I agree with reader Bucky – this loss can be pinned largely on McCarthy. I was a McCarthy supporter after 2007 because the team played well, but he also seemed to be creative and had a nice command. Since that time, his sense of game flow has sucked and his players continue to make more mistakes than just about any group of players in the league. And even if the personnel on the o-line continues to be weak (which they are), we’re not getting anything out of these guys in pass protection. Not sure how James Campen stays employed. It’s not just the sacks, it’s the number of times Rodgers is flushed out of the pocket too. To be fair, I think Rodgers was also quite bad today – his pocket awareness is not good. While the line continues to suck, Rodgers owns some of this too. But the special teams was also very bad today – and so was the defense. Shockingly bad defense. Dom Capers isn’t earning his paycheck and the defensive players simply aren’t playing well. And don’t just look at the stats from this game – the defense was just non-existent when we most needed them.
I’m trying not to overreact, but it’s really hard. This team isn’t good and we are only .500 because we’ve played a super easy schedule. McCarthy better turn this around fast or he may not be here next year.
packergeeks 
November 8, 2009 at 5:29 pm |
Bill Cowher.
November 8, 2009 at 5:32 pm |
Here’s how I see it. Cowher will always have a soft spot for Pittsburgh because of his time there. The packers are in a different conference and division, are a similar team in terms of history and fans, and have a solid ownership situation that Cowher seems to gravitate to.
Its not threatening to Pitt fans which makes a huge difference to BC – and he would button down the discipline issues that seem to hamstring this team.
He would also bring in top notch assistants to take care of things – and could do wonders with a team with such youth and talent. (think back to his final year of coaching – that Pitt team was YOUNG.)
I’d love to hear anyone that says it is not a great idea.
-Nick
November 8, 2009 at 5:32 pm |
We’ll never get rid of MM until we get rid of TT. Has the (relatively few) good choices he’s made outweigh all of the mistakes? When does Murphy finally man up and can this hack?
November 8, 2009 at 5:34 pm |
we have no reason to believe, and many indications NOT to believe, that mccarthy will get these issues taken care of this year, or ever commit to running the ball, even when it’s working – i am as deeply entrenched in Firemccarthyland as i ever thought i could be.
i vote for bill cowher, because this team clearly needs discipline, and a running game. i believe those two things would make the current roster a playoff team, and they can both be solved with better leadership and playcalling.
just sickening. absolutely inexcusable.
November 8, 2009 at 5:38 pm |
i totally agree with you “josh….” i wish cowher would come in- this is pathetic but lets not stop at mccarthy-i call for thompson as well and the fans to NOT GO TO THE STADIUM till this happens.
November 8, 2009 at 5:42 pm |
Love the idea of bringing Cowher in here, Nick! But until we get rid of TT, the problem still remains. Cowher has got to be able to make personnel decisions, in addition to head coaching duties. No doubt he would instill a new sense of discipline here, much like Lombardi would have.
Until Murphy and the Board make a decision to eliminate TT and MM, we’re goign to see many more weeks of this embarrassing product.
Ax
November 8, 2009 at 5:44 pm |
The thing I can’t understand is whatever was it that Favre had against Thompson?
November 8, 2009 at 5:44 pm |
The real question I have is how close TT and MM are tied at this point? I have been a TT supporter, and its obvious he’s gotten us quite a bit of talent (save the o-line), but I got to believe at this point that if one goes, both probably do
p.s. This game makes it very hard to get excited to travel from AZ to GB next weekend for the Cowboys game
November 8, 2009 at 5:49 pm |
I think McCarthy sees 2010 if only because the season ends Jan 3 in Glendale, and I don’t think he’ll be let go during the season. I also don’t see Thompson as being overly reluctant to make the change, because any acceptance on his part of McCarthy’s performance would suggest that perhaps it’s the personnel that is the cause of this team’s failures.
As for his replacement- it’s not yet clear who will be available, or who will want the job. Though we could do worse than bringing Mike Holmgren back.
November 8, 2009 at 5:51 pm |
I think it’s time MM and TT get themselves packing and leave Green Bay. Its time for something to change, because you know what.. they never make a change themselves. And if we are constantly playing bad, someone has to make a change, if they won’t do it then maybe lets change who runs this team.
Each week we got the same problems, same things that keep our discusting play evident. There is no adjusting and correcting our mistakes. And all McCarthy does is say we will work on that.. FFS it doesn’t seem like you’ve been working on anything because nothing has changed.
The way we play, we are not prepared. Thats on the coach. Gameplanning for the opponent, finding their weaknesses. We got horrible play calling. We got so many problems, and MM & TT sit back and do nothing. We have some great players on this team, and if it weren’t for that Oline and our r-e-t-a-r-d-e-d play we could actually be doing something. That oline destroys an offence that can be powerful. Rodgers needs to be taught to stop holding onto the ball. And our discipline, stupid penalties also kill our team.
I was a big fan of you MM. But you dissapointed me. Extremely. You looked like a special coach, but there is nothing special. You make it easy for opponents. You’re suppose to be able to create some great things, but you don’t. You’re not a good coach. I don’t want to see this team like the browns or raiders. Stop this before it goes too far. Lets see what Shanahan is up to. 2010, your welcome here.
And for you TT.. you know I’m not really buying your style anymore. I know our market ain’t spectacular, but your being a bit conservative. We need to address areas of need alot better. That doesn’t mean spending millions and millions. But some sort of action is needed. You have 1 winning seasons, and have had a team with alot of good players. You can’t constantly screw up a team of great players. You need to find what the team needs fixed and do it. Look TT you have to be on the chopping block soon. Get your act together or your act will not be in Green Bay. Like I already said, this team is a couple things away from being real strong.
1) Constant pressure on offence – giving up a years worth of sacks halfway through season. We do nothing to address the problem, and your HC has to teach Rodgers how to get rid of the ball. Those could of been fixed.. and the result would be? Our offence would be scary. We would have an existent running game, our passing game can be deadly to begin with. Rodgers is putting up top 5 numbers (not after this game) this year so far dealing with what he has with our oline. This offence would be clicking big time if this area of concern was addressed properly
2) Our discipline is pathetic. We are actually stupid. Do stupid things. Take stupid penalties. This is on the coach. You let the players get away with it, look what happens. This kills everything and just kills this team.
3) Your HC. Simple. He does not do his job good enough. We need someone better. Mike is simply a HC a very mediocre not very good team has. We don’t want a HC like that.
Fixing any of these you would see a huge improvement. But hey, if you won’t, then hope to not see ya back next year. I’m sure someone who can do a great job will love to have your job.. It’s time to be serious.. no more joking around, smarten up or pack your bags.
I’m so fed up. Absolutely fed up with this team. 2 years in a row I’ve watched this team let themselves fail. Time to start talking about a change, so hopefully MM/TT can wake the **** up and maybe keep their jobs.
p.s MM, your Zone blocking scheme sucks. Since you came our oline has never been good. You implemented this piece of ****, and it doesn’t work. Keep going at it tho, youll figure it out eventually.. r-e-t-a-r-d
November 8, 2009 at 5:55 pm |
I’ve always had a soft spot for Mike McCarthy, but it’s time for him to go.
November 8, 2009 at 7:02 pm |
Ax – It will be all up to Murphy. The board has little say in the football operations of the team; it is there to help make sure the business side is well maintained and revenue is optimized.
Murphy did not bring in TT or MM, so he does not have loyalty to either. I think this bodes well; but he is not one to act irrationally, so it will take a very bad season to see both of them go.
November 8, 2009 at 8:07 pm |
nick – how much worse can it be?
November 8, 2009 at 8:24 pm |
nick – one winning season since ted has been here.. and McCarthy. And things don’t look promising either. And what is really really pathetic is how they can’t make it work with alot of great players. I mean we got Rodgers who looks to be one of the top qbs.. great receiving core, a running back who had success in the past and now because of our oline, theres not much to do.. especially when we dont give him the ball. We got 2 unbelieveable corners, nick collins a good safety, cullen Jenkins, Pickett, and well average LBS.. It’s not like key positions are utterly outmatched.. Ok we aren’t 0-16.. because we have some really good players that prevents that.. but thats it.. this is as worse as it should get….. Mark, start doing some homework and get this team turned around for next year.
November 8, 2009 at 10:03 pm
I agree with both of you. If you look at my comments, I have all but included the terms “Cowher for coach in 2010” in all of them. Just giving you the lay of the land from where I see it.
November 8, 2009 at 11:43 pm |
Yeah well we just gotta hope Mark doesn’t just sit back in his chair and watch this happen. I mean, it seems as if thats all MM does and TT just kinda rolls around in his. And quite frankly its not working. MM says each week we will work on “bla bla” but its the exact same problems we’ve had all season. And one of those things in horrible discipline, that has NOT improved, and that should improve if its being properly worked on.
So when we all thought MM and TT could be beneficial to this team, it really just looks like they aren’t. Not enough gets done and whatever needs to get done either isn’t properly addressed or poorly executed. Something’s gotta give, and if we have to make a change lets do it. There are some high profile coaches out there, lets see what they can do with a team with alot of youth and talent. It seems to me a good coach should be able to have this team productive with what it has. I mean there are areas to be addressed, by bringing in different players or by changing whats being done, but I think it is all reasonable. I don’t believe this team should be struggling, and because we are, thats a big problem, and front office has alot of the blame. I understand they are not the players, but by having an offensive line be terrible the entire time you’ve been here.. by having incredible discipline issues, etc etc.. a lot of that can be put on MM and TT.
November 9, 2009 at 12:01 am |
I also feel there is something else I should add. TT was regarded as a draft genius, and I used to sort of agree. But you know what, I’m not buying that no more. Jennings was a great pick. Rodgers turned out good, alot of it due to learning from Favre. There hasn’t been really any other great pickups except for a few. Charles Woodson was a great move in Free Agency.
So he did some good things, and just like MM, everyone jumped on his bandwagon. I did and now I’m beginning to regret it. I’ve learned not to immediately judge so quick. But after he’s had a few years, we haven’t seen a whole lot.
Look at Harrell. It’s not Harrell’s fault his body is failing him, but are we suppose to draft him because were sorry that its not his fault? Sorry it’s business. I feel bad for Harrell, believe me I do, but we should not of picked him. When we drafted him there was alot of question during the draft about that pick. Well over drafted and some viewed it with great question. Bad pick, plain and simple. #16 I think and what has he got to show for. It’s all about productivity, and there has been none.
Hawk a #6 has not done anything spectacular. He’s a workout machine, so what. Thats cool, but it’s not producing anything. He plays at a somewhat consistent level. But a guy @ #6 after like 4 years should be a dominating player. You would expect a Ray Lewis or a Urlacher out of a guy whose that strong, but thats not what we got.
Raji #9.. we don’t know much yet.. except more injury concern. And the last thing we need is another high drafted lineman who has an injury history. A guy who is over 330lbs.. who has dealt with multiple and current injuries, I feel there should be more concern than excitement.
Brandon Jackson a 2nd or 3rd rounder I believe. He’s shown flashes, but once again big injury issues. Whats that going to help us with? We can’t count on him plain and simple. We basically have to expect him to get hurt, and we can rely on him to be there for us when we need him.
Brian Brohm, a 2nd rounder. Beat out by a 7th rounder. Shown some discusting play. We could of lost him this off season a year after we drafted him in the 2nd round!
We have drafted a few Olineman. None of which have done anything. I would not be excited about any lineman that we have considering what we’ve seen this year.
I mean there have been some picks that have been of great use, but man we really have not gotten a whole lot out of many, many that are very high picks. We basically handed a few of them millions of dollars to not help us. Money well spent in a market like ours!
November 9, 2009 at 11:02 am |
Cowher will be in CArolina–Shanahan, Gruden or Holmgren anyone?
November 9, 2009 at 12:15 pm |
I knew everything I needed to know about mike “mayor mc cheese” mccarthy in the nfc championship game. You have coughlin in a letterman like jacket red faced and fired up, and the hamburgerler was dressed in a snow suit like he was crab fishing in alaska. No toughness , no leadership. That’s why we have no heart , no discipline. This guy was a bad o/c for a bad saints team and a bad o/c for a bad niners team. he should have never been hired and I wish I could take that stupid pen from the band in his hat and stab him with it to see if he would even show any emotion. Time to pack this guy a happy meal and send him packing
November 10, 2009 at 1:50 am |
thats it in a cheese shell Jordan- by the way other blogs are talking Chower and these other coaches- i was on board for a second then i thought – we need new young hungry and unknown.
November 9, 2009 at 12:41 pm |
Hilarious Jordan, thanks for lightening my mood.
November 9, 2009 at 1:26 pm |
When I try to say Mike McCarthy, Lindy Infante comes out. Make it stop. And at this point TT and MM are tied at the hip. If one goes they both go. You shouldn’t saddle a new GM with a coach (unless he is really taking the league by storm) and Ted is in his last chance so there is no sense letting him hire a new coach (who would end up saddling his replacement the year after next).
November 9, 2009 at 2:09 pm |
Have enjoyed reading the comments on this site for a few years now. Everyone has commented on all the various problems with the team this year, so I won’t add anything further to that commentary. Instead, I would point to Ted Thompson as the source of most of the problems with the Packers. He picked a pretty unknown entity in McCarthy as head coach, and he has largely been responsible for the current roster. Everyone wanted to give McCarthy a shot, and the 2007 season seemed to point to McCarthy coming into his own. Of course Brett having a solid year along with a strong defense and Ryan Grant helped greatly with that 13-3 year. I think we need a new gm and probably a new head coach. We need to rebuild this team in the draft and with free agents. Offensive line, defensive line and probably another RB are must-haves. Thompson has to go. He is the source of the stingy manner in which we have maintained this roster. We have some star wr’s, a good qb and seasoned corners but none of that matters when you have a poor GM.
November 9, 2009 at 4:12 pm |
Joe, your reference to Lindy “We were three plays away” Infante is apt. Both Infante and McCarthy use the same tired refrain week after weak, er, week. Bad coaches offer that kind of crap.
I hope that come the end of the season TT and MM are a package deal as firings go. I don’t trust that TT could make a decent hire for a new HC.
The culture at Packers HQ needs to change come next season.
November 9, 2009 at 4:59 pm |
I am so afraid that come year end–MM gets the axe, TT stays and in another brilliant move appoints Dom Capers as head coach.
If that happens I will personally drive to GB and “take that stupid pen from the band in his hat and stab” TT “with it”. I hate to plagiarize (I did put it in quotations) but I can think of no better fitting way for him to end.
November 10, 2009 at 12:04 pm |
we need new young hungry and unknown.
Isn’t that what we thought we had iin MM?
November 11, 2009 at 8:28 pm |
yeah i guess im focusing on the hungry part(and not for big macs) -mind you i was still a little under the influence when i wrote that. also i think other coaches might have those name guys figured out.
November 10, 2009 at 12:39 pm |
Problem though with how we’ve wasted a couple years with some great players is your going to see some problems in our corners soon. They are great, woodson is outstanding for their ages, but age will slow them down eventually and that may not be far away. We will have problems with our Oline, problems with our Dline, corners need attention, we need a star linebacker, give grant a chance once offence is clicking with a great oline, i think he can manage. And of course as always, lets find another jon ryan to replace our shi**y punter, to only release him when he’s doing too good. Courtesy of MM/TT. Hopefully the new GM/HC NEXT year won’t be so “nice to us”
And I think fixing oline for next year won’t be a big issue. That Zone blocking scheme McCarthy has sucks, I mean it hasn’t work since he got here and implemented it. So once thats gone I can only see sacks to slow down… well actually there’s no way in hell we can get more. So as long as we find some really good players we could be ok for oline.. our dline well its manageable.. the biggest thing will be our lb situation. For a 3-4 we need great LB’s and they need to be used properly. I mean we have to use them to give pressure, we need their help to cover. So Dom Capers better know what he’s doing if were able to pull in a couple really good LBs.
It might be a very interesting off season, and well expect the same long dried our one if MM/TT stay. And hopefully if Mark plans to do some firing, he acts real quick once the season ends. Lets not waste time in turning this freight train around cause it takes a long time to turn around a freight train.
November 11, 2009 at 6:16 am |
I’m from Pennsylvania and a few years ago I went to my first game in Lambeau Field with my (Steeler fan) father. The Pack was playing the Bears and Chicago jumped out to a 14-6 lead at half. There was a very loud, annoying Bears fan behind us who would yell, “Super Bears, super bowl!” every time the bears would make a play. When the Pack came back out after half, they stomped the Bears and by the end of the game the Bears fan was yelling “Super Bears, super pick.” Well, it’s time for me to dejectedly say ‘Super Pack, super pick.” because there is just no salvaging this season, especially with TT and MM not committing to changing anything.
I hope TT and MM get canned this year, even if they do manage to make the playoffs. If we do pull off the miracle of making the playoffs, it will be solely because of our pathetically weak schedule. I don’t want to see them get the boot because of driving Favre’s old ass out, after all, I am quite pleased with Aaron Rodgers, but rather, because they just completely suck. They’ve done nothing but to bring our team back to mediocrity.
I agree with Jordan – why the hell was MM selected as head coach in the first place? He had no credentials to speak of; he was just a bad assistant for bad teams. There were other, better coachers available when MM took over. I also agree with nick, we need Cowher, or someone like him. Someone who can put the passion to win in our players and the drive to play hard on every down. Murphy needs to man up and get these idiots out of Wisconsin.
I also hate how MM and TT supporters point to the ’07 season as showing potential in these guys. It was Favre that drove the team to play good that season. Now we don’t have that veteran leadership anymore and MM just doesn’t discipline his players. He just seems like a moron anyway.
I hate seeing my team play like shit; I hate a season where there is just no hope of accomplishing anything. I’m almost on the verge of rooting for them to suck just to get better management in.
November 11, 2009 at 11:01 am |
Be nice if we could find a kicker who can hit a FG from outside 40 yards also.
January 14, 2010 at 5:03 pm |
you dont know what the hell your talkin about, ive been a packer fan for as long as i can count and it was terrible to lose sherman but mike mccarthy is a great coach, if were gonna get rid of anyone get rid of ted thompson