McCarthy's Playcalling

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No, timeouts are more valuable before the two minute warning when you're on defense and need the ball back. Before the two-minute warning you get a free timeout to stop the clock (and if you're assuming that you can't stop the other team from running the ball then you don't need timeouts anyway because you've given up). If you have three timeouts and the offense has a first down with 2:30 left in the game then you can stop them and still have the two-minute warning as a timeout for the offense and you probably get the ball back with 2:05-2:10 left on the clock. Time for one play before the two-minute warning and then you have two full minutes to get down the field. If you wait until AFTER the two-minute warning, you get the ball back with ~1:40 left on the clock and no stoppage to help. You've effectively given up almost 30 seconds of offense by using the timeouts after the two minute warning.

My bad. You're totally right.
 

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How can anyone not question MM's playcalling at times? he's so predictable at times it's not even funny.

I heard this a whole bunch of times here and on call in radio shows...

So I asked a few times in chat during games to guess next call...I dont think anyone ever called it right...

Showed how predictable he isnt
 
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I heard this a whole bunch of times here and on call in radio shows...

So I asked a few times in chat during games to guess next call...I dont think anyone ever called it right...

Showed how predictable he isnt

I tried one game to guess a lot one game. I didn't think he was predictable, just curious how I would do. I was miserable at it.
 

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With the exception of a few plays here and there, I don't think fans know enough to criticize play calling. More often than not the play call being questioned would have worked except for the execution of a player or players. The coaches look at huge number of tendencies of opponents - and their own tendencies, it really has the characteristics of a chess match. Unless a fan has access to the coaches "tapes" and study them full time, there's just no way fans can compete with that. That's why IMO the entire body of work of a play caller is more revealing to fans. And any fan who thinks he can predict the plays is only fooling himself (and the gullible), unless he thinks calling "pass" or "run" is actually predicting the next play.
 

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I think Rodgers already calls the plays. He just gets a package of plays over the mike from MM to pick from.
 

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my biggest problem has been its 3rd and 5 and we throw a bomb . You need 5 f ing yards to keep the chains moving!!!! Go for 6 yards or something within 5.

or the 3rd and 1 with an empty backfield, so stupid IMO. Maybe its a QB sneak but I would think the defence would think about that too.
 
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With the exception of a few plays here and there, I don't think fans know enough to criticize play calling. More often than not the play call being questioned would have worked except for the execution of a player or players. The coaches look at huge number of tendencies of opponents - and their own tendencies, it really has the characteristics of a chess match. Unless a fan has access to the coaches "tapes" and study them full time, there's just no way fans can compete with that. That's why IMO the entire body of work of a play caller is more revealing to fans. And any fan who thinks he can predict the plays is only fooling himself (and the gullible), unless he thinks calling "pass" or "run" is actually predicting the next play.

Fantastic post.

Really agree with the execution of plays as more of an issue. All the run plays last week would have been great calls if the lineman sustained their blocks. Seattle's run plays worked because guys made their blocks. It wasn't better run play calls on their part.
 
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my biggest problem has been its 3rd and 5 and we throw a bomb . You need 5 f ing yards to keep the chains moving!!!! Go for 6 yards or something within 5.

or the 3rd and 1 with an empty backfield, so stupid IMO. Maybe its a QB sneak but I would think the defence would think about that too.

Not as simple as saying just because they threw it deep means the play was designed for that or that it was a bad idea.

A receiver could have an option route and went long because short wasn't open, or a receiver could have went long to try to open up the coverage underneath and ended up the more open guy, or the defense showed a look that made going long a good idea, but it was poorly executed.

All factors that we don't know for the most part sitting at home.
 
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I'd like to see a more in depth analysis of how the play calling is bad with specific examples of bad play calls.

This offense has always been good under MM and I don't see how an offense can be good with bad play calling. I'd need more than "the play didn't work so it was a bad call" in order to agree that the play calling is bad.
 

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MM just calls the wrong play more times than I like . I'm especially not a big fan of his red zone play calling either, it's like he has no imagination what so ever. If you are going to through the ball there draw up some screens man. It's already a compacted space so give Rodgers done eAsy throws and see what happens. The bFL gas caught on to the back shoulder fade and DBS are taught now to stay square in your back pedal as long as you can just in case the back shoulder throw is attempted. Also I'd like to see more boot leg action as well..Rodgers is as good as it gets when he's throwing on the run , also wouldn't hurt to use Cobb in the backfield as a potential runner or wr as defenses would have to account for him more than an Eddie Lacy or James Starks opening things up a little more for the other guys not to mention the fact that he can throw the ball. That read option Seattle ran that Russell turned into a touchdown pass made me upset but it was a thing if beauty if you appreciate a good play call. We can do that with either Rodgers or Cobb. Be creative!
 

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I heard this a whole bunch of times here and on call in radio shows...

So I asked a few times in chat during games to guess next call...I dont think anyone ever called it right...

Showed how predictable he isnt


This is why I'm always reluctant to go off on play calling. I'm not on the sidelines or in the booth with headsets on . I don't know what the call is, what it entails, or why it was made at that time.
Are bad calls made? I'm sure there are now and then. Sometimes it's a great call blown by poor execution. Others, the opponent just had a better call on at the time that blows up your call.
At any rate I don't feel qualified for the most part to judge play calling during a game.
 

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I think anyone who complains about MM's play calling should have to endorse it like political campaign ads and the endorsements should ALWAYS have to say...


"Even though hindsight is 20/20 and plays often don't work because the other team executed better and I could not even properly call an offensive game plan for the local Pop Warner football team and I truly have no idea what I am talking about and basing my thoughts entirely on the fact that the play did not work after the play was executed, MM's play calling sucks"


The reason being is that everything I said above is true, we are all just a bunch of armchair quarterbacks who like to think we know everything. And unless you played or coached football at the collegiate level or above (which would actually give you insight into the complexity of calling plays which is not as simple as I Right 22 Dive), you honestly have no flocking clue what you are talking about when it comes to play calling, in fact, quite frankly, you are a flocking idiot when it comes to play calling in the NFL. People do not get to MM's position because they are idiots or bad play callers, period, end of story.


For the record I include myself in this bunch and this statement is not made as a personal attack against anyone.
 

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Speaking strictly for myself, DraftHobbyist, I know a good deal about playcalling, both offensive and defensive. My point was that I don't know what they called or why at the time, and without that 'inside' knowledge, the whole argument is a non starter.
 

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I see that a lot of people are using the old "nobody knows anything about play-calling argument". That argument can only take you so far. You can't say that MM is a good play caller based off that argument, you can only say that people don't know enough to say that he is a bad play caller.

Some people on here have actually made positive claims, though. People are making the positive claim in one breath that the reason plays aren't working is because the other team executed better, and in another breath they say that we can't really know if plays are bad plays because we don't actually know anything. Well, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. If we're too dumb to have an opinion on whether a play-call is good or bad because we didn't play football at the collegiate level or higher, then we're too dumb to say that the other team is executing better as well. Lets not have one standards for our own arguments and another standard for someone else's argument.

By the way, I talk to a guy on another forum that played WR in college. He hates MM's play-calling. And no, I'm not going to provide a name or source so disregard it if you'd like.

So we are in agreement then? That was an awful lot of words to agree with me.
 

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That's fine, but that argument can only go so far. We really can't talk about if players were out-executed because we don't know what their jobs were too execute. We don't know what players are being put in what positions, either. Wasn't it Rodgers calling the plays for Flynn's 6 TD game? Also, this offense hasn't been the same since Philbin left, and Miami's offense is looking pretty dang good.

Fair enough points, but when I see linemen get stood up and driven back, or blown coverages, or wr's running the wrong routes, that's execution and fundamentals problems. I see way too much of all of the above in every game I watch.
 

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I see that a lot of people are using the old "nobody knows anything about play-calling argument".
It’s not that fans don’t know anything about play calling, it’s that they don’t know enough (see the difference?). Even if someone played collegiate football, they still are not privy to the intricacies of what goes on during the week of preparation or during the game regarding play calling. I can’t speak for others but my positive claims about McCarthy’s play calling are based upon his entire body of work as a play caller: The evidence is the production of his offenses since he arrived as HC in Green Bay.

BTW, IMO the burden of proof is on anyone who hates McCarthy’s play calling. How can they explain the production of his offenses vs. the league?
 

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2013-----points 8th, yards 3rd

2012 ----points 5th, yards 13th

2011 ----points 1st, yards 3rd

2010 ----points 10th, yards 9th

2009 ----points 3rd, yards 6th

2008 ----points 5th, yards 8th

top ten in scoring all of Rodgers starting years
 

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When I see ARod ***** him out, heh. Or when Nelson sat down in the zone last week; he's open, Aaron is looking directly at him. Aaron throws to him there, but for some reason Jordy decided to take off. That's a blown route on Jordy.We could go on, but I think we get each others points, and I gotta go.
Looking forward to yakking with you all again soon.
 
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Fair enough...last year wasn't his finest work.

According to Pro Football Reference's drive finder the Packers were ranked 23rd in red zone TD efficiency at 52.31%, not sure which source is more accurate.

The thing I wanted to point out though is that not be efficient had nothing to do with losing Rodgers as the Packers were ranked 17th at 51.72% at the time he got injured.
 
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Ugh...McCarthy drives me insane with his play calling at times. Let's take Seattle as an example...
1) Why did he leave go to pass heavy play calling in the 3rd quarter? It left Sherrod exposed and played into the Seahawks strength.
2) Why did he stop running between the tackles where they had moderate success and start running to the edges against a fast defense where those plays had no chance?
3) Why wasn't there more play action?
4 Why didn't he go deep into the playbook and try some trickery with Cobb?

His 3rd quarter play calling blew the game open, and he ended up wearing down his own already sloppy defense with another series of brain fart decisions.
 
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Ugh...McCarthy drives me insane with his play calling at times. Let's take Seattle as an example...
1) Why did he leave go to pass heavy play calling in the 3rd quarter? It left Sherrod exposed and played into the Seahawks strength.
2) Why did he stop running between the tackles where they had moderate success and start running to the edges against a fast defense where those plays had no chance?
3) Why wasn't there more play action?
4 Why didn't he go deep into the playbook and try some trickery with Cobb?

His 3rd quarter play calling blew the game open, and he ended up wearing down his own already sloppy defense with another series of brain fart decisions.

1) Running wasn't working.
2) I have disagree as I didn't see any runs working consistently.
3) Running wasn't working. Defense won't bite on play action when the run does nothing.
4) Don't have an answer to this one.
 

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After 2 weeks the Packers rank 24th in rushing offense. 18% of the rushing is Rogers' scrambles. Our running game is pathetic at present.
 

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