rilamann wrote:I fully understand that you obviously have to have talent to win and have success,but when you have the talent,which McCarthy does,it's the coach's job to put that talent and the team in the best position to succeed and win games.
And I don't feel that McCarthy does that on a consistent basis with the offense,the greatness of Rodgers covers a lot of that up....in the big games vs the good teams not so much.
Take the Buffalo game as the most recent example.Rodgers was having a bad game and when he did make some nice passes the receivers were dropping everything,the passing game took a collective ****.Meanwhile you have an elite back in Eddie Lacy and a solid back in James Starks who were both getting some nice runs on the ground.So what does McCarthy do? He goes away from the run and forces the issue passing the ball with Rodgers having his worst day as a pro.
I thought we should have run the ball more in the second half also after running it so well in the first half. That said, keep in mind a few issues.
1. Twice we had good runs in the second half that were wiped out by holding calls, one of which was an awful call on Sitton. So instead of first and 10 situations, we were in 2nd and 20 yards to go, pretty much forcing passes and the end result was both drives stalling out on those series. There were other other offensive penalties in the first half half like false starts or alignment ones which again change the down/distance towards throwing vs running.
Here is the drive story in that half
1st drive-- After a 20 yard pass to Cobb, Lacy gains 10 yards, but called back via holding. Drive stalls out from being 1st and 20.
2nd drive-- Lacy runs for three yards, next play Rodgers picked off.
3rd drive-- We start at the Buffalo 2 yard line. Lacy runs for 4 yards and on 3rd down Rodgers throws for a first. Lacy runs for 2 yards and on 3rd down, 16 yard pass to Jordy. Two straight runs gain 15 yards. Pass to Cobb gains 14. Pass to Adams gains 6. Rodgers throws a pick.
4th drive-- Lacy runs for 6 on 1st down, but called back for holding. Now 1st and 20 again. After a 16 yard pass gain, run play no gain, but penalty on Buffalo. Rodgers throws to Jordy for 20 and 16 to Cobb on back to back plays. Two passes and a run fail to get a first down. FG by Crosby.
Last drive-- Rodgers stripped by Williams inside our five yard line with under 2 minutes left needing a TD..
It's not as if they barely ran the ball. The Packers ran for 158 yards, not 58.
2. The biggest issue i have with any fans who blame the play calling is that they simply have absolutely zero clue from play to play as to whether Rodgers ran the play sent into him or not. Zero clue. I've listened to Rodgers podcast many times and he once laughed when getting a fan question about some play call the fan thought McCarthy was stupid to use. Aaron said that on most play calls, he has the option to run it as called. To switch from a run to pass or pass to run. To switch from an inside run to an outside run or vice versa. Two switch from say a quick slant to a deep route. Sometimes when it looks like he's calling an audible, it's just a fake and other times an audible is so subtle nobody notices besides only a few players. Even the lineman won't know, but you claim to know somehow?
3. I don't often read the game threads anymore, way to much drama most of the time. That said, when i do read them, if McCarthy and/or Rodgers run the ball on say 1st and 2nd down without gaining many yards, followed by an incomplete pass on 3rd down, almost without fail will come screaming about what an idiot McCarthy is for being so conservative and taking the ball out of the hands of Rodgers. If he dares to run again on 1st down the next drive for only a short gain, multiple posters will practically want McCarthy lynched right that instant. Only if the runs are getting good yards, which no play caller controls, do posters not bitch and moan. If so many fans weren't such hypocrites and results only orientated on most run calls, i'd take complaints more seriously. Most aren't though. Pretty much only good runs don't bring out the pitchforks. Had we run a bunch more in the second half, but not gained good yardage, McCarthy would be shredded as an overly conservative buffoon. I've seen it countless times.
