Bob McGinn wrote an interesting piece on what others were saying about Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy at the combine, which is like a sewing circle for NFL types. The most interesting part of the piece is that some Packers players are still upset with McCarthy because of the NFC Championship game loss.
Here’s the important part.
At the same time, one player said several of his teammates still were upset with the head coach. In the week leading up to the NFC Championship Game, the player said McCarthy promised the team he would keep the pedal down if the Packers gained the lead. After the Packers led by as many as 16 points, some players think McCarthy did nothing of the sort and instead displayed a glaring lack of killer instinct.
We have some real problems with this attitude, but first, let’s play devil’s advocate.
Could McCarthy have “kept the pedal down?”
Yes, there’s no doubt about that. He could have put the ball in Aaron Rodgers’ hands late in the game and went for the dagger while the Packers still had a lead. He didn’t and we all know what happened.
We thought McCarthy called a hell of game, but that’s really a moot point here. He said he was going to do something and he didn’t do it, which erodes trust. And now you have to wonder whether he’s lost some of the guys in the locker room.
That scenario could be devastating to team chemistry. You regularly see NFL teams where you know some players don’t like or respect the head coach. Brad Childress’ final season in Minnesota comes to mind. Marc Trestman last year in Chicago. Teams in that state are always garbage.
This is clearly a problem.
But the attitude of these players is the real issue here.
So there are some guys who want to point the finger at McCarthy for the loss? Well, I’ve got something to say to that and this is coming from the last guy on the block to ever defend McCarthy.
Fuck you.
Look in the fucking mirror.
McCarthy didn’t lose that game. The players lost that game.
The NFC Championship game came down to execution and the players didn’t execute. They were put in a position to win and they failed to do so. In fact, it’s laughable how many chances they had to secure that win. Literally one made play here or there could have done it.
But let’s be mad at the coach for not being more aggressive.
If I were McCarthy, I wouldn’t tolerate this shit.
He should find these players, root them out and get them the hell off the team. They are obviously not accountable and you can’t win championships with guys who are not accountable, who point fingers or offer excuses.
Shitbags like that can go play for the Vikings.
There is, of course, one exception to this rule and that’s Aaron Rodgers.
Yes, we can easily see Rodgers being one of the guys who’s angry with McCarthy. He did complain about the play calling after the game, after all. But you don’t jettison the best regular season quarterback in the game. Some day, maybe he’ll actually play well in the playoffs and become the best quarterback in the game, period.
McCarthy needs to sit Hollywood down though and tactfully point out what he seems to be ignoring — that he played like shit in that game, is the primary reason the Packers lost and, if he’s the leader he says he is, needs to shoulder his share of the blame.
Everyone else who wants to point fingers?
Fuck ’em. Send them to Minnesota.
Why should the players feel they should be held accountable, when the higher ups in the organization themselves don’t feel they should be held accountable. They set the tone don’t they?
As fair as blame, or who’s fault it was…Pick your poison, everyone played a part. Everyone.
I say if some players are upset..Good for them…It’s about high time someone on this team gets pissed off and shows some passion.
*far
I’ve said this before on here, McCarthy has to be careful, he’s at that point in his GB coaching career, 10 years, where players start tuning you and your philosophies out. I’m not concerned yet, but another playoff exit or a meltdown season where everything goes to shit will change my mind.
How in the Hell does that make any logic unless a player has been on the team 10 years? Something that is extremely rare in this organization. Why would a young player not listen to his boss at a new job unless he already has character issues along the lines of narcissism, egomania, BPD, etc.? Ridiculous.
As far as calling Rodgers “Hollywood”.
All Rodgers has done is become a 2 time MVP, SB MVP, had the best season in NFL history and every year barely throws picks, and has put up #’s the last 8 seasons that makes Favre look like a 2nd rate QB. If you have someone better in mind that should be playing QB for the Packers, who is he? That’s what i thought… You don’t like him?..You don’t like where he hangs out? You don’t like who he dates?..You think Rodgers is the primary reason the Packers lost? .I doubt he gives a fuck what you think.
I couldn’t agree more. I don’t know if the NFL, not even just the Packers, will ever see another quarterback who plays at the level Rodgers does.
The guy who calls 12 “Hollywood” is the same doucher who moved there himself.
Exactly
Its called Joe Montana, all he did was win fucking Super Bowls. Oh shit AND Tom Brady.
Love Rodgers, glad he is ours, we need to win more than 1 Super Bowl with HoF QB’s. If Aaron had played lights out, shit or even “good” in the playoffs other than 2010 he would be blameless. But he HASNT played well.
Agreed in full.
I’d like to point out to no one else’s concern, I also give not a fuck.
Players, not plays. Coach doesn’t wield the blade. The players do!
I kind of agree with this article. I was a little upset about McCarthy not keeping the pedal down but he did coach a good game in a hostile environment against a good team and put them in a situation to win. One of the last drives where he ran it 3 times was purely to take the clock down and prevent a clock stoppage or int, which was logical.
it wasn’t his fault that they got the two point conversion or Bostick dropped the onside.
But I do understand the argument. We got FIVE turnovers and were up 16-0 throughout a lot of the game. It is still insane to me that a team could get FIVE TURNOVERS and lose the game.
I’m not really taking sides in this, because the players and coaches share the blame for that shit show, bit the writing was on the wall all season. We’d jump out to huge leads, only to let teams back into the game and that comes from a lack of intensity and focus and that comes from the coaches taking their foot off the gas.
Screw the unspoken rules of the league. If you can drop a hundred on a team do it. There is every reason to believe that our offense will be even better next year. Here’s hoping that we become ruthless and run it up on lesser teams.
Im also in the mindset of screw it, lets blow the doors of these guys if we get the chance. Unfortunately, coaches now are scared shitless of karma coming around at some point down the road.
Thanks Monty. Perfectly stated from a man who has NEVER defended McCarthy.
At the end of the day, the bottom line is the head coach is responsible for the play of his football team. That’s the way it was 100 years ago, and that’s the way it will be 100 years from now.
The article is totally wrong. Coaching is paramount in any game and even more so in big games. Here’s a stat that I’m sure McCarthy knew before the game. The team that has 4th and 1 at the opposing goal line (on the opening drive) and goes for it an makes it wins 78% of the time. If the team goes for it and fails they win 70% of the time…teams that kick a field goal win just 48% of the time. From the opening drive on McCarthy was playing (and calling plays) not to lose. The game was falling in to his lap due to the defense’s surprising play but he didn’t know how to deal with prosperity and froze. You don’t win championships coaching that way…what happened was instead of putting the game in Rodgers’ hands it was left in McCarthy’s hands and he failed miserably. He coached “tight” and was apprehensive. He kept thinking his defense would shut down a team for 60 minutes (which never happens). Yes, they still should of and maybe could of won but the they didn’t…after getting five turnovers! Special teams is McCarthy’s responsibility. He left Slocum in his post for years but that was his decision (which he is responsible for) and this one awful decision most likely cost the Packers the game. In 2010 McCarthy gave Rodgers the ball and basically said “go win it.” This year McCarthy basically told Rodgers to manage the game and “let’s not lose it”. The sole blames falls on Coach Mike McCarthy.
Mike McCarty is living off Rodgers success. Don’t get it twisted. Rodgers should be the one sitting Mike McCarty down and discuss to him about his dumb ass play calling.
Yes sir!!
Eddie Lacy is the reason they lost, if he would have gotten a few first downs to run out the clock, game over.
Are you kidding me! Passive play calling lost the game. McCarthy is good coach, but you need to be an aggressive play caller to beat the best teams in the league. Eddie Lacy had nothing to do with the Packers losing the game. Predictable play calling lost the game. If the other team knows you’re going to run the ball, you’re not going to gain any yards. Every time McCarthy gets ahead, he gets passive and tries to run out the clock. This strategy is pathetic when you’re playing the best teams in the league. It will only give the other team a chance to take over the game momentum. You need to have the killer instinct to beat the best. If you’re fighting a war and you’re kicking the crap out your opponent, you don’t become passive and let them regroup, you continue kicking the crap out of them. This is a no brainer!
@ Please…very well said.
The writer is not revealed, but his opinions are over emotional and without facts, in addition to showing sophmoric elements that include needless swear words. I suggest his/her article is a good first draft.
His identity is revealed, he’s basically unstable and you sound like a fucking pole-smoker, – ‘sophomoric statements’ and ‘I suggest’. Who, beside some pretentious prick, writes like that?
You want serious journalism? This ain’t the place, Poindexter.
If this is not the site for “serious journalism,” then I guess you enjoy false opinions that are baseless. Go ahead and live a life oblivious to facts.
Losing that game took a village. Shit like this should not leave the confines of the family. That is why it is hard to complain when players, coaches, or GM’s only partial answer a media question or provide some vague response. What happens in the family stays in the family.
I guess the D had no problem with McCarthy being conservative with the lead? Just a hunch that McCarthy did not tell Peppers and Burnett to perform the most conservative play of the game. The Burnett flop after the Int. with open field ahead with approximately five minutes to go.
Hit submit before I finished. It sure appeared to me from all the ass slapping and glad handing on the field and sideline after the most conservative play (Burnett’s flop) of the game most if not all the team was thrilled with the plays outcome.How can anyone who was exited with the most conservative play in the game be unhappy with McCarthy being conservative. Hell at least McCarthy was calling plays that were designed to gain yards.
The main point of your articles is spot on.
As much as Rodgers has not been his stellar self in the majority of the Playoff games of late (sans Dallas) he wasn’t the only one who didn’t execute. Furthermore, A-Rodg NEVER said (nor do I think even implied) he was upset with the playcalling; all he said is they didn’t get it done. That could and more likely means he was upset with the inability to execute in crunch time (which they had done time and time again that season: Miami, Minisoda, ATL, Detwoi x2, Dallas). Please stop trying to fabricate drama from such a vague statement.
WRONG! Love how you rose colored Rodgers fans cant read. Rodgers DID question the play calling. Christ dude fucking read the post game comments.
That being said, I doubt Rodgers blames MM. This sounds like some dumb black player who has an IQ of 30.
I agree with the writer, the players had tons of opportunities to put that game away and they failed. Im not a big MM fan, but he is not solely to blame.
I do like the fact he gave up his play calling; maybe he realizes change is a color of paint to brighten a darkened room…
“We’ve finished off games before in four-minute,” Rodgers said. “We had a chance to do some things; didn’t do it.”
“‘You can’t let them complete a pass for a touchdown on a fake field goal, you can’t give up an onside kick and you can’t not get any first downs in the fourth quarter and expect to win. And that’s on top of being really poor in the red zone in the first half. Put all of that together, that’s how you lose games. This was a great opportunity. We were right on the cusp.'”
Please show me, in these quotes, where Rodgers blames the PCing, nowhere, that’s where; you may want to bruch up on your reading comp. bro.
*brush
Rodgers was not happy with the play calling after the game. His quote,
“We had some chances early, had some chances late to do some things and didn’t do it,” Rodgers said. “When you go back and think about it, at times we weren’t playing as aggressive as we usually are.”
This is a nice way of saying they were way too conservative.
Also, google the video of Aaron Rodgers’ brother who was very upset with the play calling in the game. He mentioned he’s one of the few who Aaron can speak candidly with after games and he brought up bad play calling twice as one of the subjects they talked about after this one.
People can believe what they want but there is no doubt Rodgers was not happy with the play calling.
I’d like to see this video. Where is it?
Link to Jordan Rodgers interview…
https://t.co/SZGZOtbpdT
Did Rodgers brother mention Aaron’s two interceptions and bad overthrow to Cobb that killed another drive?
That would have been fair to mention those key plays as well. Just A few items to consider also. Many contributing factors.
No, he didn’t mention the drop by Cobb and the 2nd interception as a result of Cobb running the wrong route either. Nor did he mention the awkward attempt by Starks trying to haul in a catchable pass for a touchdown. You’re right…many contributing factors.
I would like to remind everyone that Aaron Rodgers, league MVP, had the ball in his hands with 1:20 left and all three timeouts at his disposal.
The defense had no less than 4 chances at the end of the game to get a stop and win the game. They failed.
The Packers second possession of the second half was pass, pass, pass, pass, punt.
On third and 3 from the Seattle 30 in the first half, Rodgers gave the ball to Lacy against an 8 man front instead of throwing it to Nelson on the slant. Was that what he meant about not being aggressive?
So, yeah, everyone can keep their damn mouth shut and take a look in the mirror. Good call, Monty.
With 1:20 left, Rodgers, with a bad leg, drove the team to what should have been the game winning field goal to send them to the Super Bowl. Thanks for reminding everyone.
Rodgers wasn’t great but he wasn’t given the full opportunity that the team needs him to have. The Packers are Aaron Rodgers. To be successful they need him to take control and get in rhythm. I could list a page of scenarios where McCarthy and his staff were passive and were playing not to lose. If Rodgers was given the reins and failed then you’d have something…but that didn’t happen. You are really struggling to find enough examples to bolster your narrative…very weak.
Bolster my narrative? Hahaha… That’s good. I guess I’m a staffer at the State Department now.
Hey, I have no problem going thru every single scenario if that’s what you want. I have pretty much already done that when I wrote the Total View. I encourage you to read that and spare me the time.
IMO there were 2 times during the game where MM should have been more aggressive. And even those are blessed by the power of hindsight.
It sure as hell wasn’t all Rodgers’ fault that the Packers lost that game. He even played fairly decent in the first half, except for the INTs, but the highest paid player on the team with 173 yards passing and 2 INTs really shouldn’t complain about the play calling.
I’ve read your total view. You think your take is the gospel because you look at the tape and put down your thoughts. Your view is full of your biases. If you truly think there were only two instances of McCarthy being passive you’re delusional. I think it’s pretty obvious that even McCarthy thinks he screwed up on several levels including not letting Rodgers have more of a say in the game. Then again you’re the same guy that thinks AJ Hawk was consistently making plays behind the line scrimmage last year.
Saying I “look at the tape and put down” my thoughts is a gross simplification. I wish it was that fricking easy, but I am well aware that regardless of the time and effort it is still just my opinion of what the tape shows.
I’m sure McCarthy thinks he “screwed up on several levels” but I’ve seen no evidence that “not letting Rodgers have more say in the game” was one.
Rodgers had plenty of say in the game. Even though the Packers led nearly the entire game, in 65 plays from scrimmage, they threw it 36 times against 29 runs. They averaged 4.5 yards per carry in the game, well above the NFL average, while averaging 4.9 yards per passing attempt, which is terrible.
The main reason the Packers only had 65 plays was that they were horrible at converting third downs, 3-14. On those 14 third downs, they ran 5 times and converted twice – 2/5, which means they threw the ball on the other 9 and converted 1- 1/9. Rodgers also threw an INT on third down, which means our third down pass attempts resulted in as many first downs for the Seahawks as they did for the Packers.
The Packers longest play of the game was a 32 yard run by Starks. So, the Packers were neither being consistently good in the pass game nor were they explosive. All of this are pretty good reasons why MM may have wanted to run the ball in the 2nd half, besides the obvious reason of keeping the clock running.
Of course, with emotional fans angry at their own team, the thing that is most often missed is the performance of the other team. In the immortal words of Phil Jackson- “Give them some fucking credit. I mean, seriously.”
Seattle had the #1 pass defense in football, considerably better than the next unit, and that had a lot to do with the passing offense’s limp performance. Conversely, the Seattle front seven is the smallest in football and vulnerable to physical runners. To repeatedly drop back and throw the football, with the lead no less, instead of bashing it straight ahead, would have been the more egregious idiocy.
In short, it wasn’t that the Packers didn’t stay aggressive or try to score on every series in the second half, it was that the Seattle defense was better than they were. On seven third downs in the second half, the only time the Packers ran it was on third and 16, with throwing the ball and potentially stopping the clock pointless. On the other six third downs, Rodgers had the ball in his hands and converted once. Not good enough.
Shawn,
Good points raised.
Thank you for the recap. Perhaps this forgotten also.
So no, F You pal. While there were clearly some player mistakes, MM once again gave the game away by falling back into his “play call to not lose” instead of indeed putting the hammer down. You think he called a great game, really? So how do you feel about his comment “I had a pre game plan to run the ball a thousand times during the 2nd half, and I accomplished that goal.” Well big congrats MM, met the goal and lost the game.
Excellent point. McCarthy was clearly happy he met his “run” goal and was boasting about reaching that mark after one of the worst losses in Packer history.
There is an attitude going into a game of how you are going to attack the other team. McCarthy obviously was proud of the 20 run goal going in. McCarthy supporters look at every play and assign blame on players for its lack of success (because most offensive plays, if executed properly should go for a touchdown and successful defensive plays should stop the opposing team for no gain or for a loss). If you look at a game with those lenses you are missing so much. A coach can call conservative pass plays, not wanting to challenge specific defensive players. He can insert personnel in conservative groupings rather than open in up with more aggressive alignments. He can insert personnel that makes it impossible to audible to a pass (which occurred against Seattle). Players look to their coaches for leadership and faith in their abilities. Key players on every team knows the pulse of the coach and feed off of it in games. Players can tell when a coach is getting tight and worried by various measures. Many fans could sense the tightness and the players obviously felt it and apparently spoke to reporters about it.
Jesus, did somebody actually just try to play the percentage game to demonstrate McCarthy being too conservative? They had a 99.9% chance to win with 5 minutes left. McCarthy isn’t without blame but replaying the 55 minutes prior is sheer stupidity