1. The playcalling on third and short can get awfully weird.
Exhibit A: On third and one, they handed off to John Kuhn running parallel to the line of scrimmage. No gain. Kuhn is a straight ahead runner--a fullback. Why did they call this play for him?
Exhibit B: On third and one or two, Rodgers ran a bootleg and heaved the ball 20 yards downfield to a receiver who wasn't open. Incomplete. This one may be more on Rodgers than McCarthy. If that's a short pass to Finley, I have no problem with it, but if he's not open you don't throw it downfield to a receiver who's not open. Probably you have to try and run for the first down.
Exhibit C: Rodgers threw downfield to Jennings on third and short and the ball was intercepted. Again, the receiver wasn't even open and he just heaved it down there. I don't get it.
"all_about_da_packers" wrote:
Typically why I do not think it is wise to criticize play-calling is because so much depends on execution - which in the game is beyond the Coach's control in games.
Exhibits 2 and 3 are great examples of this. Particularly exhibit 3, McCarthy said that Finley was the underneath route, and based on the coverage (if it was single coverage) the option was there to throw to Jennings. McCarthy would be nuts to not try and exploit a no-name single covering Jennings, but it was Aaron and Jennings that had to execute. Aaron threw a pretty good pass, but Jennings did not execute. Again, difficult to criticize McCarthy for a bad play-call considering the strategy behind this particular play-call (isolate Jennings in single coverage, or take the Finley route underneath).
"Greg C." wrote: