There is so much to talk about in the Packers’ 27-24 loss. There are so many reasons they lost this game. If this team knows one thing, it is how to lose. There is no bigger reason for the loss, than McCarthy’s lack of analytical acumen and common sense on their very last drive.
After Marques Valdez-Scantling’s eight yard catch on 2nd down, after a nice effort after the catch, the Packers faced a 3rd and 2, which resulted in an incompletion, on a poor Rodgers’ throw to the flat. McCarthy elected to punt, with 4:20 seconds left in the 4th quarter, and one timeout.
Are you serious? The defense was undermanned and gassed, they were dying if not dead, and at that point, gave no indication that they were ready to get a three and out (or so), which was required due to the two burned timeouts. In this spot, McCarthys’ mindset has to be that this is their last drive. And with 3rd and 2, then he can think of running two plays and surely, a run is the best play in that spot. Aaron Jones, while not having much running room on the day, is well over 50% and with four wide receivers in the game, the numbers looked okay, hat on hat.
Some coaches, or old school football guys shun analytics, and instead rely on game flow and feel. And in this case, that falls short in addition to the math.
And there were plenty of other items that would fall into poor game management. But this is the latest. He is incapable of managing a game properly.
Originally from Glidden Wisconsin, Jason Straetz is a lifelong Packers\' fan, who has lived in Maine for over 30 years. He is a writer for packerstalk.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @jsnstz
4 responses to “The Final Drive – McCarthy’s Latest Blunder”
The poor throw preceded the poor decision, but the combination of the two is a perfect distillation of the season.
Aaron Rodgers does not resemble the QB who ran the table two years and two injuries ago.
” The defense was undermanned and gassed, they were dying if not dead, and at that point, gave no indication that they were ready to get a three and out”……
Sea more likely would have scored a TD if the 4th and 2 failed. Would it not be better to take a chance on the defense getting a stop during a longer field for Sea to move down?
The defense being totally gassed as seen after the punt was even more evidence that a failed 4th and 2 would have made it a 10 point game and loss. The 3 yd short pass and the question if Rodgers would have NOT checked out of a run with Jones, makes it a decision by MM to take the ball from Rodgers the right decision.
Whether MM or Rodgers hurts this team more is a question that may get resolved sooner than later, but it certainly won’t offer full truth until it’s been down the road some in which ever direction it takes.
This marriage between MM and AR12 is headed for divorce court. It would be best for both of them.
I would love to see a game by game breakdown of McCarthy’s coaching blunders. Include how many squandered timeouts, idiotic penalties like Personal Fouls, Taunting, Delay of Game, directly attributable to poor coaching. Every week I see stupid errors that should not occur at this level. A List like that would be shocking.