Only difference, I said it during the game, rather loudly if I might add. Plus, this same issue was relevant last offseason too as Mike McCarthy uttered something quite similar regarding the practice regime leading up to the game. He was guarded with it because he didn't want to say he made a mistake by resting players Week 17 of the season.

Hindsight has nothing to do with the point of this. When watching the game and you see a LB facing the wrong way, it doesn't take a genius to realize what went wrong lol (proof of this is I realized it immediately)

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I sincerely doubt that MM, when planning his practice schedule in early December, designed it to have crappy practices that would not prepare the team adequately. I am confident that he, working with the rest of the coaches, thought it through and designed it to get the team ready to play. It failed. It's easier to see that now, or last month or during the stretch of games at the end of the year than it was before they planned it out. That's why it's hindsight. We are realizing after the practices that they were not successful in preparing the team to play those physical games.
Mike McCarthy can essentially say 3 things with regard to the end of the year.
1. "We didn't prepare properly." Which he did. Honest. Disappointing, but honest.
2. "I thought we did a good job preparing." Naive, stupid, and or blatanly lying.
3. "We beat the Bears again this year! What more do you want?" Always good, but no longer as meaningful as it was a few years ago.

There are only about 1 or 2 coaches that do not spend the offseason getting second guessed. Goint 19-0 and winning the SB is about the only way to make sure it can't happen.

Well, let's just hope he does that! I'd love to see it.

Who the heck said anything of the sort? You're reaching here ... massively reaching. :)

My concern (as I have already said) stems from the head coach saying basically the same thing this offseason as he did the prior offseason. I'm confident he made some changes, it just concerns me that he didn't identify the problem as thoroughly as I hoped. Keep in mind, it's not as if he said "Oh, I know exactly what went wrong last time and it won't happen next time".

I go back to my theory ... that if the Packers defensively focus on fundamentals of playing defense ... e.g. tackling properly and trusting one another ... the defense improves. Offensively, I think the only tweak that needs to be made is going from this blend zone blocking scheme or whatever it is called to a more power O. I want fatties pummeling other fatties.



lol I beg to differ... I can see dhazer and nerdmann second guessing the HC after Super Bowl win... oh wait, they did!!!

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To modify something I heard Rodgers shout in one of those pre-game huddle things, the team needs the following attitude in all things.

1. Dominate!
2. Dominate!
3. Dominate!
1,2,3 (and 4,5,6, ...) Dominate!

One of McCarthy's problems over the years is that he has a tendency toward trying to finesse things. Trying to trick people. Trying to fool people. Trying to be smarter than the other guy.

Those things are okay from time to time, but not as a consistent approach.

That IMO was set Lombardi apart from every Packer coach since. It wasn't the fact that he had more Hall of Famers. It wasn't even the Packer sweep. It was that Lombardi teams week in and week out had a take no prisoners approach. Their intent was not to just win. Their intent was to impose their will on the other team. Their intent was to destroy the other team's will to win.

It didn't always work because no one wins every time they are on the field. But *that* was a winning attitude.

Holmgren didn't have it. Someone who has it not only never lets the other team score to get the ball back. They never contemplate letting the other team score because they already *know* they are going to get the ball back. Because they are going to impose their will and make them give it back.

And, I fear, neither does McCarthy.

Does that mean the Packers will never get back to the Super Bowl with McCarthy? No. They may. Finesse coaches can win championships. Holmgren won one. McCarthy won one. It can be done.

But it definitely decreases the odds.

And unless McCarthy recognizes this finesse tendency of his and works at eliminating it, it decreases those odds more each year.

Because it's a lot easier for the other guy to destroy the will of someone who depends on finesse than it is to destroy the will of someone who knows they have the strongest will to dominate.

Ask our resident Marine. No one knows this better than the Marine Corps. And that's why they are more consistently successful than any other military group in our nation's history. They know it isn't about finessing things.

Finesse is for bridge and synchronized swimming and corporate lawyers.

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