McCarthys trend...

[Packers Boston]

Agree. Stability is important but need to be more aggressive than the other coach to have success in the playoffs. Not just about who has the most talented players.

 

[Packers Boston]

And on that thought process. can you imagine this offense, if it were run to destroy teams? Right now we are destroying teams on a good sunday afternoon. Rodgers got benched in the 3rd quarter a 2 or 3 times this year... Can you imagine we have Davante Adams break out. We resign Cobb. Nelson leads. Lacy takes 10 yard chunks by land or by air. Richard Rodgers breaks out, and becomes the giant he is destined to be. And Rodgers with a no holds bared, chip on his shoulder, blood in his mouth thirst for TDs.......

Records will fall. Championships will be had. It all starts with McCarthy fine tuning his ruthlessness...[/QUOTE]

Like the optimism but they had everything in place for a SB championship this year, apart from Rodgers limited mobility (bad fortune) and terrible game strategy against Seattle (bad coaching)

 

[Packers Boston]

The fastest way for MM to change is if his players revolt. I think Favre would have insisted going for TD's on the two 4th down field goal attempts. I could see him calling time out and telling the coach HE is going back on the field. Aaron Rodgers is a bit too pampered and while a great QB he does not have the inner strength of Favre.

True that Favre would have done that, probably with a concussion and thrown a pick too. Rodgers is smarter and has guts, i.e. playing through the torn calf for three straight games.

 

[Packers Boston]

Not sure if you're serious there, but that would be dead foolish. You don't fire a coach who surpasses Vince Lombardi's win total in Green Bay, makes the playoffs 7-9 years in his coaching tenure, makes it to 3 NFCCGs, and wins a Superbowl. Just stupid idea and ridiculous to suggest it.

Now look, I'll give the caveat here that MM was wrong to pull out that FG unit on those 4th and inches plays, even Buck and Aikman were saying that just wasn't typical him. I expect when the Hawks come to Lambeau this next year we go all out melee on them and pull those off then. But a few bad calls here and there during games doesn't mean you fire a head coach, esp not one with a SB win to his name.

Agree don't end up like San Fran.

 

[Sky King]

You got it 100% the players MUST make it clear to TT and other management that they have lost faith in him. Favre would not have allowed himself to be pulled for two short field goals, if forced he would be knocking down TT's door at half time. I blame Rodgers in part for not overruling MM and forcing him to go for touchdowns. I think Rodgers got a bit soft after he got his big new contract, he is a great quarterback but I do not know how strong a man he his in questioning his coach, he is not like Favre in that department he needs to be a stronger team leader and not as laid back. He too had a role in making GB look like a JV team with a rookie coach who as no faith in his players. MM should be shown the door and open a restaurant GB is a team made up of tough men in a great tough American town not to be led by a wimp. It is NOT too late for the players to demand a change or to make it clear they want the OC and QB to have a greater say in clutch plays, if we are stuck with MM for another year or two force him to man up or be gone as I said many NFL coaches with better records haven fired for less than MM did on Sunday when he gave up on his team.

It should not be that difficult for you to address the subject but maybe it is: How do you feel the players are going to respond to Mike McCarthy going forward? Sarcasm and ridicule does not constitute a credible argument.

 

[MadCat]

It's a two-way street. Why should the players, who played their hearts out and had a trip to the SB right in front of them, trust their coaches after having the win snatched from them because their coaches (both sides of the ball) didn't trust them enough to stick with an aggressive game plan to control the ToP until the clock ran out?

 

[Packer96]

not singling you out in particular, but your's in the last comment to bring it up, but..

I assume you guys are actually Packer fans and have watched this team and this coach the past few years, do you honestly think that McCarthy is a coach that hasn't stood at a podium and took the blame for pretty much everything that has ever happened to this team?

he hasn't been perfect, but a man of purpose and integrity he has been here since day freaking one. The players know it and have said so. he takes ownership and responsibility. I can't believe people are actually suggesting he's not a stand up guy. Criticize and 2nd guess his coaching all you want, but if you don't know the character of MM by now i wonder if you've really been paying attention at all.

Long time Lurker, first ever post, like many of you, a stockholder, son named Bart, last dog named Lambeau. The 110 pictures / posters of Lambeau from 2000, I have number 1 of the 110. I think you get it. Like all of you I die a little bit every time we lose. I don't question MM's integrity, but I have felt for a couple years he is not going to get us there. He has had the luxury of 2 of the best QB's in history and has one SB appearance to show for it. I’m starting to believe the last SB was a fluke, the players overcame the coaching. Brady is going for his sixth, and we should have more. I'm not going to go over all the errors from the game and I don't blame the players. I blame the coaches. It is their job to understand situational football and make sure the players understand the situations. This is critical when we historically have one of the youngest teams in the league, and probably always will. I have seen them fail time and time again. Especially on defense. MM wonders why his coaches are never included in coaching discussions for other teams. Honestly, why would they, other teams watch the games too.

 

[ExpatPacker]

not singling you out in particular, but your's in the last comment to bring it up, but..

I assume you guys are actually Packer fans and have watched this team and this coach the past few years, do you honestly think that McCarthy is a coach that hasn't stood at a podium and took the blame for pretty much everything that has ever happened to this team?

he hasn't been perfect, but a man of purpose and integrity he has been here since day freaking one. The players know it and have said so. he takes ownership and responsibility. I can't believe people are actually suggesting he's not a stand up guy. Criticize and 2nd guess his coaching all you want, but if you don't know the character of MM by now i wonder if you've really been paying attention at all.

I think you're missing the point. Many of us agree that overall MM is a very good coach. he provides stability, is very good at player development, he keeps this team on an even keel. yes, agreed. Firing him would probably be a huge mistake, no, almost certainly, unless you have a ringer lined up. Hey, if Urban Meyer indicated that he'd like to coach GB, I might seriously think about it, but otherwise...

The point being made here is that this game, which was one of the worst choke jobs ever in playoff history and certainly in GB's history, has the potential to put the Packers on a downward trend, or it could become a springboard *****if***** both the players and the coaches really look at themselves and the way they have played and coached very hard.

McCarthy has shown a tendency to resist change, but IMO after this game he can't afford to do that. He has to change his own coaching philosophy, which may involve admitting to himself that something is missing--an aggressiveness, an intensity, a never-let-down attitude and that as good a coach as he is, he's not encouraging in his players. That means bringing in someone who does or it means re-inventing himself. Too often he adopts the play-not-to-lose approach and that affects the intensity and play of the entire team. Yes, statistically speaking certain conservative decisions may be wise, but not if it takes away from the intensity level of your players.

Players tend to take on the mentality of their coaches, and in the last 5 minutes of play this team was simply not there as it should be.

 

[Mondio]

I don't think he "resists" change, rather he resists being an knee jerk reactionary type coach. I think that is a very good quality to have in a coach.

I can't explain what happened in those last 5 minutes, but everyone in American could see what team was winning pretty much every play and certainly every Packer fan was feeling pretty good up till that point.

Maybe McCarthy outthought himself and the game at the end, or maybe they just failed to execute, or maybe it was a combination of both. Though this loss sucked, life goes on and I'm pretty confident McCarthy will go back and evaluate and change things that need to be changed. There isn't a team or coach in the league that hasn't blown a game at one point or another. I doubt they went and changed their whole coaching philosophy over it. Not the successful ones anyway.

Not every decision is the right one, not for anyone. Let's say he stays aggressive, Rodgers throws another ball and there's another miscommunication and they get a pick 6. Quick easy score and the comeback is on. Seattle has done that to teams all year long. There's no guarantees either way, but the fact remains the same. GB was in a perfect position to win that game and they blew it for all sorts of reasons.

 

[Bagadeez04]

I´m not sure about McCarthy being able to change. After the game he said he didn´t regret anything, if he was serious about that he will continue to get too conservative once we get the lead against really good teams.

I don't think it's like McCarthy has a choice. Generally people don't change...he gets conservative and tight in these situations because that's his nature. He was more aggressive at times this season, but when it's all on the line his instinct is to hit the brakes.

 

[PackerfaninCarolina]

Long time Lurker, first ever post, like many of you, a stockholder, son named Bart, last dog named Lambeau. The 110 pictures / posters of Lambeau from 2000, I have number 1 of the 110. I think you get it. Like all of you I die a little bit every time we lose. I don't question MM's integrity, but I have felt for a couple years he is not going to get us there. He has had the luxury of 2 of the best QB's in history and has one SB appearance to show for it. I’m starting to believe the last SB was a fluke, the players overcame the coaching. Brady is going for his sixth, and we should have more. I'm not going to go over all the errors from the game and I don't blame the players. I blame the coaches. It is their job to understand situational football and make sure the players understand the situations. This is critical when we historically have one of the youngest teams in the league, and probably always will. I have seen them fail time and time again. Especially on defense. MM wonders why his coaches are never included in coaching discussions for other teams. Honestly, why would they, other teams watch the games too.

I might take some heat for this, but I'm going to say Brady continually is in the AFC title game because yes Bellichek is a good coach, but the AFC is weak sauce in terms of teams changing the landscape and making any real changes to knock the Pats off the podium. I mean other than the Broncos, who really has been a threat to thwart them? You look at our NFC and look at how many teams come up from the bottom and really put together a force to be reckoned with. Those kind of teams would be teams like Detroit, Carolina, Arizona, hell the whole NFC West was down until just 2 years ago, and while New Orleans was bad this year their rise to success over the late 2000s and earlier part of the 2010s could certainly be looked at as a change in precedence over previous decades, bottom line the NFC is so good at making new challengers out of down teams. The AFC on the other hand really never changes much, the Jaguars have been bad for a while, the Raiders, the Titans, the Browns, the Phins, the Chargers, the Jets (had a little window for 2 years but other than that, same old team they pretty much always been). Bottom line things just never change in that conference in terms of teams finally building offenses and defenses worth something to shout about, and that certainly is one reason the Pats have had the constant success that they have. But even so, other than them, I don't see any other current team constantly making more SB appearances than us.

 

[grampi]

Man, the Bellicheat stuff is way overblown. The current scandal is now being talked about as something that happens all the time.
Does anyone actually believe any of this crap decided a 45-7 game, or was the reason for 14 consecutive seasons of the Patriots being at or near the top of the NFL?
Really???

The deflated balls didn't change the outcome of that game, but you're missing the point...cheating is cheating no matter how you slice it...

 

[yooperpackfan]

Seriously?? We won the SB a couple of years ago!!! A lot of people need to turn in their fan cards. You guys are sounding like Viking fans.....smh

Seriously? Living in the past is not an admirable trait.

 

[PackerDNA]

The deflated balls didn't change the outcome of that game, but you're missing the point...cheating is cheating no matter how you slice it...

In looking back on this thread, NWCheesehead and now Grampi have pointed out that I'm missing the point.
I agree. I had focused on how these things in and of themselves made no difference in outcome of the games, and shouldn't take anything away from 14 consecutive seasons of sustained excellence. But you guys are absolutely right; cheating is cheating, and wrong.
I then began to wonder...WHY?!?!? Why risk so much for nothing? Why put your team and fans through so much for such pettiness? It boggles the mind.
Maybe they're like compulsive shoplifters; they just can't help themselves.

 

[Mondio]

or maybe other teams in the AFC are so sick of losing to them they're being little ****ing tattle tails about everything. Seriously, I bet so much goes on with the balls before, during and after games and it's pervasive on every team. I bet every QB wants something done to change the ball and little regard is paid to the "rules" when it suits them.

The reason I think that I could not care less about this is because the league themselves don't seem to give 2 craps. My god they make the teams responsible for them and do very little in the way of security for them. If it was such a big deal they'd have officials that dealt with all of it and they'd supply their own. But they don't, and they haven't. The fact that almost every qb says they change the ball in some way, tells me this is much about nothing other than someone wants a reason to make the patriots look bad.

So Brady likes his balls soft. Aaron apparently likes his extra full and firm. Most others are probably just happy to be able to feel balls. it's stupid.

 

[DMANDTM]

One, Cobb is fun in the backfield as a change of pace against slower defenses...49ers and Seahawks are not slow defenses. Two, why are we running Kuhn at all? Three, you have Seattle at the one, even if you don't convert there's a great chance they're punting from their own endzone.

I agree with why are we running Kuhn. We have two pretty decent backs in Lacy and Starks - both as runners and receivers. Unless I have missed it, why do we never see any formations that have them both in the backfield? When McCarthy is in his "use up the clock" mentality and goes run, run pass, the single back gets keyed on and often has a tough time getting yards. When Kuhn is in there and we aren't in the red zone, he will almost always just block.

As far as the Seattle game goes, I fault the second half strategy more than the individual mistakes. Stringing first downs together will use up more time than running and getting 3 and outs. We should have been more aggressive offensively longer into the game. Defensively, we controlled the game up to the point where we starting hanging back to try prevent the big plays - around the time of the 3rd & 19 where we only rushed 3 guys. When we stopped pressuring Wilson and gave up first downs, that's when he picked us apart and the got some momentum. Making any one of the key plays would have given us the game. Having a better strategy would have kept those key plays from existing.

I would have felt a lot better if McCarthy had followed Bostick's example and owned up to his mistakes.

 

[Charles Fischbein]

not singling you out in particular, but your's in the last comment to bring it up, but..

I assume you guys are actually Packer fans and have watched this team and this coach the past few years, do you honestly think that McCarthy is a coach that hasn't stood at a podium and took the blame for pretty much everything that has ever happened to this team?

he hasn't been perfect, but a man of purpose and integrity he has been here since day freaking one. The players know it and have said so. he takes ownership and responsibility. I can't believe people are actually suggesting he's not a stand up guy. Criticize and 2nd guess his coaching all you want, but if you don't know the character of MM by now i wonder if you've really been paying attention at all.

When you keep loosing clutch games with the talent MM has, it is time for him to look in the mirror. Green Bay builds from within, however it is obvious he did not have faith in his team when the called the two field goals near the goal line. If that is so he has only himself to blame and his coaching staff, if he does not have faith in a specific player, cut him it is done all the time in the NFL, however don't slap your offensive tram in the face and pull them inside the five or closer. I also blame Rodgers and the tem captain, quarterbacks have blatantly refused coaches field goal calss many times and refused to leave the field, a tougher man would have told MM he insists on going for the TD. Favre may well have insisted on stating on the field and maybe even the pampered Romo, but I think Rodgers, Mattthew"s, et/al have gotten a bit soft since their massive new contracts, they get their money regardless Mr. REXAX has some questions to answer in this regard too. , but the buck stops with MM on the field and TT who sets the culture Maybe if MM were told win it all next season or be gone he would man up, many coaches have been fired with two and three years on the contracts left and MM may feel a bit too safe, it is not a matter of if he is an honest man who loves his kids and does not kick dogs, he is soft on is team and has no faith in them in the clutch and for that alone he should be shown the door.

 

[deggyfresh]

I do like McCarthy, I think he is a great coach. But he has to go in for the kill sometimes, especially in the playoffs! You can't let off the gas. All under inflated ball jokes aside, he could learn a thing or two from Bill over in NE. Up 24-7 at half and still putting points on the board. No lead is safe in the NFL, EVER! I hope he learns from this and becomes a little more ruthless, because I'm tired of losing games we should have won. I will stand by this, Dom Capers needs to go.

 

[MadCat]

I don't think Rodgers is soft. Rodgers trusts McCarthy and his gameplan. He has said that in many of his press conferences and, frankly, I think he gives MM too much of the credit for the games we win. Unfortunately, the trust is not mutual, as was evident on Sunday. Rodgers' demeanor in this week's presser was different. My interpretation in trying to read between the lines could be all wrong, but I got the feeling he was really ticked off at the coaches.

 

[Forderick]

The deflated balls didn't change the outcome of that game, but you're missing the point...cheating is cheating no matter how you slice it...

while it might be cheating, it is being way overblown by everyone{mostly patriot haters and ESPN). If every team does it in some form or another, why is it only a problem when the Patriots are suspected of altering the balls? And funny how both times they were caught cheating, they were rated out.

I do hope the NFL doesn't punish the patriots at all, and maybe put some newer rules in place to avoid this nonsense.


But if you aren't cheating you aren't trying, every team cheats in some way of another.

I don't think Rodgers is soft. Rodgers trusts McCarthy and his gameplan. He had said that in many of his press conferences and, frankly, I think he gives MM too much of the credit for the games we win. Unfortunately, the trust is not mutual, as was evident on Sunday. Rodgers' demeanor in this week's presser was different. My interpretation in trying to read between the lines could be all wrong, but I got the feeling he was really ticked off at the coaches.

I agree with your post. MM needs to change his approach or hire an OC to do that job because he just isn't good when its crunch time. This game is on coaching, not the players but the coaches. "DO YOUR JOB!!" The coaching staff needs to preach this and hammer in the players skull, games of this magnitude should never end the way it did.

 

[OldSchool101]

I think this yeAr was good evidence of Mike doing too much. I believe having a specialized approach would be advantageous. No disrespect to mike I like him but I think he's taking on too much resposablity

 

[ARPackFan]

Mike McCarthy came here young (and green) We were rebuilding, rookie coaches, and a hecktic QB transition period. We went through the growing pains. from competitive, to really good. A couple times we did this.

I noticed Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy, and Rodger ALL learned from their mistakes and got better every year.

Now we are peaking. The whole system is well oiled. Tallent boiling over. Leadership. Coaching. salary cap. everything built for long haul, and tuned to be great... So the question lies... Will McCarthy learn from his mistake, and learn to go for the kill? Will he learn to keep punching until they stop moving??? I think he will. His record shows he will.

Records will fall. Championships will be had. It all starts with McCarthy fine tuning his ruthlessness...

I don't think McCarthy at his core can be a ruthless pr*ck like Belichick. I wish he was but he isn't and I doubt he will change. McCarthy has had nine years to learn that you play the full 60 minutes and that as Herman Edwards said "You play to win the game!!!". McCarthy hasn't learned that lesson and this time the "playing not to lose" mentality cost a team in a prime position to win another SB. I look forward to much of the same next year with no real changes and another exit from the playoffs that leaves us all scratching our heads.

 

[OldSchool101]

I don't think McCarthy at his core can be a ruthless pr*ck like Belichick. I wish he was but he isn't and I doubt he will change. McCarthy has had nine years to learn that you play the full 60 minutes and that as Herman Edwards said "You play to win the game!!!". McCarthy hasn't learned that lesson and this time the "playing not to lose" mentality cost a team in a prime position to win another SB. I look forward to much of the same next year with no real changes and another exit from the playoffs that leaves us all scratching our heads.

I believe Mike will become more assertive in the future. I believe this years conservative finish was largely due to Aarons injury. He gets a pass here

 

[PackerDNA]

Mike is in a crucible right now. To be hit so hard from so many angles at once can have deep and lasting effects on one's perspective.
He'll need time. We'll see.

 

[Half Empty]

I believe Mike will become more assertive in the future. I believe this years conservative finish was largely due to Aarons injury. He gets a pass here

I guess the question from a lot of us is how he gets a pass, based on AR, for the last five minutes.