An Attempt At Discussing McCarthy's Future

[woodbuck27]

But he didn't meet his goal. And if we take something a coach says about his gameplan as literal truth after a contest, you will never get a clear picture of what the coach wants to do. No coach wants to reveal anything and they want to escape the attention having revealed as little as possible.

Notice that no one is quite sure what to make of Bevell/Carroll today, because both the blame for the play call. It was a sign of solidarity and a way to avoid discussing the plan and the process. Bevell went off script and tried to volunteer the WR as part of the team effort to lose, but that is the exception.

But I do agree that he is too eager too early to go exclusively to run with a lead. I think the injury to his QB exacerbated that tendency in this game. However, its hard to calculate how the entire offense struggling fed into this decision. Long before they ran 5 out of 6 downs, the offense had ground to a halt.

The offense wasn't great all game but beginning in the 2nd Quarter and getting the magnifying glass out and looking at the play by play :

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2015011800/2014/POST20/packers@seahawks#menu=gameinfo%7CcontentId%3A0ap3000000460724&tab=analyze&analyze=playbyplay

2nd Qtr... Score Green Bay 13 - Seattle 0

8 plays and 11yds ...FG ; 3 plays and 23yds ...interception ; 6 plays and 12yds ...punt (End of 1st half)


3rd Qtr... Green Bay 16 - Seattle 0

3 plays and 9 yds ...punt ; 4 plays and 7 yds ... punt


End of 3rd and 4th Qtr... Green Bay 16 - Seattle 7

10 plays and 57 yds ...FG ; 3 plays and 6 yds ...punt ; 3 plays and a -ve 4 yds ... punt ; and finally

6 plays and 48 yds ... FG


End of regulation Green Bay 22 - Seattle 22.


That's 9 possessions and 46 plays for 168 yards ( a dreadful 3.652 Yds/Play Avg. ) and just 3 FG's (9 points).

[pbmax]

Yep, it didn't pick up until they needed the FG. And that might have been as much about Seattle backing off to prevent a TD as it was about the passing game suddenly coming to life.

[woodbuck27]

But he didn't meet his goal.

Checking the Play by Play:

The Packers had 13 running plays in each half (they ran the ball 26 times in total) plus the 12 yard scaramble late in the 4th qtr. by Aaron Rodgers.

[woodbuck27]

Then there is this flip side or should Mike McCarthy get all of the blame? He informs us the he's responsible for the loss but that's just Coach speak.

The overwhelming fact remains...that the collapse wasn't all on Mike McCarthy.

Aaron Rodgers wasn't happy with the play calling. He made that obvious after the shocking loss in Seattle. At times like this emotions run high and Aaron Rodgers is certainly emotional. People say things that later they regret and apologize for. A great example of that is the reaction in the Seattle dressing room after the loss in the Super Bowl; and why wasn't Marshawn Lynch tasked to seal the deal?

We're well aware that Aaron Rodgers is a big part of the Packer offensive play calling. That it's not all Mike McCarthy. We learned that late in this past season. Was that 'shared approach' completely shut down in Seattle? I know that they tried wrinkles that were never used in the past to deal with crowd noise.

Rodgers is the Packer and NFL MVP. Again...he's called his own plays and if he didn't like a call from the sideline couldn't he have changed it?

Other problems that need to be addressed:

** The premature celebration and lack of leadership in controlling all that emotion.

** The way the Packers defense was set (Dom Capers) and tightened up in the 4th quarter and in overtime are a part of this loss.

** ST's and Shawn Slocum. He's been buried so where I come from there's no sense disturbing that grave here or again.

[pbmax]

Checking the Play by Play:

The Packers had 13 running plays in each half (they ran the ball 26 times in total) plus the 12 yard scaramble late in the 4th qtr. by Aaron Rodgers.

“If you want to question my play calling … I’m not questioning it,” McCarthy said, via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I came in here to run the ball. The one statistic I had has as far as a target to hit was 20 rushing attempts in the second half, I thought that would be a very important target to hit for our offense.”

Not including Rodgers, who was not going to have any called runs:

29 rushes for the game (21 Lacy, 5 Starks, 1 Cobb, 2 Kuhn). 16 in the first half, 13 in the second half.

[woodbuck27]

Not including Rodgers, who was not going to have any called runs:

29 rushes for the game (21 Lacy, 5 Starks, 1 Cobb, 2 Kuhn). 16 in the first half, 13 in the second half.

Looks like I missed a few...I'll check that .. Thanks.

I'm trying to establish that MM reached his check point of 20 running plays.

He reached his check point of 20 points.

That adds up to conservative thinking and a lost game. MM in my view calls a game to get a lead and protect that lead. He calls plays simply not to lose...like maybe? ... as he says:

The games are 'simply' fun to him. I cannot yet prove that.

Certainly ... Mike McCarthy's not like my choice as the finest Modern Era Head Coach and play caller Bill Belichick.

Belichick and especially with the competitively aggressive Tom Brady as his QB cannot score enough points in a game. New England plays offense to absolutely bury the other team. In other words:

The New England Patriots get a choke hold on the games score in their favor and absolutely 'choke out' the opposing team. A team may beat Belichick and Brady once; but to get that job done two times in a row, and in the same season .... is a formidable task. I cannot express just how many times I've observed Brady drive for a TD and immediately after a small to grander celebration. He'll be right back to the sidelines analyzing and working on the next TD.

A FG for Tom Brady is like slapping the school yard bully and running away. That 'Big Prick' is going to eventually try to beat the crap out of you.

[woodbuck27]

Writers vote Jim Caldwell NFC North Coach of the Year - ESPN

Comment woodbuck27:

Green Bay Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy finished second in the voting.

[mraynrand]

Writers vote Jim Caldwell NFC North Coach of the Year - ESPN

Comment woodbuck27:

Green bay Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy finished second in the voting.

[pbmax]

I'm trying to establish that MM reached his check point of 20 running plays.

He reached his check point of 20 points.

No he didn't. If you go back to that quote, he wanted 20 rushes in the second half. And as was made evident by the passing for a FG, he didn't just want to call running plays because that was the entire game plan. He wanted the lead and then he wanted to bury the clock by running it out.

From a first level analysis, that strategy is sound. Most winning teams have big running numbers in the second half while they have the lead and they want the clock to run. Remember the old chestnut about the Cowboys being 76-6 when Tony Dorsett rushes for 100 yards? That was because the Cowboys had second half leads in those games and they ran Dorsett to shorten the game and reduce the chance of turnovers.

But if you look closer, running can cost you and help the opposition if you are not getting first downs while running down the clock. And that describes what was happening to the Packer offense in the second half. It wasn't efficient enough and there was too much time left for 5 runs in 6 plays to bleed the clock far enough. It took an extraordinary set of circumstances, but it did happen, there was just too much time left.

[woodbuck27]

"I came in here to run the ball. The one statistic I had as far as a target to hit was 20 rushing attempts in the second half, I thought that would be a very important target to hit for our offense.” ..." Mike McCarthy

I'll admit I missed that in my analysis.

Now that makes it worse staying with a goal plan of 20 runs in the 2nd half and limiting Aaron Rodgers available skills.

[pbmax]

"I came in here to run the ball. The one statistic I had as far as a target to hit was 20 rushing attempts in the second half, I thought that would be a very important target to hit for our offense.” ..." Mike McCarthy

I'll admit I missed that in my analysis.

Now that makes it worse staying with a goal plan of 20 runs in the 2nd half and limiting Aaron Rodgers available skills.

Or does it make it better because he realized that it wasn't going to work and stopped at 13 runs?

[Pugger]

No he didn't. If you go back to that quote, he wanted 20 rushes in the second half. And as was made evident by the passing for a FG, he didn't just want to call running plays because that was the entire game plan. He wanted the lead and then he wanted to bury the clock by running it out.

From a first level analysis, that strategy is sound. Most winning teams have big running numbers in the second half while they have the lead and they want the clock to run. Remember the old chestnut about the Cowboys being 76-6 when Tony Dorsett rushes for 100 yards? That was because the Cowboys had second half leads in those games and they ran Dorsett to shorten the game and reduce the chance of turnovers.

But if you look closer, running can cost you and help the opposition if you are not getting first downs while running down the clock. And that describes what was happening to the Packer offense in the second half. It wasn't efficient enough and there was too much time left for 5 runs in 6 plays to bleed the clock far enough. It took an extraordinary set of circumstances, but it did happen, there was just too much time left.

Perhaps our O linemen should try to hone their run blocking skills this summer so we can truly run out the clock with Lacy and Starks when we have a lead. If we could have run the ball better and got some first downs in the NFCC game we wouldn't be having this discussion.

[pbmax]

Perhaps our O linemen should try to hone their run blocking skills this summer so we can truly run out the clock with Lacy and Starks when we have a lead. If we could have run the ball better and got some first downs in the NFCC game we wouldn't be having this discussion.

There were two blown blocks on those two drives. I think Bach had one and Rodgers had another.

[woodbuck27]

Perhaps our O linemen should try to hone their run blocking skills this summer so we can truly run out the clock with Lacy and Starks when we have a lead. If we could have run the ball better and got some first downs in the NFCC game we wouldn't be having this discussion.

if we could have done just this (name it - one thing) or executed that (name it - one play) better on just one and certainly (pick them - any) two occasion (s) in the NFCC game.

We would have been playing New England in this last Super Bowl.

[woodbuck27]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/02/04/brady-mcdaniels-smelled-blood-when-jeremy-lane-went-down/

Brady, McDaniels smelled blood when Jeremy Lane went down

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 4, 2015, 8:31 PM EST

Comment woodbuck27:

Why didn't Dom Capers, Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers smell blood with obvious difficulties that Safety Earl Thomas (shoulder) and CB Richard Sherman (elbow) were having physically in the NFCC game?

Sherman was injured and operating with one arm for most of the 4th quarter.

The Green bay offense should have taken advantage of Sherman's state.

If they imagined he was faking it...test him early. Run right at him. Turn him inside and pass outside for chunk yardage through the air. Was he going to pick Aaron Rodgers with one arm?