Oh and as for the 3rd challenge attempt. I'm glad he did it. He stopped the Cowboys momentum. Not saying that was his goal, or intent, but its what happened.
"Zero2Cool" wrote:
LOL, I'm with you. Beyond it just being funny, there's really no discussion warranted here. This wasn't really a game changing situation. Now, if they had some penalty for calling a challenge when you don't have one -- like with timeouts -- THEN it'd be worth it.
On a different note one of the interesting things from the [dreaded] McCarthy presser was his talk about the stuff Rodgers had on his plate this week. Essentially he said there were a number of schematic changes they made, alluding most to protection changes. He said there wasn't a lot of time to get the reps in for the new changes and thusly Rodgers was on a lot of pressure with all the new stuff. It is nice to see they're making adjustments.
In regards to the playcalling, it just seems like there's no way for McCarthy to win. First off, the critical lens being applied to him is zoomed in pretty damn close. When we have presnap penalties that bring us to 2nd and long situations, there were a number of times where we had a snap-throw type play (BTW, I plan on substantiating this claim with numbers -- I DVR'd the game and I wanna try to go back in and break it down). The thing is, the quick pass isn't necessarily a panacea. It may help reduce the sack count but yardage wise it wasn't any more successful than some of the draw plays. The point I'm trying to make is there WERE a number of short, quick passes called. The draws may annoy people but hell, they are positive yards and they keep the clock moving. If McCarthy calls an attacking play on 2nd and 16 then he gets yelled at for not throwing it short. When he throws it short no one says a thing. When he runs a draw people claim it's a waste of a play. Seems like a no-win situation.
I thought the playcalling -- particularly early in the 4th quarter -- was a big part of establishing a rhythm. Rodgers and the receivers were excellent in some crucial 3rd down situations to boot.
No special teams gaffes this week. Huge boost there. You really can't minimize the importance of those big returns (and blocked punt) in the last few contests. Game changers.
William Henderson didn't have to run people over. His preferred method was levitation.
"I'm a reasonable man, get off my case."