GREEN BAY — At least Mike McCarthy confessed. He could've just kept the whole thing a secret and hoped his players didn't out him.
But there the Green Bay Packers coach was Monday, admitting what he'd hinted at in his press conference after Sunday's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers: He thought the Packers had been eliminated from playoff contention by the loss, and gave his players that impression in his postgame speech.
McCarthy, who said after the game that he was "embarrassed" by the impression he'd given his team, expounded on that on Monday, as the Packers prepped for Sunday's NFC North showdown with the Chicago Bears. The winner Sunday wins the division title.
But after the Packers' loss and before the Bears kicked off their game at Philadelphia — a game Chicago lost, 54-11 — McCarthy gave his players the impression that they were out of the playoffs.
"I wasn't of the mindset of, 'Hey, let's go watch the game tonight,'" McCarthy said. "So now I know why some of them were looking at me like, 'What the hell is he talking about?'"
McCarthy said his players' mood went from downtrodden to excited after the Bears lost.
"(The mood) changed a lot. After their head coach talked to them, they thought the season was over," McCarthy said with a laugh. "We're excited. We're excited about this opportunity. Obviously what transpired last night, we're playing for the championship. We looked at yesterday's game as a semifinal game and we were blessed to get help and now we're playing in the finals."
Jason Wilde wrote: