McCarthy and "Close Games"

Today, the most important position on the field is QB. It's hard to argue with the results MM has gotten from that position since being here. He appears to be one of the best teachers of QB's in the league. The offensive statistics speak for themselves since MM's arrival as well:

2010 - 8th in PPG
2009 - 3rd in PPG
2008 - 5th in PPG
2007 - 4th in PPG
2006 - 22nd in PPG

I have my criticisms of him (abandons the run too easily, gets too cute with playcalls sometimes, clock management, sticks with assistants too long) but it's hard to argue with the overall body of work. The defense had the one year in 2008 where they blew leads repeatedly, which has since been rectified with Capers.

Everyone complains about the offense not having a go-to play while leaving out the fact the offense is missing a top 5 TE and top 15 (or so) RB. The money play in the red zone last year was fade to Finley. It was unstoppable. Another one of the money plays was play-action bootleg and toss it short to Finley in the flat. For better or worse, MM is a tinkerer when it comes to the offense. Ya, it would be nice to have a play we could hang out hat on but I think that's more than made up by the number of sub-packages MM utilizes. I'd imagine that as a defensive coordinator it has to be an absolute bitch to try and game plan for this offense (when healthy).

Special teams has no doubt been the weak spot and we will see what happens with that this offseason. While I understand that Slocum has been dealt a tough hand with the revolving door of ST players, I still think he needs to go. In MM and Capers I think we have top 10 coaches on both sides of the ball. Two pieces of the puzzle are complete.