I’m avoiding even reading/listening to the presser for fear of losing lots of faith in Mora.

That is just ridiculous, even moreso because like you said it’s not really accurate. DI don’t knw if you guys saw it (or care actually) but Doug Farrar and Mike Tanier had a funny exchange about this in FO’s Audibles at the Line:

Doug Farrar: Mora is fast approaching Jackass Status after blaming kicker Olindo Mare for the loss. Mare missed two field goals, but he made four, and to put it all on Mare was ridiculous and completely unprofessional. What about the shoddy playcalling that had the Seahawks trying that many field goals in the first place? A reverse to Deion Branch on third-and-one late in the game? Are you kidding me? Nah, not a problem. Mora said that it was a great playcall, but the Bears had the right defense. What about the horsecrap pass protection or the abysmal mid-zone coverage? Nope. Didn’t exist. All the kicker’s fault. After Ryan Mouton had problems in the return game for the Titans in their loss to the Jets, Jeff Fisher (who certainly didn’t expect to be 0-3 at this point) deflected blame off the kid and said that it was the coach’s responsibility to put the right people in the right places to succeed. That’s how you handle these things publically, and that’s one of the reasons Fisher’s been successful for a long time.

Mora may be a good defensive coordinator in a vacuum, but I really don’t believe he has the makeup to be a top-tier head coach. He’s a high-energy guy no matter what – rah-rah if everything’s going right, and completely scattershot if things aren’t going his way. Remember that he was available for the Seahawks after telling Seattle radio station KJR that he’d quit the Falcons and go coach the Washington Huskies at the drop of a hat. Bobby Petrino was rightfully excoriated for the way he left the Falcons, but Mora got a free pass from a lot of people. When all is said and done, I don’t think Seattle will regard him so highly.

Mike Tanier: Mora just struck you now as a jackass?

Doug Farrar: I was trying to be optimistic.

I couldn’t believe he would say something like this. I completely agree with the probability argument. I mean, how often do we see an 80% free throw shooter miss 2 of his last 6? I read some fan posts on another blog and for the most part, people were disappointed in Mora, but there were a few readers who thought it would be great to bring back zero-touchback-Coutu. Now this makes me doubt Mora’s overall ability. Is his selection of Knapp wise? Were the Raiders and Falcons offenses really very good when Knapp coached them? Was Mora responsible for Brian Russell starting for two years? Did Mora notice Mare taking away the kick return game from the Bears? For that matter, what’s up with the reverse on 3rd and 1?

Link

From all accounts Jim Mora is a good guy, which is why I will be shocked if he doesn’t apologize to Mare in front of the media, privately, or both at some point this week.

Nobody gets blamed for the poor play at least publicly, and now he actually has the gall to blame a kicker? It’s pathetic. I’m a diehard fan but Mora has some apolgizing to do before he gets my trust back.

If he is going to applause from crappy radio show hosts on ESPN (Softy) for ‘calling out’ players and making them resposible he needs to do it equally. Many people lost the game yesterday, most notably the coaching staff. How do we only put the ball in the endzone once?

I listed to the audio on the radio coming back from the game, and I was shocked to hear him say that. If he learned nothing in his 2 year with Holmgren, he should have learned never to throw anyone under the bus publicly.

Mare missed 2 FGs he should have made, but it was a statistical anomaly based on his body of work. Mare mostly makes those, and is expected to because he usually does. Anyone who knows statistics knows that if you make 9 out of 10 kicks from 40 yards, if you miss one it does not change the statistics for the following kick. Based on last year and previous years, Mare just doesn’t miss very often from that range. I don’t expect to see it again.

Are you really going to replace him after that? What if the QB throws 2 interceptions in a row, or Walter Jones misses a block on 2 consecutive plays?

What about all the kickoffs that went into the endzone, making it that much harder for Hester to take it out? Every kick was in the endzone, and the last was a line-drive that he couldn’t come out with. Bring back Coutu, and you won’t get any of those.

Farrar is dead nuts on about the play-calling. For the 3rd week in a row we’ve called stupid crap on 3rd and short. What is it about this particular situation that causes Mora/Knapp to lose their sanity? We had another stupid 40 yard bomb on 3rd and 4 (how many of those have we converted now? ZERO) at the end of the first quarter. Then in the 2nd quarter we’ve got a 3rd and 3 and we run some sort of a sweep that gets 1 yard. In the 4th quarter, we face a 3rd and 1 on our own side, and run a idiotic reverse that loses 8 yards.

Then, the next time we face 3rd and 1, what do we do?

1. 3-1-CHI 30 (7:02) 22-J.Jones left tackle to CHI 28 for 2 yards (38-D.Manning).

How about that? on 3rd and 1 you can actually get a first down by running off tackle (although I’d question running behind Frye (injured groin) and Wrotto on the left). Still, look at what happens on 3rd and one when you run the ball? How about letting Schmitt run it? Has the FB run with the ball yet this year?

I thought the play-calling was atrocious, and I did not understand why Wallace never ran the ball. The mid-zone coverage (as Farrar notes) was nonexistant.

Wallace missed a wide-open John Carlson again for a long gain, why doesn’t he get thrown under the bus?

Mora was way off, and looked like a jackass. I hope he learns from it and apologizes.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves, when people do just that. I’m not defending Mare or anything, just in general.

Well he would’ve.

I was mad at Mare for missing those FGs, but when I heard what Mora said I was really surprised. I didn’t expect that kind of irrational anger out of the coach. I think a lot of people lost some respect for Mora today.

I actually in a way support what Jim Mora said. Cuz he is right. When you’re a kicker you gotta make those and could those 2 field goals change the outcome of the game? I don’t know. But Mare had to make those. Saying that I don’t think Mora should just bash on Mare. And John ur right. Coach Holmgren got the respect of players and media because he never went crazy in his press conferences. But Jim Mora will learn from his mistakes hopefully and learn to not just bash on a kicker.

I honestly never wanted Mora as our coach. I wanted Steve Spagnolo, but he supposedly wasn’t available.

Now we got Mora. So I just hope he can get this thing turned around. He’s dealing with a tough situation, but this isn’t how you deal with a tough situation.

Mora needs to get it through his head that he is going to have to deal with losses while he is playing a patchwork secondary on defense and a backup QB with a patchwork O-line offense. It’s the reality if our situation. The only thing that will save us from being knocked out of the playoff hunt is the other division teams playing badly until we get healthy.

Didn’t notice Tapp in the Bears game either.