Tenor of the Team

[Fritz]

After reading some of MM's press conference responses, I thought this deserved its own thread.

I mentioned elsewhere that I did not like the response of the players or the coaches to the loss, and my feeling has been amplified by MM's presser. He goes all Bill Clinton on us when he asks "How do you define a running game?" and goes on to say he thought the running backs were fine. Maybe they were, but the run blocking was miserable, and he says only that Clfton and Tauscher were "okay" and that it's all fine, just fine.

I just don't see him holding the team accountable. I don't want him throwing people under the bus, but he seems to be pretending that everything was fine in that game except some penalties and special teams. And the penalties he seems to hint were just bad calls.

The players themselves seemed to want to blame the refs.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I just don't like the tenor of this team after this loss.

[wist43]

Some of that is frustration, but for McCarthy and for the psyche of the team, he can't come and say, "we can't run ball, what did you expect"???

We live in a world in which reality must never be acknowledged, and fragile psyches must coddled... we need a RB, our special teams suck - again, and we're painfully thin on the DL and at DB.

Those are the responsibilities of TT... McCarthy will never acknowledge those weaknesses; rather, "we'll get that cleaned up".

This is TT's team, and he's drafted an awful lot of very good players; but... maybe he'll draft a RB, CB, and P next April

[Fritz]

Maybe I'm just pining for "the problem was pad level" and "we'll get that cleaned up this week."

Did I really just write that?

[MichiganPackerFan]

I thought there was acknowledgment that 1) it's a passing league 2) The Bears defense was tough and 3) they'll get just as much production out of passing to the RB as they will by handing it to him

Cleft had some nice analysis in one of our threads here yesterday as well.

[Scott Campbell]

They ran the ball better than Dallas did at home against the Bears. They ran the ball better than Detroit did against the Bears. Their RB's ran the ball better than Chicago's RB's. Chicago just has a terrific run defense.

The running game wasn't much of an issue in this game.

McCarthy needs to talk about that challenge flag, and acknowledge that he really screwed up.

[mraynrand]

I remember Terry Cummings sang the national anthem at a Bucks game once. I think he was a Tenor. I don't know of any on the Packers, but with 53 players, there's got to be at least one.

[Patler]

Re: Tenor of the Team

..

[Patler]

Re: Tenor of the Team

Removed - MRAYNRAND beat me to it!

[mraynrand]

Re: Tenor of the Team

Removed - MRAYNRAND beat me to it!

LOL (or SOL - sing out loud)

[Joemailman]

Re: Tenor of the Team

After reading some of MM's press conference responses, I thought this deserved its own thread.

I mentioned elsewhere that I did not like the response of the players or the coaches to the loss, and my feeling has been amplified by MM's presser. He goes all Bill Clinton on us when he asks "How do you define a running game?" and goes on to say he thought the running backs were fine. Maybe they were, but the run blocking was miserable, and he says only that Clfton and Tauscher were "okay" and that it's all fine, just fine.

I just don't see him holding the team accountable. I don't want him throwing people under the bus, but he seems to be pretending that everything was fine in that game except some penalties and special teams. And the penalties he seems to hint were just bad calls.

The players themselves seemed to want to blame the refs.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I just don't like the tenor of this team after this loss.

I don't think McCarthy was saying the play of the OL was fine. I think McCarthy saying their play was "just okay" is code for not very good. I remember him saying in training camp that the play of Jarius Wynn had been "just okay", and Wynn was eventually released. When McCarthy says that the running back were fine, I think he is implying that the run blocking was not there.

As for the penalties, he says that a couple of the calls were judgment calls that went against the Packers. McCarthy usually doesn't call out guys who get called for penalties while making an aggressive play. (Zombo and Burnett). It's the pre-snap and holding penalties that he is critical of.

[MichiganPackerFan]

Re: Tenor of the Team

...
As for the penalties, he says that a couple of the calls were judgment calls that went against the Packers. McCarthy usually doesn't call out guys who get called for penalties while making an aggressive play. (Zombo and Burnett). It's the pre-snap and holding penalties that he is critical of.

And I am perfectly comfortable with that position. There's stupid and there's aggression byproduct.

[CaliforniaCheez]

Every once in awhile a coach has to use everything in the arsenal.

That includes cracking the whip and getting into certain players' facees like a boot camp drill instructor.

It takes a variety of leadership techniques for the variety of players.

We don't know if the public speech is the same thing being said in the locker room. However the public speech coming from McCarthy's lips clearly is the wrong take on the performance.

When it has been decades since that many penalties have been called in a game clearly something was severely wrong.

Clearly over last season and this one the team has lost almost every big game it has been in, it is not a team with the proper playoff mentality.

Beating up the Lions and running up the score is the wrong thing to do with McCarthy's post game words. Benching a few players might be better.

For example, benching James Jones and saying "We need Swain on special teams, as evidence by the poor ST performance against the Bears, more than an inattentive fumbler."


Yucking it up against the Bills and the Lions does not a champion make. It shows a team that is sloppy and not properly focused. Clearly some more substitution is needed on Sunday.

[ThunderDan]

Every once in awhile a coach has to use everything in the arsenal.

That includes cracking the whip and getting into certain players' facees like a boot camp drill instructor.

It takes a variety of leadership techniques for the variety of players.

We don't know if the public speech is the same thing being said in the locker room. However the public speech coming from McCarthy's lips clearly is the wrong take on the performance.

When it has been decades since that many penalties have been called in a game clearly something was severely wrong.

Clearly over last season and this one the team has lost almost every big game it has been in, it is not a team with the proper playoff mentality.

Beating up the Lions and running up the score is the wrong thing to do with McCarthy's post game words. Benching a few players might be better.

For example, benching James Jones and saying "We need Swain on special teams, as evidence by the poor ST performance against the Bears, more than an inattentive fumbler."


Yucking it up against the Bills and the Lions does not a champion make. It shows a team that is sloppy and not properly focused. Clearly some more substitution is needed on Sunday.

That was exactly the feeling in the early 90s. They would play well all year and then loose to Dallas or San Fran in the playoffs. We couldn't beat the team to get to the "next" level. We kept Homgren even after all of his failures.

I really think it is a culture issue. Teams that win big games believe they can play in big games. I hope we are on the verge of making that paradigm shift again.

[ND72]

You also have to remember who we're dealing with here. McCarthy is as much a Thompson disciple as anyone....they just don't tell you anything. I don't think I've ever watched a press conference of MM or TT that they came out and told you anything you wanted to know or hear. McCarthy has traditionally been very basic and blah with his answers.

[Joemailman]

You also have to remember who we're dealing with here. McCarthy is as much a Thompson disciple as anyone....they just don't tell you anything. I don't think I've ever watched a press conference of MM or TT that they came out and told you anything you wanted to know or hear. McCarthy has traditionally been very basic and blah with his answers.

Yep. It's called coachspeak. Ever listened to Belichick? Rex Ryan is the notable exception.