Mike McCarthy Makes a Guarantee
It’s not really Broadway Joe guaranteeing a win in Super Bowl III, but up until this point the only thing Mike McCarthy could guarantee is he was going to get outcoached by a superior tactician at some point (see: Jim Harbaugh, Tom Coughlin, et al.).
Well, McCarthy made another guarantee on Tuesday — the Green Bay Packers running game will be better this season.
“We’ll be better; I promise you. You can write that down,” he said, per the Packers’ official website.
Couldn’t be much worse than last season!
In 2012, DuJuan Harris was the only highlight and he only played in four games, rushing for 157 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries. Alex Green led the Packers with 464 yards rushing, but averaged a pretty terrible 3.4 yards per carry. Aaron Rodgers was the team’s second-leading rusher.
So the Packers went out and drafted Eddie Lacy and Johnathan Franklin. They’re still learning, but McCarthy says the running game is ahead of where it was last year.
The reason appears to be the mix of the new blood, Green returning to 100 percent for the first time since 2011 and hefty competition. Harris hasn’t participated in offseason activities thus far because he had a cyst removed after the season. In his absence, Green and the oft-forgotten James Starks have been getting reps with the No. 1 unit.
Realistically, it looks like the Packers have five guys who could be capable of starting. How they hell they plan on splitting carries here may be the biggest question.
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not a fan of running back by committee. hopefully we just have Lacy as the main man and 1 other dude to change it up and give him rest here and there. its called a 1 2 punch, not a 1 2 3 and a half punch.
if it doesn’t get better, he deserves to be fired.
Good idea. Let’s fire a Super Bowl winning coach who has led the team to a 48-16 reacord over the last 4 years. Fucking idiot.
you must have been looking in the mirror on that last comment. any idiot who has been on this site “gets it”. you, obviously, don’t.
Agree with Jon, most of the comments in here are from idiots who don’t know how fricken good we had it !!
Very good point Jon!!
I was assuming that was a joke.
it was very “tongue-in-cheek”.
You mean, it could be worse?
The Packers ranked 20th in rushing last season, which was the best ranking they’ve had since 2009. And that ranking is even a little misleading because if you took just the 2nd half of the season, they’d rank higher than that.
With Lacey, Franklin and Harris for a full season, it stands to reason that they SHOULD rank higher in 2013.
Tom Coughlin is a great “tactician”? Is that why the Giants have missed the playoffs 2 of the last 3 seasons?
It may be that I am misinformed,but my understanding is that-unless you have a truly elite running back such as Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, Adrian Peterson–a first class running game requires a dominant offensive line. I do not feel we have the personell in either our backs or our running game to achieve this.
I would think a more efficacious way to break the Tampa 2 is two do more screens and slants, picking up three or four yards a play. This also keeps the ball in the hands of our best player, Aaron Rodgers!
Thoughts?
This. The Packers need to open up the run game with the pass. We have pass blocking linemen, not run blocking.
In all honesty the run game improved when EDS and Barclay became starters.
EDS was an upgrade at center from Saturday. I think Barclay has a chance to be the next Tauscher. The pundits say he is better suited for run blocking, however.
Finally, although the running game improved, it still was not, as I recall, a formidable weapon.
True, and as great as it would be to have an elite QB and RB, I don’t think the Packers need that to win the Super Bowl again, as long as the defense can stay (mostly) healthy and the Packers have a good enough running game to convert on 2nd/3rd-and-shorts, I think they will become prodigiously difficult to slow down.
Wolf, the screen depends on timing and spacing. Frankly, we haven’t had an offensive line or RB that could consistently run it.
It is a common myth that the Tampa 2 is vulnerable to the short pass. NOT the Tampa 2 that defenses have been playing against the Packers. The version first regularly played by the Bears against the Packers and then finally adapted by most of their opponents includes dropping 5 guys into the underneath coverage with 2 safeties well back.
If you are going to throw a slant against that, then you better be damn sure you are reading man-to-man because if its zone you can easily end up with a pick 6 going the other way.
The real weakness to the defense is in the middle of the field where INT-hating Rodgers can be hesitant to throw it.
Of course, the easier way to attack it is to run the football right at it.
Mike McCarthy is an excellent coach & a fine offensive coordinator.