GREEN BAY — Why didn't Mike McCarthy accept the 10-yard holding penalty that would have pushed the Baltimore Ravens back into a third-and-goal from the 11-yard line instead of declining it and giving them a fourth-down chance from less than a yard out during Sunday's 19-17 victory?

Simple: The Green Bay Packers coach was convinced his guys were going to get a stop.

Which, of course, is exactly what happened. The defense, after stopping running back Ray Rice on the first three plays, stuffed Bernard Pierce for no gain on fourth down, completing a goal-line stand that was a major momentum-shifter in the Packers' win.

It was also a different tack than McCarthy had taken in the Sept. 8 season opener at San Francisco , when the 49ers committed a 5-yard illegal formation penalty on a third-down play and McCarthy accepted the penalty — even though the 49ers had come up short and it was fourth down and inches — to give the 49ers an extra play.

That decision led to quarterback Colin Kaepernick scrambling and drawing a personal foul penalty on Clay Matthews for a late hit out of bounds, leading to a touchdown.

In fairness to McCarthy, Kaepernick was 2 yards short of the first down when Matthews hit him in that game, meaning the strategy essentially worked.

On Sunday, McCarthy didn't flinch even though by declining the penalty he set up a fourth-and-inches, just as he would have faced if he'd have declined the penalty in San Francisco. When the defense stopped Pierce, it preserved the Packers' 3-0 lead.

"The thinking was simple and it's exactly what I said on the headsets (to the others coaches): "We're playing great defense. I'm declining the penalty,'" McCarthy explained Monday. "So it wasn't really a conversation. I just felt strongly, just knowing the personality of their football team, they were going to try to run it again, (and) I was just confident that we'd be able to stop it.

"Our defensive line did a great job. The penetration on that goal-line stand was outstanding, particularly on the road. That's a moment as a defense that you can really build off of and I thought it was definitely one of the big, big plays, big segment of plays in the game."

Jason Wilde  wrote:

It seems like the Packers have struggled or made mistakes on stopping 3rd and long a lot more often than struggling / making mistakes on 4th and short for what ever reason.

I would think the norm would be struggling to stop the short yardage ones than the long yardage ones, but doesn't seem like the case for the Packers.

Originally Posted by: beast