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.

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.

Practicing in the Cold Helps...

According to Mike Vandermouse, Mike McCarthy recently said

But the Packers might be better equipped to handle the cold this year because McCarthy has them practicing outdoors on a new heated field. In past years, the Packers worked out inside the Don Hutson Center in the winter.

“Practicing outside definitely helps,” McCarthy said.

How many seasons did it take Captain Dipshit to come to the conclusion that practicing in the cold might actually help the team weather the cold? How many seasons did he say, "You get the best practice under the best practice conditions, so we'll just practice indoors and leave the doors open?" Does anyone remember that we lost the NFC Championship at Lambeau Field because the team sucked in the cold? Knowing McCarthy, he probably has Crosby and Kapinos practicing their kicking indoors, too.

McCarthy sucks. Slowest, most stubborn fuck I've ever seen.

The Kid Sure Doesn't Suck!

Sorry it’s taken me a while to write this up. It’s been busy. But what a night! I am so stoked! We beat the Vikings, despite all the hoopla. And most importantly for our future, Aaron Rodgers had a great night—178 yards, 18 completions out of 22 attempts, one passing TD and one rushing TD. He was a busy boy.

Before serious discussion, just as a bit of trivia, it may interest you to know that our acting center, Jason Spitz (C, #72) can actually leg press 1100 pounds thirty times! At least this is what Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. Fuckin’ amazing. There are no photos of his legs on the web. I’d really like to see legs muscular enough to leg press half a ton thirty times.

First quarter was a little dodgy and I’ve got to say that the offensive line had problems. Chad Clifton (LT, #76) and Tony Moll (RG, #75) racked up three penalties each. Darryn Colledge (LG, #73) and Mark Tauscher (RT, #65) racked up one each. Of the total, five of these penalties were levied in the first period. The most heartbreaking penalty nullified Rodgers’ 68-yard touchdown throw to Donald Driver. I thought that Tony Moll would undoubtedly be answering for that one Monday morning, but according to Jason Wilde of the Wisconsin State Journal, apparently there was a communication problem that led to the penalty:

Neither McCarthy nor offensive coordinator Joe Philbin were excusing the penalties as a first-game issue — “We were just a little bit out of sync,” Philbin said — but the coaches also weren't coming down hard on Tony Moll and Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila for two penalties that proved costly.

The second of Moll's two ineligible man downfield penalties wiped out a 68-yard Rodgers-to-Donald Driver touchdown pass, which came on a run-pass check made by Rodgers at the line of scrimmage.

As a result, Moll was unaware of the play change and was run-blocking, so he got upfield about 5.5 yards, just beyond the allowable distance.

So the O-line is rough around the edges, but they held up against the Vikings alleged “doomsday defense” and Rodgers wasn’t sacked the whole evening long. While watching, I felt that this absence of sacks was at least partially due to Rodgers’ own mobility. My initial response was to say, “I’m glad the Kid can dance, but he really shouldn’t have to.” But I just pulled up this interesting interview with LeRoy Butler, who claims

Q. How much can you see them getting out of his running ability? Can they incorporate that into their offense?

A. They do a lot of play-action and bootlegs and a lot of sprint options to get him out of the pocket anyway. They can use that. You have to give McCarthy a lot of credit for moving his quarterback around. He can be a scrambling quarterback, he can be a pocket passer, he can do it all. He can make all the throws. A lot of veterans can't make all the throws. He can throw the ball 56 yards with a tight spiral, he can throw a 25-yard comeback, he can dump it over the middle. But he also knows he's not going to complete 18 of 22 every time. That's why I like him. He's mentally tough.

So, according to Butler at least, this highly mobile quarterback stuff is actually part of the plan. That blows my mind. The Kid is definitely not Favre. Butler couldn’t help selling Rodgers up:

Q. Overall, what did you think of the performance of quarterback Aaron Rodgers?

A. I thought he went through his progressions really well. I wasn't surprised that the offense started slow. I think it was good play-calling by (Mike) McCarthy to get him out of the pocket. People probably didn't know he was that fast. The pass he threw to (Greg) Jennings - the long pass - the pass he hit (Donald) Driver on that was called back and another pass he threw over the middle to Driver, he showed that he can throw with velocity. I was very happy with his overall performance. I think everybody in the stadium was shocked; I wasn't. Aaron has the mind of a golfer. You can hit a bad shot or you can hit a 50-foot birdie putt and it's the same to him. He doesn't get rattled, you can't intimidate him, he's a cool, calm guy. It didn't bother him all those comments the Vikings made during the week. He doesn't care that there are 40 Jets jerseys in the stands. It doesn't bother him. It doesn't bother him if he looks in the stands and see's a sign about Brett. This is one of the mentally toughest guys for someone in his age group I've seen in a long time. You have to be mentally tough to fill Brett Favre's shoes.

There were none of those suspicious drops that plagued our receiver corps during the preseason. That was exciting. They did a great deal to cork the great Adrian Peterson. He was damned fast, that’s for sure.

The defense had two glorious moments. The most important was an Atari Bigby interception at the end of the game that effectively ended the Vikings final drive and clinched the victory. And Aaron Kampman had a sack in the first quarter.

Oh! Let's not forget: Will Blackmon returned a kick-off for a touchdown! All in all, I had a happy Week 1!