Mike McCarthy and the Green Bay Packers have had some of the most talented teams in the NFL over the past decade or so. Aaron Rodgers took over as the starting quarterback in 2008 and has been considered one of the best in the game since then. He has had many weapons over that time including four-time Pro-Bowler Donald Driver, two-time Pro-Bowler Greg Jennings and All-Pro Jordy Nelson to name a few. However, they have seriously underperformed over that time period and, no matter what their record in the regular season is, should not be considered a real threat in the playoffs, at least for the time being. Let’s start with the head coach. McCarthy is one of the most overrated coaches in football. He has benefited from the talent around him but has in no way, shape or form gotten the most out of his players. A baboon could coach an Aaron Rodgers led team to a winning record. McCarthy is still stuck in the archaic philosophy of establishing the run. Some teams absolutely need to establish the run. However, those are not championship teams. Teams that need to run the ball to have success are not going to win a Super Bowl. You need to a quarterback who can pass to have success in this league. Yes, a great running back can help you win a Super Bowl (see Marshawn Lynch), but you still need that star quarterback (see Russell Wilson and a stud defense (see Legion of Boom). The Packers have that star quarterback! Use him! Do you see the New England Patriots trying to establish the run with Tom Brady under center? Hell no! They handed the ball of seven times last week against the Chiefs. They knew that their best chance to win was to have the ball in the hands of the best player on the field: Tom Brady. Since McCarthy is so stuck in the establishing the run philosophy, he very rarely changes the game plan. It does not matter if the team is facing the top rated Seahawks rush defense or the bottom of the barrel Eagles rushing defense, McCarthy would still feed his running back the ball. If he game planned week by week, he would realize that when you are playing a team that cannot defend the run, you shove it down their throats (see Patriots vs. Colts, Jonas Gray/LeGarrette Blount), but if you are playing a team that is very good against the run and you have one of the best quarterbacks in the league, you spread it out and throw the ball 60 times (see Patriots vs. Bills, Week 2). Who cares if you are not balanced, the goal is to win the game, not be balanced. McCarthy also needs to give up play calling again, I do not care how good everybody think he is at it. Yes, I just went on a rant about how he game plans too many runs, but there is a big difference between game planning, and play calling. The coach game plans. The coordinators then make the actual play calls based on that game plan. The head coach needs to be in control of the entire team, all three phases of the game. He cannot be bogged down in offensive play calling. He needs to hire an offensive coordinator that he trusts. If you cannot trust the current offensive coordinator to call the plays, he should not be on your staff. Ok, that turned into whey McCarthy is stupid more so than the Packers are stupid. What comes next is not stupidity by the Packers, but a quick rant about the media and why the Packers have not won another Super Bowl. Aaron Rodgers. People argue that Rodgers is the best quarterback in the game. I have even heard Stephen A. Smith say that he is the best quarterback in history. Both of those statements are wildly inaccurate. Tom Brady is the best quarterback in the game and is the best quarterback in history. It is not a debate. However, that is not why they have not won another Super Bowl. It is because of Rodgers’ clutch gene, or lack thereof. Now if you read that and say “what about all those last second Hail Mary passes that were completed to tie or win the game?!” That is not clutch. That is using your absolute cannon of an arm to throw the ball into a crowd of people and hoping your guy comes down with it. Rodgers has not proven the ability to drive his team down the field to get his team in field goal range or drive down for a touchdown that is not heaving the ball as far as he can on the last play. Now to settle down those who may come at me for hypocrisy, if Tom Brady had completed that Hail Mary at the end of the Super Bowl in 2011 to Rob Gronkowski, I would not have called that clutch on Brady’s part. I would have called it one of the single greatest plays in the history of sports, but launching the ball as far as you can into a crowd is not clutch. Rodgers, outside of the Super Bowl run, is 2-7. He is closer to Peyton Manning when it comes to playoff success than he is Tom Brady. Take 2011 for example. The Packers were 15-1. They were the best regular season team that season. Rodgers was great. They were the number one seed. And then the New York Giants came into Lambeau Field and beat the Packers in what was not even a close game. It is unacceptable to lose that game. Yes, the Giants went on to win the Super Bowl. But do not try to tell me they were a better team than the Packers. The Packers choked. Ok, I think I am done. I have been thinking these thoughts for a very long time. Completely random article from a New Englander who is not affected by the Packers at all? Yup. But as a football fan, I see a lot of stuff throughout the league that I just view as downright stupid and I need to let it all out. Today, the Packers were the victim. Tomorrow could be the referees. Could be the media. Could be Roger Goodell. Could be anything. It is a very stupid league that is highly addictive so we keep coming back. Follow @SamPericolo for the latest sports talk and news
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SAMUEL PERICOLOSam is a graduate of Assumption College where he studied History, Marketing, and Political Science and was a Co-Producer on a weekly sports talk television show. Archives
March 2018
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