Re: Packers 2010 Regular Season - ARodg and Woody in Clay-mation
I'm not as big of a critic of McCarthy's play calling as 95% of the world's Packer fans. What concerns me the most isn't what plays he calls. What concerns me is the frequent and episodic lack of discipline. It's never a consistent issue. One week it's the special teams coverage. Another week its an inability to effectively run a no huddle. Another week its a horde of penalties. Another week it's terrible run blocking. Another week it's terrible pass blocking. Another week it's blown pass coverages.
What's significant about all of that is the fact that, by and large, those are all mental errors. They indicate a lack of preparation and focus. It has nothing to do with talent, or ability. It's just an issue of heart and good/bad habits.
Like most of us out there, I've only truly experienced football as high as the high school varsity level. That's limited experience, but its enough to know the importance of discipline, preparation and good habits when it comes to being successful on the field. I'm fully aware that as you go up through college and into the pros, the extreme talent level of the players might make it a little less important- but I'd like to think that preparation and mental toughness is still the ultimate key to winning. Lombardi has a myriad of quotes and sayings attributed to him about the value of hard work and preparation.
McCarthy calling another boggling string of plays late in the 4th quarter of another tight loss, will never bother me as much as seeing yet another display of the lack of discipline on this team. You can call the wrong play, execute it and still succeed. But you can't run out there unprepared, unaware of how to run a no huddle offense and succeed. It's just not possible. This happens far too frequently to imagine that its a coincidence. Is it possible that McCarthy simply doesn't hold this team to a high enough level of discipline? For that reason, and no other, I couldn't argue against firing McCarthy, should we miss the playoffs. We have too good of a team to be doing this each year.
Oh, and also:
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) is how many of those "almosts" and "maybes" are down to McCarthy.
