Greg C.
Cheesehead
Not to beat a dead horse into the ground, but here is an article where McCarthy elaborates a bit on his decision to call that slant on first and goal from the one. He's backed off a little from his hard-line stance that there was nothing wrong with it at all. As I've said before, I don't think it was the decision to pass that was so bad, it was the type of pass, which was a bit risky, required a great deal of precision, and left the QB with no second or third options. I think McCarthy outsmarted himself with this one. I still like his playcalling overall, though. Even the best coaches have brainfarts every now and then. It happens.
Next time, McCarthy likely will call for a run
By Rob Demovsky
[email protected]
With a day to ponder it, Mike McCarthy didn't think his decision to call a pass play on first-and-goal from the 1-yard line in Sunday's loss to the Buffalo Bills was necessarily a bad choice.
But the Green Bay Packers' coach on Monday indicated that given the same situation again, he probably wouldn't make the same call.
"A run probably is a safer call, but there's nothing wrong with the call," McCarthy said. "I probably won't call it again. It's a play I've won a game with, and it's a play that potentially cost us the game."
According to McCarthy and offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski, the reason things went awry and Brett Favre's slant pass to Donald Driver was tipped by cornerback Nate Clements and intercepted by safety Ko Simpson was the play took too long.
After Noah Herron rushed for a 10-yard gain that put the Packers at the Bills' 1-yard line, McCarthy sensed an opportunity to catch the Bills' defense off guard by quickly switching his personnel from base to tiger (double tight end). Most of the game, the Packers got to the line of scrimmage with at least 24 seconds remaining on the play clock, according to McCarthy and Jagodzinski. On the first-and-goal play, however, they broke the huddle with about 22 or 23 seconds remaining, meaning they weren't at the line anywhere near as quickly as they had been throughout the game.
That nullified the advantage the Packers were hoping to gain and allowed the Bills to not only change their personnel to match the Packers but also allowed Clements to get in position to tightly cover Driver.
"We call it a speed break," Jagodzinski said, "and we didn't get up there as fast as we needed to. You execute the play, and this a non-issue."
But it was an issue at McCarthy's regular day-after-the-game news conference because it was one of a couple of glaring plays that factored into the Packers' 24-10 loss. The Packers trailed 17-10 with just less than 5 minutes to play when McCarthy made his first-and-goal decision. He said on Monday his decision to throw shouldn't be viewed as a lack of faith in the running game.
"Frankly, I think I've proven how important running the football is to our team and to the success of our team," McCarthy said. "I'm of the belief that if you can't knock it in four times from the 1-yard line, then you don't deserve to score a touchdown. I think I've proven that this year.
"It's easy for me to sit there and say, 'Gosh I wish I ran that thing in,'" McCarthy added. "I do believe that if we ran it that we would have had a great opportunity to get it in on first, second or third down."
Next time, McCarthy likely will call for a run
By Rob Demovsky
[email protected]
With a day to ponder it, Mike McCarthy didn't think his decision to call a pass play on first-and-goal from the 1-yard line in Sunday's loss to the Buffalo Bills was necessarily a bad choice.
But the Green Bay Packers' coach on Monday indicated that given the same situation again, he probably wouldn't make the same call.
"A run probably is a safer call, but there's nothing wrong with the call," McCarthy said. "I probably won't call it again. It's a play I've won a game with, and it's a play that potentially cost us the game."
According to McCarthy and offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski, the reason things went awry and Brett Favre's slant pass to Donald Driver was tipped by cornerback Nate Clements and intercepted by safety Ko Simpson was the play took too long.
After Noah Herron rushed for a 10-yard gain that put the Packers at the Bills' 1-yard line, McCarthy sensed an opportunity to catch the Bills' defense off guard by quickly switching his personnel from base to tiger (double tight end). Most of the game, the Packers got to the line of scrimmage with at least 24 seconds remaining on the play clock, according to McCarthy and Jagodzinski. On the first-and-goal play, however, they broke the huddle with about 22 or 23 seconds remaining, meaning they weren't at the line anywhere near as quickly as they had been throughout the game.
That nullified the advantage the Packers were hoping to gain and allowed the Bills to not only change their personnel to match the Packers but also allowed Clements to get in position to tightly cover Driver.
"We call it a speed break," Jagodzinski said, "and we didn't get up there as fast as we needed to. You execute the play, and this a non-issue."
But it was an issue at McCarthy's regular day-after-the-game news conference because it was one of a couple of glaring plays that factored into the Packers' 24-10 loss. The Packers trailed 17-10 with just less than 5 minutes to play when McCarthy made his first-and-goal decision. He said on Monday his decision to throw shouldn't be viewed as a lack of faith in the running game.
"Frankly, I think I've proven how important running the football is to our team and to the success of our team," McCarthy said. "I'm of the belief that if you can't knock it in four times from the 1-yard line, then you don't deserve to score a touchdown. I think I've proven that this year.
"It's easy for me to sit there and say, 'Gosh I wish I ran that thing in,'" McCarthy added. "I do believe that if we ran it that we would have had a great opportunity to get it in on first, second or third down."
