NEW ORLEANS -- Coach Mike McCarthy has a good enough football team that he shouldn't need to resort to gimmicks or high-risk moves to win games.

The Green Bay Packers were 5-2 without them heading into Sunday night game's at the New Orleans Saints.

But McCarthy went against conventional thinking on three key occasions in the 44-23 loss at the Superdome.

They were:
[list]

Rob Demovsky  wrote:

NEW ORLEANS -- Coach Mike McCarthy has a good enough football team that he shouldn't need to resort to gimmicks or high-risk moves to win games.

Maybe after the bye we can just put our best players out there and play football instead of using silly gimick packages/plays so often on offense and defense.

Originally Posted by: steveishere 

They have to prepare for it because the Packers absolutely pencil-whipped the Saints with that play. I mean, it was genius. You will never see a better example of plays, not players, than you saw on that play. By formation and personnel, the Packers completely compromised the Saints’ defensive look by isolating a very large player on a much smaller player. Everything was perfect according to design. It should’ve been an easy pitch-and-catch touchdown, except one thing went wrong: The pass was dropped. That’s why it’s always players, not plays.

Vic Ketchman wrote:

I think Vic has this one spot on. Excellent play call and if Julius Peppers catches it, those whining about it, would be praising it. Hindsight makes us all brilliant lol

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

I think Vic has this one spot on. Excellent play call and if Julius Peppers catches it, those whining about it, would be praising it. Hindsight makes us all brilliant lol

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

LeRoy Butler had a similar take in his weekly show: put Jordy or Cobb in the same spot and the Saints would have been all over it.

Originally Posted by: Mucky Tundra 

That's all well and good, but why not get him a rep or two when we were up by 30 the week before? Why debut it in a clutch situation like that?

Originally Posted by: nerdmann 

I prefer they have Rodgers under center, play-action while he rolls out when they get inside the 12 yard line. This allows Rodgers to use his feet and his arm as weapons and the defense has to respect both. And I'd prefer it always thrown to Randall Cobb for this season. [grin1]

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

Wouldn't that just drive up his contract demands and cost us more money in the offseason?! 🤦

Originally Posted by: Mucky Tundra 

The hell do I care about that for? His contract plays no value to my Fantasy Football games. [rockon]

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

I agree, it should have been called a few times so other teams could get tape on it. [duh]

It's not a complicated route, nor a deep route. You run 5-10 yards, curl inside and catch the ball. The play was called at the right time with the right personnel. I'm willing to bet 9 times out of 10 Julius makes that catch.

Out of the 60 minutes of the game, its hard to believe fans can be in an uproar over such good called play.


I prefer they have Rodgers under center, play-action while he rolls out when they get inside the 12 yard line. This allows Rodgers to use his feet and his arm as weapons and the defense has to respect both. And I'd prefer it always thrown to Randall Cobb for this season. [grin1]

That being said, the Peppers play was a good play call.

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

Isn't the point of a surprise play for it to be a surprise? If they had called it a few times before the Saints would have seen Peppers come in and been wise to it thinking that maybe the ball will come his way. Who knows what they were thinking this time but I'm sure it took a few people by surprise.

Now when Peppers comes in on offense the other teams will think "its going to Peppers" and it probably never will again. Plays like this work at surprising the defense only when you show it as a potential for use far more than you actually use it.

I agree with you on everything else though except I make it 8 out of 10.

Originally Posted by: sschind