For Dinur and Shawn

Mike McCarthy

This is from Coach McCarthy’s press conference on Monday:

(How can you use a win like that? The flip side, the season’s not over if you lose and fall to 3-4, but then you’ve lost four games by three points each and things are pretty tough around here. What kinds of things can you take from a win like this and build off of and try to create some momentum?)

I’m the point man of this deal. I don’t swing left to right like that. I’m out in front. I do not change. It’s not my personality. I believe it’s ineffective to swing with the emotion, the criticism, even on the other side of it. When something everybody feels extremely positive is happening, I don’t think you run around with your pom-poms this week. That’s the last thing that I’m going to do. Everybody had a chance to enjoy the win last night, and I’m sure everybody feels good today. It was easier coming to work today than it was last week. That’s our business. Winning is important. A lot of good things come off of winning. But it’s onto the next one. It’s a simple as that. I wish I had some fancy words up here to make you feel better, I could answer your question better. But that’s what you’ve got and that’s what I am.

(You are that way, but you have 25-year-old kids who are more emotional and might look at it differently. How do you make sure that they use it in a positive way?)

Well, it’s all part of how you, you have to set the tempo and the plan every week. A big part of coaching is you’re a teacher and a salesman. You have to sell that plan, sell that path every single week. You can’t just go up and give a good speech at the beginning of the year and roll the ball out there. It doesn’t work that way. Today’s athlete is different. I think they’re very educated, they’re very in tune. The social networking is unbelievable. Some things I don’t even know how to work. But I’m in tune with what’s out there. It’s important for us to stay focused on the next opponent, and that’s our approach.

McCarthy is in awe of twitter (?!). I'll let that pass. But in his own words, the man is a technocrat. He isn’t a leader. I’ll be genuinely surprised if we beat the Jets come Sunday. But Brent limped off the field last Sunday. If we can beat the Bears come Christmas, I'll say the season turned out alright. Or as well as could be, our coaching situation considered.

Favre from the Taiwanese Vantage Point

But What Is the Running Game?

On Tuesday, the media asked Mike McCarthy, “When you went back and watched the tape, how did you evaluate the run game?” This is the opening of McCarthy’s response:

The run game? Well, it’s—I think you have to, you know… look at the—what’s the definition of “run game?”

So what is this guy? A second-year grad student? What’s the definition of “run game?” This is football, not existential philosophy. Last I heard, the running game happens when (1) the quarterback hands the football to the running back, (2) the O-line punches a hole through the D-line and (3) the running back carries the ball through the hole toward the endzone.

Silly Talal. Trix are for kids! Apparently Mike McCarthy has redefined the concept of running game to mean “throwing lots of short passes” so that our offensive line will not be taxed to excess. God forbid the O-line be troubled with opening a hole for the running back to run through. Right guard Darryn Colledge recently said, “We’re an optimistic offense. We’ll take the yards any way we can get them, whether it’s run, pass or A-Rod scrambling for them himself.” Yeah, we can even have Rodgers run the ball in himself for the first down. Darryn Colledge calls that optimistic.

Personally, I call it desperate, but as Coach points out, this is apparently all a matter of definition. Apparently, Packers football is no longer played for the reality-based community.

I hate Mike McCarthy. The Packers O-Line will stink for as long as he’s here. Here watch these. I can’t write any more. This is making me sick.