Eagles Should Part Ways With OC Marty Mornhinweg

Written By Bob Cunningham On Saturday, April 03, 2010

It's time for a complete overhaul in the play-calling.



It won't ever happen because of head coach Andy Reid's relationship with him, but it's time to move on from offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.

His pass-happy, highly-predictable offense will always hold back this offense, regardless of who the quarterback is and how many weapons he has. Mornhinweg is often touted as an "offensive genius" who creates powerhouse offenses that set and break records, but his offense is also easily stopped when encountered by a good defense.

He reminds me a lot of Mike Martz in that he gets so pass-happy that he fails to look at other areas of the offense. There is, of course, the lack of a running game, but even worse is the breakdown in pass protection.

There were several times in '09 where, before the ball was even snapped, it was clear that the defense was able to identify the weakspot in the pass protection and attack it.

My discontent became ever greater with Mornhinweg after hearing comments Dallas Cowboys' linebacker Keith Brooking made to ESPN radio in Dallas.

"The way we dominated them... they were very predictable," Brooking said. "We knew exactly what was coming on every play."

The remarks were off-the-cuff for Brooking who was answering a question regarding the Donovan McNabb trade rumors. He, like most everyone who plays or has played in the NFL, said the move is absolutely ridiculous and that the problem was the play-calling, not McNabb.

That falls on Mornhinweg. Reid filters the play calls, but Mornhinweg supposedly is the guy who makes the actual call to McNabb.

And no, this is not an opening to start the "Fire Reid!" chants, or try to accuse me of putting the blame on someone else when it belongs on Reid. I've said several times that Reid needs to stay out of the play-calling entirely, or bring in a guy with a run-first mentality so they can even each other out.

That's exactly what Dick Vermeil and Martz did together. Vermeil always wanted to run, Martz always wanted to pass, so the two of them together created a balance that helped the Rams win the Super Bowl during the '99 season.

But when Martz became the head coach and had no one to keep him in check, the Rams were beaten in 2001 by the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots -- a team that had no business beating the Greatest Show on Turf.

Brookings comments are incredibly telling, and it's something I've been yelling about ever since Brad Childress left to take over the Vikings after the 2004 season.

Mornhinweg's offenses will always have the stats, but if this offense is going to be good enough to win a Super Bowl, the offense will have to do it in spite of Mornhinweg, not because of him.


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