When Does McCarthy's Seat Get Warm?

As Packer fans we have to be disappointed in the loss to Cincinnati. Now, with Carson Palmer back, the Bengals are much better than the public thinks as they are a potential 8 win team. Combine Palmer with a better-than-you-think Cedric Benson and an aggressive defense, and it is safe to say the Bengals are better than people thought. But what the hell were the Packers doing on Sunday?

The OLine Sucks
No other way to say it. Rodgers could have avoided a couple sacks by throwing it away, but at the end of the game, he was getting hit hard on almost every throw. And a running game would help, but isn't that also on the line? I really started to pay attention during the other games on Sunday, and there really is no comparison to the amount of time given to other quarterbacks. The Packers develop no pocket, on every pass play there is at least one player getting beat. It is really bad. They either lack the needed strength, technique, or athletic ability to stay in front of guys. I think it involves all three aspects. I mean, if you are 300 lbs shouldn't you just be able to stay in the way of someone for two seconds? I don't think these guys can even do that. It is really, really bad. Too many finesse guys in my opinion.

The Starting MLB's Suck
Hawk and Barnett were nowhere to be found on my TV on Sunday. A lot of Benson's runs were slow runs to the outside, where was the pursuit? When the talk of moving to the 3-4 was first brought up, these two were mentioned as a potential weakness, YEP, THEY SUCK. I have defended Hawk for a while, but he is average at best. At some point, shouldn't he be reading and reacting and blowing things up in the backfield at least once in a while? I don't want to hear from the coaches that he is doing what they ask of him. He was a top 5 pick, and he does not belong in the same sentence as Patrick Willis, Jon Beason, and some of the other young linebackers that have been drafter much later than 5.
Chillar and/or Bishop need to be on the field or at least Barnett at this point. I just do not see the explosiveness from Barnett at all. It is not a crime to have your talent decline, it happens.

Special Teams Suck
The punt coverage was horrid. I don't want to hear excuses regarding low punts either. Guys missed tackles. If you move to the 3-4 and have all of these LBs on the roster, your special teams coverage should be a strength. Instead, it became a reason the Packers lost the game.

It was an Offensive, offensive game plan
This game plan sucked. Why are the Packers continually passing out of base I formations? They went 5 wide fairly early in the game, and Havner was left completely uncovered. When you go 5 wide it forces the defense to show you what they are doing. It leaves the QB unprotected, but hell, he is anyways with this line, at least in 5 wide, something will be open quickly. I was not at the game, but on TV it looked like Rodgers was continually taking 5-7 step drops, WHY? During the 13-3 season, everything was quick passes at the beginning of the season. Why does everything seem to be a mid-range or deep pass? I don't know where all of this blame falls, but it did look to me that Rodgers was taking long drops, meaning the play call dictated his drop. Whatever it is, get the quick pass back as a staple of the offense.

Also, why do the fullbacks get on the field so much? Who is better at their respective position. Jordy Nelson and/or James Jones or Kuhn/Hall? I would take Jones and Nelson against the other teams 3rd and 4th corners than our fullbacks. McCarthy gets too cute with different packages, when we have a mismatch, USE IT TO DEATH!

GREG JENNINGS
By the second quarter, if your best offensive weapon does not have a catch, you call a screen or a slot pass to him. Force the ball to him. You can still throw him a screen with a corner on him with safety over the top. Just overload the other side with 3 WRs, and put Jennings on an island, the defense is going to have to choose what they will take away. If they leave single coverage on Jennings, snap the ball and immediately throw it over there, force their corner to tackle our BEST PLAYER on offense. If they still leave a safety on his side, fire a screen pass to Jones/Driver/Nelson on the other side. This is not rocket science, and there is no way to get to the QB with a pass this quick. We did not see a play call like this even one time, while our best player had 0 catches, in a loss, at home, to the Bengals, in good weather. Pathetic.

The Crowd Sucked
I have season tickets with the Green Bay package so I was not at this game. Why do we still have the Milwaukee ticket package? The crowd seemed very flat. The only time I heard anything was when the Packers recovered the onside kick and the offense went into no huddle. Yes, the one time the crowd needed to shut up, they were loud.
I do not feel anybody should be allowed to go to a game. That is for Baseball. In football, the crowd serves a distinct purpose and their needs to be a testing process to ensure only qualified candidates are allowed in. And this purpose does not include families(go to family night), old people who will not yell AT ALL, women over 30, and any man in golf wear. When the cameras scanned the crowd I saw a lot of men dressed from the Gap, family's, and old duds. The crowd was horrible, and this is a theme when it is a Milwaukee game.

My ideal crowd includes a lot of drunk men 18-50. Now these men need to act like adults and be able to handle their liquor, but the alcohol does help the noise.

Like I said, the crowd serves as an advantage when loud, and I heard crickets during most of the game. Last year I was at the Atlanta game which was also a flat crowd, it can feel helpless as a fan when you try to make some noise on a third down and everyone around you just sits there. We need to be better fans. If you want to just watch the game, STAY HOME! This is one of my biggest pet peeves. When I get too old to make noise, I will stop going or get a box seat.

Alright, I am pretty much done with my rant. I also do not feel the sky is falling, the Packers were flat, and they lost. This is the NFL, there are no Citadel's or Wofford's on the schedule, every team has legit players, even the Lions.

When does it get hot for McCarthy
I have been very supportive of McCarthy, but this game brought up a lot of faults I have had. The team was flat, it happens everywhere so I will not kill him for that. What I will kill him for was his inability to alter his game plan. He never sees to alter his original plan. When Cincy was getting pressure, why didn't we spread it out and fire quick passes. Again, we went the other way and put more guys into the backfield. I know this is done to add protection, but all it really does is put more defenders at the LOS and allowing them more flexibility when blitzing. I would much prefer the Packers going 4 or 5 wide and exposing teams instead of putting a TE and RB in the backfield.
Also, why do we run no WR screens? With the WR core the Packers have, we have to find ways to get these guys the ball. If the OLine sucks, run quick screens and force the other teams DBs to tackle.
There is already pressure on Rodgers, but I see very little done to make things easier. I would start every game with spread formations, and fire quick 3-4 yard passes, wear out the pass rushers. Then try more runs as the game goes along. I hate the offense play calling at this point, it seems there is no plan or reason to the calls. Play after play, the Packers just send in another personnel package, but this goes on all game. At some point aren't you looking for matchups that are working? It seems that McCarthy is just using packages to show variety, but what good is it if you don't find the matchups that work?

Now, I did love what McCarthy did at the end of the game by kicking the FG and giving the team enough time to make something happen. Coaches always butcher this situation so it was refreshing for a coach to do it right. This proves that McCarthy gets the big picture, and this also supports my feeling that no head coach should be too involved in any one aspect of the game. When someone becomes a head coach, they are now a CEO and should be nowhere near the play calling. They can get involved with the game plans, but I also think that needs to be done by the assistants. Head coaches need to handle the team as a whole and leave details to their assistants. If McCarthy was less focused on the offense, he would have sensed how flat the team was. When the team is flat, you need to do something, whether it be a trick play or a reverse on a return. You need to do something to wake them up.