If you don't think he's lost the team. Check out the penalties and the comments being said in the locker room.
He's lost or at least losing his grip on this team. A coach in control of his team doesn't average more than 8 penalties a game. Mind you, the same penalties each week for nearly four seasons.
I'll also add in, he needs to coach to his teams strengths. Short, quick passing game.
"Zero2Cool" wrote:
OMFG!
OMFG!
OMFG!
JEsus F'in CHRIST!
Zero -- if you have the power, please find a film tape of last night's game with a camera angle that shows the entire fiield.
Then we can have a little Cover 2 defense lesson.
Listen here boys, and listen closely: this game is too complex for simple statements like he needs to get rid of the ball quicker or that we need to emphasize the short passing game. In the first half, the Vikes almost exclusively rushed four guys, and behind that ran a Tampa 2 like zone shell. That means there were 4 rushers, and 7 in coverage. A few of the sacks against Rodgers in the first half were instances where there were at least 2 or 3 of those passing options in intermediate-short passing routes (hitches, curls, flats, comeback routes, etc.). Rodgers would go through his progression. Nothing would be there. Result -- sack, or incompletion.
The idea that we were just looking "downfield" and that McCarthy coached a piss poor first half is I PROMISE ON MY FUCKING MOTHER'S LIFE a simple, easy, quick way out of the situation that isn't indicative of the truth: it's a fucking cop out, guys.
What changed, is that in the second half, it started to work. We were able to hit up the cover 2 in the seems. We were able to spread the ball around. McCarthy talks about "rhythm" in the offense. Don't be so quick to brush that aside. In the first half we had no rhythm. Simply, we couldn't string together many successful plays in a row. It was a combination of the play being called, Minnesota reacting damn near perfect (getting pressure with four, locking up the receiving targets with EXCELLENT underneath coverage), and Green Bay failing to execute. If ANYTHING we should have tried to get the ball downfield in the seams of Cover 2 MORE in the first half. This idea that McCarthy was stubborn and trying to force it downfield in the first half (and thus why our offense was anemic) is completely fallacious. Barring one stupid Rodgers bomb off play action (the one into double coverage) we actually seemed to try pretty hard to develop the quick passing game. It wasn't there in the first half. Not everything is an issue of playcalling! Sometimes defenses simply "click" and good things happen for them. Are we forgetting this is the game of football we are watching?
In the second half things worked, but it isn't as simple as saying "why weren't we doing that in the first half! wahhh... fire McCarthy." That is such an eerily simplistic analysis of a game that, let's be honest, to play or coach at this level requires a substantial knowledge that we the superfans don't know. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to understand it -- hell, I think we should. But I can promise you, things like "we need the quick passing game" fail on all accounts -- like the account of reality. The short stuff is hard to find against a Cover 2 defense -- particularly when it is a good defense. But that didn't stop us from trying to get the quick passing game going. I promise you, go back and watch the game.
/rant
I need a fucking drink. And it's 11 am.
William Henderson didn't have to run people over. His preferred method was levitation.
"I'm a reasonable man, get off my case."