Singletary plans to run, but he needs a Plan B

SANTA CLARA

Mike Singletary is a hard guy to figure. He held his season-ending news conference Wednesday afternoon and when someone asked how he’d celebrate New Year’s eve, Singletary grew solemn and said, “Pray a lot.”

Prayer is very good, but it doesn’t sound like a laugh riot on New Year’s. No criticism here — Singletary is entitled to do whatever he wants. I’m just saying he’s different and that leads us to Mike Martz, the offensive coordinator Singletary allowed to dangle for a day and a half before the inevitable firing.

Before I get into what Singletary said about Martz, I want to state my bias. Martz did a good job for Singletary, a really good job. Sure, Martz had problems early in his only year with the Niners, at first choosing J.T. O’Sullivan over Shaun Hill. That was a mistake, although the PD’s Matt Maiocco wrote it was an understandable error because JTO outplayed Hill in training camp. But, OK, Martz screwed up and for a while he was pass happy and put his quarterback at risk in the pocket — as he had done other places in his career.

After Singletary took over, Martz became a model offensive coordinator. Think of two Martzes — pre-Singletary Martz and Singletary Martz. In his Singletary phase, Martz was a balanced, shrewd coordinator who adapted to the new head coach. He was a smart coordinator who — no other way to put this — did one hell of a job. He was effective in bringing along Hill, a good quarterback with a weak arm. My friend the great football writer Ira Miller, long a Martz critic, told me Martz’s game plans were surprisingly “rational.”

I also want to point out that someone or more than one person in the 49er organization leaked the news last week that Martz would get the ax, and leaked the news again on Tuesday just before Singletary met with Martz. This does not speak well for the professionalism or integrity of the Niner front office.

Singletary went along with the program while Martz sat alone and clueless in his office. I don’t believe Singletary was a leaker but he had complicity. It was a bad show and it makes us disappointed in Singletary.

We come back to Singletary’s news conference. Naturally a reporter asked why he let Martz go, and naturally Singletary said they had philosophical differences. Don’t you just love the philosophical-differences line? It usually means the guy is blowing you off and doesn’t want to say the truth. In his press release kissing off Martz, Singletary said, “I felt it was best to go in a different-direction.” That’s another meaningless sentence.

Reporters pressed Singletary and now things got interesting. They got interesting because Singletary is Singletary — a serious, sincere man incapable of lying. Asked to define the philosophical differences, he said, “To run a little bit more than passing.”

He also said, “Coach Martz throws it downfield often rather than running the football.”

This clearly is a difference in philosophy because Martz is a man in love with putting the ball in the air and, frankly, Singletary prefers something more earthbound and terrestrial. That’s his prerogative.

Expanding on his philosophy, Singletary said, “You have to know you can run the football. I’m not trying to outsmart anybody. I want the ability to run the ball and impose my will on the defense.”

This is clearly Chicago Bears football, Mike Ditka football, Jim McMahon football, although Singletary invoked the name of Bill Walsh as he described what he’s looking for.

There’s something to be said for this kind of ball — especially the imposing-the-will thing. Walsh believed in imposing his will, in playing the game on his agenda. He also believed a team needed to run, needed to control the tackle box. If a team could do that, everything else would open up.

So, Singletary was correct to invoke Walsh. Except for one thing. Walsh also believed a team that depends on power eventually will meet a more powerful team and when that happens, it needs to have a PlanB. Walsh had PlanB through Z and we don’t know if Singletary has that kind of imagination or if he’s merely capable of grunt offense. We’ll see.

We applaud Singletary for taking the risk of dumping Martz. We really do. That took guts and shows Singletary has high standards, will not settle for something less than ideal.

Of course, now Singletary needs to find the right offensive coordinator, needs to prove he’s competent to evaluate and select one. That’s his next big challenge, a challenge he brought on himself. His choice will define his coaching tenure — nothing more, nothing less.

Maybe that’s what he prayed about.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.