I'm hoping that Mora will become a traditional head coach who manages the overall game plan and stands ready to make the big decisions but lets his OC and DC call the game.
I've always felt that one of the reasons Holmgren sometimes makes a bad game management decision like with the game clock or whatever is because he has 90% of his attention rivited on the offensive game plan and the chess match out on the field. I love Holmgren and hardly ever say anything negative about him. Overall he's such a great coach and he can overcome most of those mistakes and still win where a lessor coach would maybe have lost. However, the times I've heard Holmgren explain why something happened with respect to bad management of the time clock at the end of a game he effectively said that it slipped by him in one manner or another. Too much on his plate at that one moment to deal with the clock, the play, the timeout in progress, instructions to the players, conferring with the booth, etc.
I hope Mora becomes more of a field General who lets his OC and DC call the game while he pays attention to overall strategy. He should be more aware of the big picture while his OC and DC deal with the nuts and bolts of playing the game only stepping in when major decisions are to be made.
A trio of coaches (offensive/defensive coordinator & head coach) all on the same page all working in concert on a game plan should ensure a dimished chance that anything important will slip by. Holmgren's style of managing everything as well as running the offense and while having a defensive coordinator responsible for running the defense without direction works for him and he's good enough to overcome some lapses caused by his being overloaded.
The more responsibility you place in one area, the more that person has to be able to multi task effectively and eventually, when there's an overload or responsibility, something doesn't get done or something doesn't get the attention it should have. In football, that can lose you a game.
I would like to see them let Matt call the offense...
BillT....
That is a very good point. I am sure that a lot of Holmgren's critical error problems, that we talked about earlier in the week stem from the play calling.
Not only does he possibly have too much on his plate, but he may not think as rationally as he could because he is emotionally involved in the offense.
Because he is calling the play, his ego is invested, and he thinks that he can call a play on 4th and 9 that will score the touchdown, when really he should be thinking about whether kicking the field goal and going for an onside gives the team a better chance to win. Just an example.
I think that having a coach who manages the game and then goes to the coordinator for the call could alleviate that issue. The problem is that no coordinator will call a game like MIke Holmgren, he is the best in the business.
Doesn't anyone think that the QB should call the plays anymore?
He is the one that knows exactly what is going on, and he can also talk to the players in the huddle to make sure that they will be able to sustain a block, or get open etc...
Doug,
The QB has enough on his plate just getting the play called in the huddle, the team up to the LOS, looking over the defense and making any audibles, and the snap completed before time runs out. In Seattle, they push the tempo of the offense too which custs down on the QB's time even more to get it all done. To add the responsibility of calling the game on top of that would be an overload for any QB.
Hass has the authority to audilbe out of a play that he see's is going to be well defended from the set of the defense. He also has options on some plays where Holmgren calls a basic play and Hass decides on the specific nuances of the play in the huddle. It's somewhat of a partnership between Holmgren and Hass but Mike has made it clear to Hass that if he changes the play, it had better work. 
There's no doubt who's really in charge there. Holmgren receives information from the box and his assistant coaches who are analyzing the opponents defensive sets and tendencies. The QB is in no position to be able to receive such data or make use of it.
There have been QB's who have called their own games throughout NFL history but I think it limits what you can do and takes away your ability to adjust to what your opponent is doing as well as with an independent play caller. Having a tactician who is at the center of the information pipeline and who is divorced from the mechanics of the game to be able to form strategy and make adjustments in real time based on the flow of the game is just a superior method of formulating and executing a battle plan for football.
I think the only QB currently calling his own game somewhat is Peyton Manning with the Colts. They run their no huddle offense where basically everything is called like an audible on the fly to prevent defenses from making substitutions and to create mismatches based on the defense not bringing in different personnel specific to down and distance. Even then, I'm sure Dungy retains control over what gets called overall. Peyton may call a series of plays but I would suspect the overall direction of those plays comes from the head coach or OC.
The game is so complicated these days it's just too much to ask one person to be able to manage more than a small part of it. Holmgren takes on more than most coaches but as I pointed out earlier in this thread, it sometimes overwhelms him to the point other facets of the game get overlooked. Holmgren is such a master strategist though that even with some mistakes made because of being overloaded, his overall performance more than makes up for it. You're not going to get that from a lessor coach or QB. Hass isn't going to be able to call the game so shrewdly that he makes up for all the other things that will get overlooked because he's focused on the play calls. With Holmgren calling plays and Hass executing the plays at an up tempo pace, the Seahawks are a well oiled juggernaut who are very difficult to defend and one of the more dangerous offenses in the league. You couldn't find a QB who could beat that combination by calling the game himself.
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