He has a history of outsmarting himself with weird calls, especially near the goal line. His first year it was bad, but he is getting fewer weird calls last year or so.

I would prefer the Packers to call their best play even if the opposing team knows it is coming, like when Sherman called the U71 formation, Ahman Green running behind Tauscher and Kevin Barry. Unfortunately, the Packers OL is not up to that level yet, different running scheme etc. Hopefully soon they will be at the point where McCarthy does not have to outsmart himself, just crush the opposing D.

---

MY POINT EXACTLY. THANK YOU!!!!

Remember Indy is the worst ranked rush d, take that into account and their not expecting it then its not so strange.

---

Trom said it. It is all about situations.
If GB was down by 21 they would have needed to go for the TD. Since they were up by 10 there is no need to push it. You saw what Rouse did in a similar situation. TN was at the 11. It was 2nd down. They were trailing and it was late in the 4th Qtr. He ran it back. Better to be up by 10 or 13 than only 3. TN had to go for it and got burnt. GB didn't have to.
Keep in mind if they were out at the 35-50 GB may well have passed the ball. Once you get down inside the 15 it is really hard to pass the ball for more than 5 yards as there just isn't very much room and the defense knows that. It is a lot harder to get 10 yards from the 15 that from the 40.
I do not remember if he was forced out of bounds. If not, the run would have kept the clock running. By the time you get into that point of the game and you have the lead and the ball you want to keep the clock going as much as possible.
One final thing. By running the ball it is now on game film. GB's upcoming opponents have to consider that the run is possible as they prepare for GB. It may not be very probable but they can not say that GB will pass 100% of the time. There was little risk by running and had a lot of benefits.

---

I think it was a good call. It was not good because of what happened on that specific play but McCarthy tried to catch them off guard. If you pass on every 3rd and long you become very predictable as an offense, much like Mike Sherman's offense. You have got to try these things every now and then to mix up your playcalling and quite often when you run on 3rd and long you get good chunks of yardage, obviously that was not the case on this play. I would have prefered a draw play from the shotgun though.

---

Come on Zombieslayer, back me up here!

IM, I understand where you are coming from. No need to defend yourself. I am not saying that you are wrong for wanting to see them make a real effort to get the 1st down.
I am saying that I understand why they didn't.

---

Iron Man,

I think your point is well taken. Howeer, i agree with the call. Colts I think would have done the same thing if they had been in the lead as well.

As the clock ticks off, there is more pressure put on the opposing team and thus they become mistake prone and throw INTs that put the game away... Sound familiar?

At the same time, at that juncture in the game, I wonder what McCarthy would have done had they ended up with 4th and 1 and not a 4th and long.
Now that would have been really interesting...

---

McCarthy has huge balls when he sees it's 4th and 1. And with Ryan Grant no less!

---