McCarthy and "Close Games"

[rbaloha1]

Old News

This is old stuff that was mentioned much earlier. Only now it is becoming an issue since the Packers may not make the playoffs.

Try no fourth quarter wins this season. MM chokes in crucial situations.

Its Harbaugh time!

[rbaloha1]

The apologists continue. Even without the injuries MM screws up.

[Gunakor]

The apologists continue. Even without the injuries MM screws up.

Maybe. We'd have no way to verify that though, would we?

Though there may be solid statistical evidence that proves the opposite is true.

On one of these threads someone did a nice breakdown of our offense since MM took over as HC. There it clearly illustrates how much MM's screw ups have hamstrung this offense both in yards gained and points scored.

[mmmdk]

This may be Captan Obvious, but if MM doesn't fire Slocum this offseason he deserves to be torn to shreds all offseason

Several would argue the same for Campen but IMO that is not as glaringly obvious

We're so much on the same page here, B Slocum out and Campen is iffy but no real scape goat 'cos we all know that the OL Packer talent pool ain't that deep. TT has truely retooled Packers but ST & OL are lacking championship talent. We're so freckin' close.

Lastly, McCarthy is average but the above might be bigger issues for Packers to get over the hump.

This offseason is huge for Packers!

[mraynrand]

Slocum sucked before the backups to backups were playing ST; he sucked last year as well. The head ST coach sucked and we hired his backup as well. Clearly the backup strategy on ST sucks

Probably just more bad personnel moves by Slocum - ya know, like only being able to field a marginal punter, younger guys across the roster, a long-strider for a return man, guys who fumble, etc, etc.

[mraynrand]

The apologists continue. Even without the injuries MM screws up.

Nah, just reality. Harv has it right, especially after all this time to evaluate McCarthy. He is what his record says he is: An above average coach who might never be able to win it all.

[mmmdk]

Coughlin might be on the hot seat if no playoffs for G-Men...why isn't McCarthy in the same boat as Coughlin?

Throw the injury card and I'll go Nero on ya

[packerbacker1234]

I remember Burt Sugar saying something like "beware of declaring a guy great because of HOW he LOST to mike tyson. He still lost." Razor Ruddok never did amount to much despite putting up a lively fight against tyson (twice I think). I was proud of our defense and offense against the patriots, but the ST failed us again, and with a lead MM abandon the successful running game late. Until we commit to the run, and have success I'm not declaring us anything. We should have won that game despite everything that went wrong. If you want to point to one thing you can count on being better, its that Rodgers is less likely to throw that pick 6....but not impossible. I want to beat the giants before I start feeling too good about losing valiantly.

Difference is, unlike that boxer, we actually had big wins this season going into the NE game. 9-0 Shut out win on the road against the Jets. We also beat the Eagles on the road, who are looking to be division winners.

The rest of our wins, admittedly, aren't really that impressive coming against teams who are bad. And, in facing bad teams, we even lost two we should of won (detroit, redskins). We lost our two biggest games against Atlanta and the Patriots, but neither by more than 4 points. If anything, we can "compete" with any team in the NFL. Just something needs to happen late in the 4th for us to finally hold onto, or complete, a victory. Be it Matt Flynn/Rodgers driving us for a TD at the end of hte game, james jones not fumblinmg away our game winning drive against chicago, ST not letting an offensive linemen return it 71 yards, or not abandoning the run game too early.

Whatever the case may be, we are "this close" to being a top tier team. The question now is: Two weeks left, playoffs on the line... have we learned anything? I hope so.

[rbaloha1]

Maybe. We'd have no way to verify that though, would we?

Though there may be solid statistical evidence that proves the opposite is true.

On one of these threads someone did a nice breakdown of our offense since MM took over as HC. There it clearly illustrates how much MM's screw ups have hamstrung this offense both in yards gained and points scored.

Without a doubt, MM offense can put up great stats -- even Sherman wit the U71 also put up great stats. Its the intangibles MM lacks that hurts down the stretch.

MM's loyalty to assistant coaches is also hurting the team.

[Fritz]

I found it humorous that in a Bears thread (about how they've been facing lots of second and third string QB's), somebody pointed out that many of the Bears' wins this season have been by only a few points...and used that fact to conclude that the Bears are "lucky."


So MM loses close games and he's a shitty coach; Lovie wins close games and he's lucky. Geez.

[rbaloha1]

IMO Zero 4th quarter wins says it all. How can you lead a team during crucial games when the players know they have failed to win a close game this season?

[Smidgeon]

Slocum sucked before the backups to backups were playing ST; he sucked last year as well. The head ST coach sucked and we hired his backup as well. Clearly the backup strategy on ST sucks

I'm not a huge fan of Slocum myself, but maybe he's not all that bad. The Special Teams penalties have got to be way down this year. I remember reading somewhere that he changed the scheme this offseason to a different kind of blocking (straight ahead instead of on one side). The results in that department has been noticeable. There has been a drastic improvement in the one area this year. Maybe it takes a couple years to fix something as horrendous as the GB STs have been. Maybe Slocum isn't the guy. But he got results on fixing the penalties...

[sharpe1027]

I remember a lot of posters complaining about Shottenheimer because of the terrible job he seemed to be doing with the secondary. He was fired and the glaring mistakes were eliminated and overall play was much improved. I see the same things being said about with Slocum here and I would not be surprised if history repeats itself.

[Fritz]

I think we can blame this year's mess on Kurt Schottenheimer and the the weightlifting coach who screwed up Justin Harrell's back. It's all on them.

[pbmax]

This is old stuff that was mentioned much earlier. Only now it is becoming an issue since the Packers may not make the playoffs.

Try no fourth quarter wins this season. MM chokes in crucial situations.

Its Harbaugh time!

If the Packers hire Jim Harbaugh, I will start to watch soccer instead.