Mike & Mike not a good marriage for 49ers

By Chris Cluff  |   Thursday, January 10, 2008  |  Comments( 7 )

San Francisco 49ers
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So it's going to be Mike & Mike in the morning and afternoon for the San Francisco 49ers? The Niners might as well begin their search for their 2009 coach right now.

Among all of the candidates Mike Nolan could have chosen to be the 49ers' sixth offensive coordinator in six years, he went with the guy who has the greatest chance to bury Nolan. The marriage of Mike Martz and Mike Nolan is doomed to fail.

Sure, Martz has a history of putting together fancy passing attacks that rack up the yardage. Sure, he once helped the St. Louis Rams reach the Super Bowl on the strength of his "Greatest Show on Turf." And sure, Nolan needed a veteran coach to help dig the 49ers' offense out of the Stone Ages.

But this won't work.

The 49ers are built to run the ball with Frank Gore, but Martz prefers to wing it around. His passing offenses with the Rams and Detroit Lions always ranked in the top 10, but his running attacks have rarely been out of the bottom 10.

In St. Louis, Martz used Marshall Faulk as a dual threat. And he figures to do the same with Gore, who led the 49ers with 53 catches this season. The Rams were a very good running team in 1999 and 2001 -- the two seasons in which they reached the Super Bowl. But the 49ers' line is subpar, and they have too few weapons in the passing game to take the pressure off Gore.

Plus, the 49ers have not settled on a quarterback. Former No. 1 draft pick Alex Smith is recovering from shoulder surgery and late-season overachiever Shaun Hill is a pending free agent. That is not to say that Martz can't turn one of them into the next Kurt Warner, Marc Bulger or Jon Kitna -- all unheralded quarterbacks who experienced varying degrees of success in his offense. But the 49ers need to decide sooner rather than later who will be their passer.

In St. Louis and Detroit, Martz had a passel of pass catchers -- Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Az Hakim, Shaun McDonald, Roy Williams, Mike Furrey, Calvin Johnson, et al. But what does San Francisco have? Can he turn Darrell Jackson, Arnaz Battle and Jason Hill into a similar group? He'll need a star receiver, but will the 49ers go find one?

And whither tight end Vernon Davis? A great athlete chosen sixth overall in 2006, Davis has yet to be fully utilized. And unless Martz changes his ways, Davis won't be. Martz has never made the tight end a big part of the offense, so the only way Davis will get a chance to fulfill his potential is if he is moved to receiver or Martz adds the tight end to his offense.

Nolan would have been better served to focus on Cam Cameron or other coaches who have run offenses similar to Norv Turner's (strong running game setting up deep passing attack). Perhaps Nolan had no chance at Cameron (a Turner disciple), and perhaps none of the other available coaches (Chan Gailey, Brian Billick, et al.) were good enough.

Martz certainly gives the 49ers some star power on offense -- his reputation precedes him all around the NFL.

"There's no one more creative, as far as using personnel that allows us to be productive on offense," Nolan told reporters. "He's got one of the best minds in all of football ..."

But he was fired by the Lions because they couldn't turn the corner and had become too one-dimensional. They ranked 32nd and 31st in rushing in his two seasons. Martz says he will make good use of Gore, whom he sees as a Faulk clone.

"I think you can put him as the centerpiece and build around that," Martz said. "Frank is a little bit bigger, more physical, but he has the receiving skills, he's an unselfish pass-blocker, and he's really a complete player that really shouldn't come out of the game. That's hard to find in this league anymore."

Fine. Gore will do well in any offense, given a little blocking. But the 49ers are built to run, not to pass, and for that reason Mike & Mike is not a good marriage.

The Niners might as well begin their search for their 2009 coach right now.
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About Chris Cluff

Chris Cluff spent 10 years as an editor and sportswriter for The Seattle Times. He was a key figure in the newspaper's coverage of the Seahawks, particularly during their Super Bowl run in 2005. He also has written two books on the Seahawks: "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Heart-Pounding,...
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CommentsComments: 7  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
EastCoast9er		10:20 AM
01/10/2008
I guess time will tell this story and see if you are right. I do want to say that a lot of the running game problems were due to...
No.2
Mad Mardigan		11:39 AM
01/10/2008
Oh Cluffy-boy, you always put a smile on my face with your drunk ramblings. Martz never had a running back in Detroit. If you...
No.3
DD		01:13 PM
01/10/2008
Both Nolan and Martz admit that Nolan is on the "hot seat." If I had to bet, even an 8-8 season next year does not keep Nolan's...
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