"I Screwed Up". YOU THINK!!

I can give you the names of 7 people who heard me say, "I don't like this," at least 3 times when Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy decided to go for it on a 4th-and-1 from his own 42 leading 14-6. I also said, "he will go off-tackle left for negative 1." and guess what he went off-tackle left for negative 1 yards.

When asked about the play here's what McCarthy said, "Oh, I was pissed off. 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.”

"Really". You are pissed off about what? A play you call all the time in the same situation and it fails almost all the time. You had to add "That's just the way I'm wired". What the hell does that mean? Then you said, "I feel responsible when things don’t go well." "REALLY". I may be wrong, but you are the head coach and you call all the plays, so you ARE responsible whether you feel it or not.

I'm not a swami and don't have ESPN powers (actually I do, but that is another story), but it obviously takes someone other than a "highly successful  NFL coach" to know that you don't go on 4th down with the lead from your side of the field early in the second half.

Setting that aside, "a highly successful NFL coach" should know that that play doesn't work in game-changing situations (it has only worked once that I can remember since McCarthy has been coach). Me and the 7 core Packer Backers I watch the games with know that play doesn't work. We have seen it too many times, but it seems that is the 1 play McCarthy has a blind spot about.

It is a bad play and I have called for that play to be erased off his play sheets or at least given a toxic symbol so he never uses it again instead of being used regularly in the second half of games. It never (ok, once) works.

I actually have a problem with more than that 1 play last weekend. Once again I have witnesses that will swear under oath I also said this, "Mike McCarthy over-coached by changing his game plan from what has been working for the previous six games to the one that wasn't working for the 1st 10 games."

What I mean about over-coaching is McCarthy has a maddening habit of changing the Packers game plan of what's working because I figure he thinks the opposing defensive coordinators will have devised a way to stop it, instead of actually having a backup plan when they actually stop it. Vince Lombardi would throw McCarthy out of the locker room into the snow for doing that.

I think Lombardi once said that he would run a play like the power sweep until the defense stops it. McCarthy, on the other hand, shuts his own offense down in the second of games when he jumps out to a big lead and, in the case of the Giants game, went away from what has been working to a game plan that wasn't working before the streak.

Specifically the offense starting moving the ball and scoring points when McCarthy went back to the quick hitting style that got the ball out of Rodgers' hands within the 1st 3 steps, instead of sitting back in the pocket for 7, 8, or 9 seconds waiting for a receiver to get open (which wasn't happening early in the seson) resulting in a sack or the ball thrown away.

The 1st 5 series of the Giants game Bad Mike took over from Good Mike and the result was 5 straight punts and a 6-0 deficit with 3:45 remaining in the half. Over the course of those 5 possessions the Packers ran the ball twice (right end for 1 yards and left end for 2 yards), threw the ball 10 times on short patterns completing 7 for 56 yards and threw the ball 10 times on long patterns completing none while being sacked 4 times and getting a penalty for grounding on the last play of those series.

The 1st 2 possessions ended on an incomplete deep pass and a sack and the last on the grounding penalty when Rodgers panicked and threw to the open side of the field from the Giants 34 taking the Packers out of field goal possession.

After that the Packers scored on 5 of 7 possessions to end the game. The breakdown is 14 short passes completing 11 for 114 yards and a TD and 9 long passes completing 7 for 194 yards and 3 TDs.

They also ran the ball 29 times for 80 yards with 5 going left tackle or end (26 yards), 20 times either left guard, middle or right guard (43 yards) and a TD or right tackle or end 4 times (11 yards) with one Rodgers scramble over right end.

It seemed everything worked once McCarthy adjusted his sequencing with more runs and more short passes. I guess I'm saying McCarthy is McCarthy's worst enemy when it comes to a game plan. He over-thinks everything whether its at the beginning of the game or in the second half.