McCarthy is #1

[HarveyWallbangers]

Kind of cool that McCarthy is now tied for first in W/L percentage amongst the coaches that took over last year. According to many experts, the job he got wasn't the most appealing of the positions available. I agree with the sentiment that it's too early to judge either way, but I've always had a good feeling about Coach Mac--since I watched him run Training Camp on the NFL Channel last year.


McCarthy bashers strangely silent

Remember back to last season when the Packers were stumbling and bumbling to a 4-8 record? There were cries for Mike McCarthy's head, as some impatient fans were loudly questioning GM Ted Thompson's choice for a head coach. In numerous chats, I remember repeatedly having to tell fans to give McCarthy a chance, that you cannot judge a coach based on a partial season.

I'm not ready to say "I told you so." I'm not ready to proclaim McCarthy as the next coaching genius. As a matter of fact, it's still too early, just 18 games into his tenure, to judge the job McCarthy has done.

I will repeat, for the benefit of impatient followers of the Packers, that building a team takes time. It goes for McCarthy as well as Thompson. While I have questioned moves (or non-moves) made by Thompson over the off-season, I never swayed from the attitude that both men deserve an adequate amount of time to roll out their program.

How much time is needed to judge them? I would say by the end of the 2008 season we will have a good idea on both of them.

But let's take a look at how McCarthy and the six other NFL coaches who were hired in 2006 are doing. As it stand, McCarthy has moved into a tie for the best record among those seven coaches. Here are the 18-game track records, with this year's records in parenthesis:

Mike McCarthy, Packers 10-8 (2-0)
Eric Mangini, Jets 10-8 (0-2)
Sean Payton, Saints 10-8 (0-2)
Scott Linehan, Rams 8-10 (0-2)
Gary Kubiak, Texans 8-10 (2-0)
Brad Childress, Vikings 7-11 (1-1)
Rod Marinelli, Lions 5-13 (2-0)

Remember everyone who fell in love with Payton last year, and those labeling the Jets' coach "Manginius"? Both coaches have stumbled out of the gates in 2007.

The point here is not to say McCarthy is the best of the bunch. The jury is still out on all these coaches. But anyone who was ready to throw McCarthy under the bus in the middle of last season clearly was making a premature assessment.

[Oscar]

Nice post Harvey. I think M.M. is a keeper. He seems to have a plan and is willing to stick with it. Having Favre helps. But, we also have a ton of young guys that are learning on the job and to me....That says alot about the job he is doing.

[4and12to12and4]

Well, there was a lot of discussion about his ability to make halftime adjustments this offseason here at Packerrats. One thing I love about MM is that when Shermy was our coach I would always predict run or pass before the play and rarely was I wrong. With MM, it seems like when I think he's gonna pass he runs, and visa versa. He also has some very good schemes and uses them at opportune times, screens, draws, quick slants, etc..

On another note, I have never seen Favre audibling as much as he is this year. You can tell that he is very tuned in to what the defense is bringing. He reminds me a lot of Manning and Brady as he points out things to his players and changes calls. And he's always been good at keeping defenses unaware of when the snap is coming. I'm pleasantly surprised at the few false starts this young group has had. There is a lot going on out there with Brett before the snap, and the blocking and lack of penalties has been pretty good. We can definitely improve in the blocking, but, we're doing better than I expected.

Am I the only one here that has noticed the complete resurgance of Bubba Franks. He looks stronger and faster and more motivated than I've seen the last couple of years. He was a huge factor in our win, as was Donald Lee. They were key in many third down plays for us. Even as the announcers just said that our tight ends weren't "Jason Witten", Donald Lee hauled in a great catch on an important third down. I chuckled a bit.

[swede]

I agree with just about all of that...

The only thing that reflects badly on MM is the regression of the run game.

Is he willing to look hard at the coaching staff and the scheme they're trying to run?

(I'm gonna keep beating that drum until a decently blocked game shuts me up. Win or no win, we go nowhere with the ZBS running game as it is presently drawn up. coached and executed.)

[mraynrand]

I don't think McCarthy is any good at all. I think he is winning because he has Favre and a bunch of great players provided by his GM. He was set up to win.

[Him8123]

not good at all? what crack are you smoking?? MM has turned this team around for the better. Have you noticed Favre is not throwing erratic passes and interceptions?? Yea you can credit MM for that, staying on top of Favre and controlling how he plays. Mccarthy came in and toned down Favre and basically said you don`t have to go for the long bombs all the time. MM has a game plan and has done one hell of a job of not only sticking to it. But excelling with it. You can see it one week MM will say they need to improve in one area, next week it`s improved. It`s his coaching, yea there`s talent there but you still need a game plan and to say MM isn`t any good mraynrand is Frankly idiotic!

[MJZiggy]

Psst. Him? I think that was sarcasm there...

[Oscar]

I'll second that sis.. :)

[Him8123]

well never been good at picking up sarcasm through writing. my bad :)

[Him8123]

plus I dont know anybody here, how am I supposed to know if someone is serious or not about an opinion on someone?

[mraynrand]

not good at all? what crack are you smoking?? MM has turned this team around for the better. Have you noticed Favre is not throwing erratic passes and interceptions?? Yea you can credit MM for that, staying on top of Favre and controlling how he plays. Mccarthy came in and toned down Favre and basically said you don`t have to go for the long bombs all the time. MM has a game plan and has done one hell of a job of not only sticking to it. But excelling with it. You can see it one week MM will say they need to improve in one area, next week it`s improved. It`s his coaching, yea there`s talent there but you still need a game plan and to say MM isn`t any good mraynrand is Frankly idiotic!

No really, I think the players are winning in spite of McCarthy, much like they did under Mike Sherman. The Packer roster was loaded with talent by Wolf in 2000, and the natural ability of the players, along with a HOF QB, overcame the incompetence of the coach. History repeats itself.

[MJZiggy]

In that case, what he said:



not good at all? what crack are you smoking?? MM has turned this team around for the better. Have you noticed Favre is not throwing erratic passes and interceptions?? Yea you can credit MM for that, staying on top of Favre and controlling how he plays. Mccarthy came in and toned down Favre and basically said you don`t have to go for the long bombs all the time. MM has a game plan and has done one hell of a job of not only sticking to it. But excelling with it. You can see it one week MM will say they need to improve in one area, next week it`s improved. It`s his coaching, yea there`s talent there but you still need a game plan and to say MM isn`t any good mraynrand is Frankly idiotic!

[FritzDontBlitz]

hmmmm, i just noticed something.

AGAINST the other coaches on that list, m3 is 4-2: he swept childress and marinelli and lost to payton and mangini.

pretty cool.

[Freak Out]

I agree with just about all of that...

The only thing that reflects badly on MM is the regression of the run game.

Is he willing to look hard at the coaching staff and the scheme they're trying to run?

(I'm gonna keep beating that drum until a decently blocked game shuts me up. Win or no win, we go nowhere with the ZBS running game as it is presently drawn up. coached and executed.)

The run game can only get better and one would expect it to improve as these RBs get more carries..but if the OL never gets it were screwed. We will not beat the better teams in the NFL without a solid run game.

[Rastak]

I say that's quite impressive. He was given the job after a pretty bad year and he certainly has done a good job. It's early but I'd be happy if I were TT. Well, I might be unhappy about non-football stuff but quite happy with the football side. :wink:

[MJZiggy]

I say that's quite impressive. He was given the job after a pretty bad year and he certainly has done a good job. It's early but I'd be happy if I were TT. Well, I might be unhappy about non-football stuff but quite happy with the football side. :wink:

I think he's too busy with the football side to be worried about the non-football stuff.

[Rastak]

I say that's quite impressive. He was given the job after a pretty bad year and he certainly has done a good job. It's early but I'd be happy if I were TT. Well, I might be unhappy about non-football stuff but quite happy with the football side. :wink:

I think he's too busy with the football side to be worried about the non-football stuff.


Yea, that's the impression I get. Gotta love the results.

[MJZiggy]

I say that's quite impressive. He was given the job after a pretty bad year and he certainly has done a good job. It's early but I'd be happy if I were TT. Well, I might be unhappy about non-football stuff but quite happy with the football side. :wink:

I think he's too busy with the football side to be worried about the non-football stuff.


Yea, that's the impression I get. Gotta love the results.

Yes, ALL of US Packer fans love the results!! 8-) :cow:

[Willard]

hmmmm, i just noticed something.

AGAINST the other coaches on that list, m3 is 4-2: he swept childress and marinelli and lost to payton and mangini.

pretty cool.
Actually, he lost to Linehan too. Remember the horrible game last year when Favre fumbled in the red zone with th game on the line? Painful.....

[mraynrand]

In that case, what he said:



not good at all? what crack are you smoking?? MM has turned this team around for the better. Have you noticed Favre is not throwing erratic passes and interceptions?? Yea you can credit MM for that, staying on top of Favre and controlling how he plays. Mccarthy came in and toned down Favre and basically said you don`t have to go for the long bombs all the time. MM has a game plan and has done one hell of a job of not only sticking to it. But excelling with it. You can see it one week MM will say they need to improve in one area, next week it`s improved. It`s his coaching, yea there`s talent there but you still need a game plan and to say MM isn`t any good mraynrand is Frankly idiotic!


Isn't McCarthy an offensive coach. How many great offensive games have the Packers played under McCarthy? Sure, it could be personnel, but they've been outright embarrassed in multiple games. McCarthy ran on first down 15 straight times against the Giants, gaining little or no yards. The Packers' D has clearly been more impressive. I was kidding about the 'winning in spite of stuff' - I was harkening back to the number of times I've seen people absolutely rip on Sherman when he was winning and generating a great offense (Sherman had great offenses all throughout his stay in GB, with the lone exception being the injury-riddle, TT rebuilding year of 2005). Now the Packers win a couple, have one great outing by Favre (and terrible O-line and running back production) against a very weak Giant's defense, and suddenly people are annoiting McCarthy as some great offensive mind. I need to see a little more proof, and a lot less of the predictable unproductive run game garbage before I givce McCarthy any props.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Game planning isn't all the head coach is about. It's about being a leader that players believe in. It's about being demanding yet likeable enough that players want to bust their tail all offseason to get better. It's about recognizing young talent and developing them. It's about his decisions in the offseason schedule. It's about his game management (e.g. when to throw the red flag or not). It's about many things, and McCarthy seems to have those other intangibles. We're also seeing some proof that his game planning and adjustments are getting better. It's too early to judge him, but he has a charisma in practice that doesn't necessarily come across in press conference--although even there he isn't bad (like Thompson).

[cheesner]

Game planning isn't all the head coach is about. It's about being a leader that players believe in. It's about being demanding yet likeable enough that players want to bust their tail all offseason to get better. It's about recognizing young talent and developing them. It's about his decisions in the offseason schedule. It's about his game management (e.g. when to throw the red flag or not). It's about many things, and McCarthy seems to have those other intangibles. We're also seeing some proof that his game planning and adjustments are getting better. It's too early to judge him, but he has a charisma in practice that doesn't necessarily come across in press conference--although even there he isn't bad (like Thompson).
I believe the most important part of coaching is teaching. Getting the players in training camp to be running the plays correctly, performing the fundamentals correctly, and getting them to understand their role in each and every play.

Setting a tone of expectations of perfection in performance is paramount.

To that end, each player is different. A great coach will know how to reach, teach, and motivate a variety of personalities.

[Fritz]

Funny, when you hear national media people talking about that crop of coaches, you still rarely hear MM mentioned. Even Marinelli gets more attention.

[MJZiggy]

I think he likes it that way.

[Carolina_Packer]

Funny, when you hear national media people talking about that crop of coaches, you still rarely hear MM mentioned. Even Marinelli gets more attention.

In Marinelli's case he's got a team coming off a horrible season with players making predictions about the number of wins they will have. Like it or not, there's an element in sports that gravitates toward teams that keep losing and the question of whether they will ever get better. Matt Millen and the controversy that follows him certainly brings attention to Marinelli, as does Mike Martz and his offense, and now their 2-0 start.

MM goes 8-8 and it's kind of ho-hum in the media. I agree, I think he wants to concentrate on football and not notoriety.