I don't know about the team, but Mike McCarthy's losing me.
1) We're too one-dimensional on offense. We don't need to be a run-first team, but we need enough of a running game to slow down the other team's pass rush. Mike McCarthy only makes a token attempt at running the ball, in my opinion. Running the ball 10-15 times a game while throwing it 35-40 times isn't enough to keep the opposing team's defense honest.
2) He seems lost on the sideline, and doesn't seem to be completely in control of the team. The Johnny Jolly penalty was an example. As I'm watching the game and Jolly goes over and sits on the bench at the end of the series, I was wondering where the coach was. Nobody was chewing him out...er, providing feedback that the penalty was not acceptable.
Mike McCarthy was asked after the game why he didn't bench Jolly, etc. He said that he hadn't seen the play, and that to bench Jolly would have hurt the team. (http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20091103/PKR07/91103194/1954/pkr03?GID=xko+gO70sY/REDoNDN/5PkKYwX7PpQRld2wptXXfg4Y%3D)
To me both of those responses were lame. He may not have seen the play, but he had to have seen the officials flags. He had to hear the officials call that a personal foul was called after the play was over. He had to realize that his defense was staying on the field after stopping the Vikes on 3rd down. He had to realize the Vikes ended up scoring a touchdown instead of kicking a field goal. He has guys up in the booth that could certainly tell him what happened on the play if he had any questions.
I couldn't help contrast his indifference with Mike Holmgren. If something like that had happened on one of Holmgren's teams he would have provided immediate feedback to that player before he had even reached the sideline. In my opinion, either Mike McCarthy isn't interested enough in providing immediate correction when a problem occurs or he's getting overwhelmed during the game and not in control enough on the sideline.
3) Inability to solve mental-error recurring problems (avoidable penalties, pass blocking breakdowns leading to unabated shots on the quarterback, etc.). This has been a problem for the last four years. I don't know whether it's the coaches, the players, or a combination of both, but the coaches seem to be unable to get through to the players enough to change the on-field performance to eliminate the problems. In my opinion, it's primarily on the coaches, and their responsibility to adjust their coaching to get through to the players. I'm tired of hearing "we've got to get that fixed."
4) Zone blocking system. I detested it when we played the Broncos and I was appalled when we adopted it. Our running game has deteriorated badly from the power running game we had under Mike Sherman.
I can't shake the feeling that Mike McCarthy is sliding more toward Ray Rhodes than Mike Holmgren, which is making me start to wistfully look at some of the other coaches out there and speculate if maybe we could do better.
"macbob" wrote: