Is McCarthy smarter than a 3rd grader?

[pbmax]

Next time Stubby feels aggressive on fourth and one I hope he's closer to the opponents end zone than his own. lol

I would have loved to see the bootleg or that zone read that Rodgers ran later. Anything other than a Dive.

[pbmax]

So now he's too aggressive. I thought his problem was being too conservative.

Being aggressive or conservative depends on game situations. Sometimes, when you don't have control of a game, you have to grab it. Other times, when you have it, you have to keep it. With this team we all know those grabs and keeps have to come from the offense. You can't exactly sit back and wait for the defense to assert its dominance.

Except in specific game situations, I love aggression in an offense. But I just didn't see that play work for the Packers last night versus that opponent. They seemed to run better to their right.

I am also not sure Monty is your short yardage back. He's patient, but that was a quick hit play (maybe it shouldn't have been). Ripper ran into Lang his last short yardage carry and Michael tends to head for daylight at too high a rate of speed for short yardage.

If you are going to run it, I almost want Kerridge in there with Ripper.

[pbmax]

Well they just ran that play last week on 4th and 1. Opponents do chart that stuff. I'd say he was thinking that Monty has consistently shown the ability to gain yards after contact and would be both strong and slippery enough to get the 4 inches even if there was some penetration. One guy blew up Taylor right in the hole and Rip the Polish Hammer didn't have much punch today. He got stood up and pushed into the hole too.

There should have been a cutback to his right but Spriggs missed the cutoff block from his TE position. A six man line really tips things off, you can't miss blocks from it.

[Cheesehead Craig]

So if he gets blasted for the 4th down call, shouldn't he get praised as well for calling the offense that got 38 points vs an elite defense? But wait, according to some, it's simply just all Rodgers and nothing to do with MM.

My vote is yes, he's smarter than a 3rd grader.

[pbmax]

A question about the strategy.

Do you like this call versus the Giants more than if it was versus the Cowboys in same game situation?

[mmmdk]

Paul the octopus could call plays for Green Bays offense and we'd be alright!

[Maxie the Taxi]

A question about the strategy.

Do you like this call versus the Giants more than if it was versus the Cowboys in same game situation?

I can't believe Stubby makes that decision at Texas Stadium. The other pertinent question is: At what yard line do you not employ that aggressive strategy? For instance, if the ball was on our 25 yard line yesterday with inches to go in the same game situation, do you call it?

Look. I took the title of this thread as sarcasm. Of course, Stubby is smart, damn smart. As I've said consistently, he's one of the best coaches in the NFL. He is the best at motivating players when the team's back is against the wall IMO. But he has demonstrated that he does have more brain farts than normal and he is sometimes too stubbornly committed to imposing his will upon the opponent. Hence his affectionate nickname.

I am more than pleased with Stubby's newfound aggressive playcalling in the last 8 minutes of games and even during the game. Vince's post above kind of proves that the players appreciate it as well. So who am I to judge? Usually I don't post much during the playoffs. This is TT's and Stubby's team to take it as far as they can THEIR WAY.

So all I have to say and probably all I should say at this time of the year is:

Go Pack Go!

[Fritz]

Again, I'm okay with going for it - I like the aggressiveness. But the Jints were clogging the middle up anyway. I wanted the Rodgers bootleg, with option to run or pass.

[MadScientist]

I have no problem with going for it in that situation. The play call wasn't great and the execution was worse.

[vince]

Except in specific game situations, I love aggression in an offense. But I just didn't see that play work for the Packers last night versus that opponent. They seemed to run better to their right.

I am also not sure Monty is your short yardage back. He's patient, but that was a quick hit play (maybe it shouldn't have been). Ripper ran into Lang his last short yardage carry and Michael tends to head for daylight at too high a rate of speed for short yardage.

If you are going to run it, I almost want Kerridge in there with Ripper.

Yeah I actually didn't want him to go for it in that situation. I do like the aggressiveness it took to do it though, and I'm not going to overreact to a ballsy move that didn't work but didn't impact the outcome either. I did like his reasoning from the article. He's confident and believes in his guys, and that belief ultimately paid off big. I can get behind that. I also would have preferred the ball in Rodgers hands with a run/dump off option but again I'm not going to overreact to a nonevent.

[pbmax]

Went back and read Game Book. Play was later than I thought, 6 minutes left in 3rd. M3 had no idea his offense would come to life at that point. But Defense had righted the ship.

Was on the Packers 37. The Packers had scored first TD on short field. Drive 80 yards for second. Field position was everything at that point.

I like aggressiveness, especially when leverage is on your side. I still vote no to the decision and the call.

Glad it fired up the troops, but I suspect that is the glow of winning the game.

[vince]

M3 had no idea his offense would come to life at that point.

It was a belief. Obviously no guarantees about the future, but I think he really has his finger on the pulse of his team. And there's no denying the game changed significantly with their next possession in exactly the way he indicated he thought it was about to.

Though the failed handoff to Montgomery would turn out to be a risky move he would come to rue, McCarthy had his reasons. He and his assistants had made a slew of halftime adjustments that helped get receivers in space and softened up the Giants' pressure schemes, and he believed it was time to seize the moment.

"To be honest with you, I felt like the game was getting ready to change," he explained. "I felt like we could change the game there.

I should add that he did man up and admit that he felt he made a mistake.

"Oh, I was pissed off," McCarthy admitted. "Totally. That's just the way I'm wired. I feel responsible when things don't go well. I mean, my job's to orchestrate and keep our guys in healthy plays and create flow and rhythm for Aaron. That's the way I believe play-calling should operate. But there was too much risk there. I screwed it up."

[pbmax]

It was a belief. Obviously no guarantees about the future, but I think he really has his finger on the pulse of his team. And there's no denying the game changed significantly with their next possession in exactly the way he indicated he thought it was about to.

I should add that he did man up and admit that he felt he made a mistake.

Glad about the changes at half. Was he saying his plan was the screwup or the 4th down call?

[vince]

If you're going to give him credit for the winning streak, there's also some blame to spread for the losing streak, but the way he led the turnaround was inspiring. Can you imagine old school coaches after a four-game losing streak?

If you want to crush him for his failings, you also have to give McCarthy his props for weathering adversity and keeping his players engaged and faithful. When I caught up with him in Nashville on Nov. 12, a day before the Packers would drop to 4-5 with a 47-25 defeat to the Tennessee Titans, he had every reason to succumb to the notion, at least in confidence, that this would probably not be the Packers' year.

Instead, he conceded nothing. And after returning home from the following week's defeat in Washington, with his players expecting to confront him at his most surly and shrill, McCarthy went counterintuitive and helped turn around a season.

"He honestly set the tone for us the day after the Washington game," Pro Bowl guard T.J. Lang recalled following Sunday night's victory. "Being a player, I was kind of surprised by the way he approached it. You come off four straight losses and you come in with your tail tucked between your legs, expecting to be bitched out by your head coach.

"Instead, he came in and calmly said, 'Hey guys -- let's get to work. We've got a lot of things to fix.' He stayed positive, and it really set the tone. We understand that coaches get down, too, especially when they hear people say they're all getting fired and stuff like that. He did a really good job of keeping the room together and tuning out the noise."

There was a lot of external heat at that time, and it didn't affect him in the least.

This one was also interesting to me. I think a lot of us have noticed a trend toward keeping the ball in Rodgers' hands more (as opposed to run-run-run-punt) when finishing games with 2nd half leads, particular small leads.

Following the Packers' devastating defeat to the Seahawks in the 2014 NFC Championship Game, which featured a stunning fourth-quarter collapse, McCarthy did his share of soul-searching. In the wake of the sudden death of his brother, Joe, McCarthy decided to give up his role as the Pack's offensive play-caller, only to reclaim it when the team struggled late in the 2015 season.

He thought about Joe before Sunday's game ("I always do, especially this time of year," he told me), and he also thought about the rough patches he experienced professionally this past October and November -- but when it came time to coach, he was bold and unfettered and determined to get after it, consequences be damned. And if the sports fans of America weren't cool with that -- well, McCarthy was at peace with his approach.

"Why is America so tough on me?" McCarthy repeated just before leaving his private locker room. "I don't know. I think it's because I don't have a Twitter account."

Every coach makes mistakes obviously, but I'm convinced he has no fear of failure or the pressures that come with his position. He's really good at keeping the right perspective as a respected leader of men. God, Family and the Green Bay Packers in that order as some famous coach said.

So while play calls and game decisions will be second-guessed until the cows come home. The greatest coaches lead, teach and genuinely inspire greatness through the common cause bigger and more important than any of the individuals. They use artificial means like fear, rah rah speeches, fist pumping and authoritative demands based on organizational structure at times but know those tactics are ultimately unsustainable motivators. Getting people to really buy in to the team with everything they have to give, as this team clearly has, requires strength of character that he possesses in spades.

Just my observations/opinion on him.

[texaspackerbacker]

McCarthy obviously is not stupid. He must have seen some tendency or whatever that caused him to call that play. The most significant thing I read here was that Spriggs apparently missed a block that would have enabled a cut back. That's Montgomery's thing - to hit the pile and bounce the other way, and it has worked great for the Packers since he has been a RB. Undoubtedly McCarthy wishes he had a do over, either to call something else or have the play executed better or just punt. We won the game anyway; McCarthy and the team will learn from situation; Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger; Get over it, people.