for the next year.