Singletary, Martz Complain About Bad Information

[Gambit]

SINGLETARY, MARTZ COMPLAIN ABOUT BAD INFORMATION

Posted by Mike Florio on November 11, 2008, 9:15 p.m. EST

A day after one of the more bizarre finishes to a Monday night game that we’ve ever seen, with the Niners attempting to win the game via a dive from beyond the two yard line, coach Mike Singletary and offensive coordinator Mike Martz are blaming the outcome on the quality of the information they received from game officials before the last play of the game was called.

Said Singletary on Tuesday: “It was very difficult getting the information that we needed. I was on the field constantly talking to a couple of the officials about where the ball would be spotted [and] how much time we needed to get back on the clock. I thought we needed 12 seconds to be back on the clock. They gave us four and then the ball was moved as I left those two guys going back to the sideline. They moved the ball back to the two-and-a-half yard-line, or something like that.

“Meanwhile, Mike Martz gets the information that the ball will be — the clock will start on the whistle, rather than the snap because, to me that is the rule. It should be that the ball – the clock starts on the snap of the ball and not on the whistle. It was – what I was trying to do was just get the information, which we were not getting clearly, and if we were, it was not the correct information. That was the most frustrating thing about the last minute.”

The biggest problem with the information, or lack thereof? Martz thought that the Niners were getting the ball on the half-yard line, which prompted him to call for an inside run by backup running back Michael Robinson.
Said Martz, who insisted that the ball was placed a yard farther from the goal line than it actually was: “We did not know the ball was going to be on the three-and-a-half [yard line], obviously, or we would have never called that play. We thought that we were going to be given back time on the clock. We thought the ball was going to be somewhere around the one-yard line. The play made two yards, so it’s a moot point whether it was on the one [yard line] or the one-half [yard line]. It doesn’t matter. He would have scored. If it’s on the three-and-a-half, obviously, we don’t do that play. . . .

“I still didn’t know until this morning,” Martz added. “I left the stadium thinking we didn’t make it because we were from the one-and-a-half or the one-yard line. I left the stadium thinking that the ball was still, we just – I couldn’t believe that we couldn’t punch it in from the one-yard line. I was upset with that. I didn’t know it was on the three – I couldn’t see from where I was. It happened so fast, half the guys up here didn’t know. We didn’t know. You look at the tape and it’s on the three-and-a-half [yard line] or three-yard line, wherever it is.”

Martz said that former Niners coach Mike Nolan even called on Tuesday to chine in regarding the situation. “He said, ‘Hey, you got victimized by the replay,’ which is basically what happened,” Martz said. “I guess there’s really nobody to blame other than, it was just a real lack of communication there that probably wasn’t very good.”So what does Singletary intend to do to make his displeasure known to the league? Well, nothing.“I’ve been told that I should probably go ahead and call the league, but it’s the last thing I want to do right now,” Singletary said. “I don’t need to hear that, ‘Well that’s on us.’ I don’t really need to hear that. In my mind, because they’re not going to change anything, the game’s still gone. So in my mind, I’m going to let it go.”Still, the obvious thing to do with four ticks on the clock would have been to spike the ball and then regroup for the next play. If there was any doubt (and apparently there was plenty) about where the ball would be spotted or what the next/last play should be, the solution was simple.Kill the clock.So we don’t want to hear pissing and moaning about information or the lack thereof. The big scoreboard in the stadium shows :04. The clock starts on the referee’s signal. And so Hill calls for the snap at that moment and takes a step back and slams the ball into the ground.Four seconds is more time than you think. Count out four seconds right now. It’s enough time for a professional athlete to recognize that the referree has called for the clock to start, to then call for the ball to be snapped, and to then spike the ball into the ground.As to the notion that Martz didn’t know the ball was going to be placed outside the one yard line, what the hell was he doing while the prior play was being reviewed? Surely, one or more of the cast of thousands whom the team’s front office employs was in position to let Martz know that the ball was beyond the two when Frank Gore’s knee had struck the ground.So the message from Singletary and Martz is simple: “We’re just going to let it go. After we blame the whole thing on someone else.”Frankly, if the 49ers keep these guys around after the 2008 season, they deserve to continue to suck.

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/11/11/singletary-martz-complain-about-bad-information/#comments

Bizarre.

 

[CardFan67]

Wow... That's kind of a different feel from Singletary... I may have to eat some of my words on his possible coaching ability... how could he not know the ball was going to be on the 2 1/2 yard line, which he actually changed to 3 1/2 yards out later?

Bizarre is a great description...

 

[Gambit]

Wow... That's kind of a different feel from Singletary... I may have to eat some of my words on his possible coaching ability... how could he not know the ball was going to be on the 2 1/2 yard line, which he actually changed to 3 1/2 yards out later?

Bizarre is a great description...

Apparently I stole it from the first line by Florio...

 

[dogpoo32]

Eh, game over. Cry me a river. Maybe if your team didn't waste so much time getting back to the line you would be winners. Maybe if Gore had stayed on his feet... maybe if... maybe if... the officials sucked and so did the niners and cards. We just happened to come out on top of the S heap. Welcome to the losers' NFL. You get shafted. The Cards have gotten their share. Is it right? Hell no, but that's the game you play.

 

[AzCards21]

The last play was in progress before they blew the whistle and went to check the replay. It should have been false start on them. Run 10 seconds off and game over.

 

[Pariah]

I don't doubt for a second that the officiating crew from last night was having a communication breakdown. They were like keystone cops out there all night long.

 

[Linderbee]

How 'bout this, Singletary...manage your time outs better & it wouldn't have been an issue, now would it?

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Hmm.....that was a lot of words to read in order to figure out that we still won the game.

 

[Mitch]

The problem with this complaint is that after the official's review of the Gore stumble...the official clearly said Gore was down by contact at the two and a half yard line...

Everyone on TV and in the stadium was able to hear that.

How much more info did the Niners' coaches need?

 

[Spielman]

They wanted 12 seconds back on the clock? What game were they watching? Four seconds with them lined up and ready was more than fair given that they couldn't get lined up properly for the spike before then when the clock was running as it should have been.

They got a gift of another play when what they earned was a penalty and 10 second runoff that would have ended things, and now they're bitching that the gift wasn't good enough.

Tough rocks there, Mike and Mike.

 

[Russ Smith]

The problem with this complaint is that after the official's review of the Gore stumble...the official clearly said Gore was down by contact at the two and a half yard line...

Everyone on TV and in the stadium was able to hear that.

How much more info did the Niners' coaches need?

Singletary and Martz are insisting they couldn't hear that announcement. They said that normally the refs will come to both sidelines and tell them that in person, but they didn't. NFL spokesman says it was handled according to the rules. One other person said that there is no rule requiring the refs to go to each sideline, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. In this case it appears the 49ers forgot that when you challenge a play like that the refs can not only look was he down by contact, but they can look at WHERE was he down. That's why the ball was moved back.

The whole thing is they insisted 4 seconds wasn't enough to spike the ball because it started on the refs signal, not the snap, so they had to run the play even if they'd spotted it at the 10. And Martz did finally admit when pushed that they screwed up the prior spike and blew 20 seconds and had they done that correctly, this would not have mattered.

 

[CardsFan88]

Wow, umm fast? He had about 5 minutes to walk down the sideline. If he 'assumed' it was from the one or so, then that's his bad.

We won, so no matter, but it is rather funny that if you can't see where the ball is...
1. Ask one of the players
2. Ask your guys upstairs
3. Walk yourself down the sidelines. It's not like it's a 1st base coach box.

 

[young tone]

Yeah I heard about this and the refs were horrible for both teams but that is why you spike the ball so you can have a lil more time to figure out what you wanna do. Stupid not to spike the ball with 4 seconds left and then have Mike Rob run up the gut lol Jeez these new 49ers never cease to amaze me

 

[AzCards21]

Yeah I heard about this and the refs were horrible for both teams but that is why you spike the ball so you can have a lil more time to figure out what you wanna do. Stupid not to spike the ball with 4 seconds left and then have Mike Rob run up the gut lol Jeez these new 49ers never cease to amaze me

I was at the game and the refs made it a point to announce the ball location and how the clock would start. I can't believe they didn't say the same thing to the coaches on both sides during all of those conversations.

Basically we're even. Your team messed up this game and it kinda makes up for our team NOT COVERING TO on the goal line a few years back. My god that still pisses me off. No coverage on TO...AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!

 

[O]

Wow, umm fast? He had about 5 minutes to walk down the sideline. If he 'assumed' it was from the one or so, then that's his bad.

We won, so no matter, but it is rather funny that if you can't see where the ball is...
1. Ask one of the players
2. Ask your guys upstairs
3. Walk yourself down the sidelines. It's not like it's a 1st base coach box.

I believe that is what an intercom and headsets are for.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

The last play was in progress before they blew the whistle and went to check the replay. It should have been false start on them. Run 10 seconds off and game over.

Thats what they did to us. Does the rule only apply to us? It sure seems that way.

 

[Sandan]

Everybody I hear is ripping on them for this.

Mike Sando, NFL Live, I haven't heard one person agree with them

 

[JeffGollin]

I think a lot of fans are secretly jealous that the Niners have Singletary (who comes across as the reincarnation of Vince Lombardi) as their head coach.

But, for me, the whining and excuses in the aftermath of their loss raises a big red flag.

There wasn't a lack of communications from the refs, and there wasn't a shortage of time.

Even a cave man could see that, if Gore was to be ruled down by contact, the ball would be spotted on the 2 1/2. And he and Martz had plenty of time during the challenge to set up a couple of options depending on distance and time.

Those excuses are losers' excuses.

If you're a Singletary fan (and, even though he coaches a division rival, I am), you've got to be just a little bit disappointed.