With the pathetic display of incompetence in Tampa Bay on Sunday there has been more and more anger directed at my boy Mike McCarthy. Yes - My boy. McCarthy is a buffoon, they say - a hack who never would have been hired had Ted Thompson not come calling looking for his own personal Yes Man to do exactly as he pleases. Well, friends. It's time for some serious analysis.
When McCarthy took over this team it was in the midst of a train wreck. The Packers had just finished a 4-12 season where their best player threw 29 INTs and had easily the worst year of his career(I'm talking about Brett Favre, by the way). Ted Thompson finally rid us of the great evil that was Mike Sherman and in walked the new Mike.
Just look at some of the names on this 2006 roster - McCarthy's first season: Koren Robinson, Samkon Gado, Vernand Morency, Noah Herron, Shaun Bodiford, Carlyle Holiday, Brandon Miree, Chris Francies, Ben Taylor, Jason Hunter, Kenderick Allen and - best of all - Robert Ferguson. Do you think any of those players could've made it on the Packers squad out of training camp this season? That would be a large "negative". This is the team of scrubs with a QB that everyone wanted to retire after his awful 2005 season - I remember, I was there - and a rookie coach.
McCarthy's first season saw immediate improvement. Sherman had possibly the worst year of coaching in the history coaching in 2005. Favre didn't care, Sherman maybe, possibly cared, but he was too busy doing Cellcom commercials and looking like a marshmellow to show up on Sundays. The 2005 Packers were projected at right around 7-9 based on their point differential(298 scored / 344 allowed / -46 diff) and they finished 4-12. Three wins worse than was warranted. Could that be coaching? Maybe.
The 2006 Packers point differential put them about one win worse than the 2005 team at 6-10. Of course, they finished 8-8 and McCarthy was looked at as a possible rising star along with Sean Payton. So how could McCarthy take basically the same terrible team and make them four wins better? How did he get Favre to cut his interceptions by ELEVEN in one season? Coaching? Maybe
The 2007 Packers were an unstoppable force, going 13-3 and going to the NFC title game. Based on point diff once again, they were at 11.5-4.5. So once again they performed better than the stats would dictate. It was a perfect blend of Ted Thompson's draft picks being in second and third years and now stepping up, Favre having one of the best years of his career, and McCarthy coaching his way to being the likely choice for Coach of the Year had Bill Belicheck and the Patriots not gone 16-0 and ruined everything.
2008 turned out to be a wasted season but the numbers show they were a 9-7 team. Much like this season the talent is there(should be 5-3, maybe even 6-2) but the record isn't showing it. Could it be coaching? How can you go from being almost Coach of the Year to being a complete football illiterate? You can't. My boy hasn't forgotten how to coach(see: Aaron Rodgers) and he hasn't lost the team, contrary to what the TT haters want to believe.
But the Packers do seem to have lost the mental toughness they had in '06 and '07. '06 where they started 1-4 and where they won their final four games. '07 where they won in Kansas City and at Mile High back to back weeks. You can't lose something like that just by losing Brett Favre, can you? I hope not or we are all doomed. Can you coach toughness? I'd think having Kevin Greene screaming and headbutting people on the sidelines in between calling plays would add to the toughness factor a bit more.
Something is amiss, but as of now I can't say it is McCarthy. We will let the final eight games play out before coming to a decision.
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