I certainly am not advocating for bringing back McCarthy. And maybe I am being alarmist or over-reactionary...but part of me is getting similar feelings with LaFleur right now as we had towards the end of the McCarthy era...
With McCarthy, you had a great offensive mind who had TONS of success. But he didn't change/adapt quickly enough, and by the end his offenses were so incredibly stale/predictable that it felt like everyone - in the crowd, watching on TV, playing defense, etc - everyone always knew what was coming. Many times it would seem our only saving grace was Rodgers cooking up his own play at the line lol.
And then you had just shocking situational football/game management. Braindead clock management, bewildering time out usage, just a general lack of awareness of the game-state and context.
We consistently had awful special teams, and seemed to have a tendency to hang on far too long to underperforming players or coaches.
And perhaps worst of all, by the end, it felt like he had totally lost the locker room. Players were no longer bought-in, there was no belief left, it was done.
Now I am not saying it's anywhere close to that level with LaFleur. But I guess the anxious part of me is seeing some cracks.
It feels like the offense is extremely stale right now and LaFleur hasn't been able to adapt or keep up. To his credit I think some of that is largely limited by the personnel at his disposal (or at least LaFleur FEELS like he is limited by his personnel), but even still it's felt like - not just this year - like opponents have started to "figure out" LaFleur's offense and he's not really changed enough to stay ahead.
His situational football and game management is also...not good. Frequently it feels like he has no idea what the game-state is, it's always a toss-up between when to be aggressive vs conservative, when to go for it or not, when to use time outs, how to manage 2-minute drills, etc...
Special teams remain terrible, and he has kept on backing Bisaccia (and others) for longer than they arguably deserve...
And I don't think the locker room is "lost" by any means, but hearing guys like Jacobs and etc talking about how they didn't understand the late game call(s)...they're not exactly throwing Matt under the bus but aren't putting themselves in front of the wheels, either...
As some people like to say, NFL stands for "Not For Long." The league moves fast and you have to adapt to keep up or you will quickly get left behind. Like I said, I don't think it's anywhere near at the same level yet, but there's some similarities enough to at least activate my Spidey-Sense....
