Mike McCarthy has had a fairly easy go of it in his first 2 1/2 seasons as coach of the Green Bay Packers .
He inherited a disheartened but adequately talented cast of players from Mike Sherman. Expectations were minimal after Sherman's 4-12 clinker in 2005. And the locker room - make that the entire organization - was willing to accept anyone with open arms if the new man proved approachable in the wake of Sherman's sullen swan song.
McCarthy performed so admirably that in February management issued him a new five-year contract, doubling his salary to about $4 million per year.
But honeymoons and joyrides generally don't last very long in the National Football League, and for the first time the Good Ship McCarthy is taking some flak.
Critics, including yours truly, have taken McCarthy to task for how he handled the last 2 minutes a week ago in the one-point loss at the Metrodome.
His run defense started to fall apart against Dallas. It couldn't even prevent Atlanta from closing out the Week 5 game using nine-man fronts. And then came the late defensive collapses in Tennessee and Minnesota.
Undermined on offense by a balky ground game, McCarthy's decision to bring the zone run scheme to Green Bay and then stick with it has been questioned.
After a 2-0 start against division opponents, the Packers have dropped five of their last seven games to fall one game behind the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings in the NFC North, the division that they won by five games a year ago with a 13-3 record.
Failure to run the ball consistently and failure to stop the run consistently is the antithesis of physical Football, which is how McCarthy last year, Sherman for much of his tenure, Mike Holmgren and Vince Lombardi won many more games than they lost.
Major test
Today the Bears are in Lambeau Field, where they left victorious in 2004, '05, '06 and '07. So with implications for the division race and the collective psyche of the Packers, it's not overdoing it to call this a pivotal game in their season.
This is exactly the kind of situation in which a good coach - that is, one who has built a foundation based on sound schemes and maximizing individual performance - will find a way to win.
For the first time, McCarthy's mettle is being tested on account of injury. Skating through seasons totally unscathed isn't possible, but in the last two seasons combined the Packers came close by losing merely 24 games by starters due to injury.
This year, the count already has reached 22 games, and now Green Bay will be without its best linebacker (Nick Barnett) for the season as well as one of its two best defensive linemen (Cullen Jenkins).
Great coaches, such as Bill Belichick, often keep winning no matter what.
Belichick won his second Super Bowl for New England with a league-high 87 missed games by starters. The next year, he won a third without 52 games from starters. On Thursday night, he took the Jets, one of the NFL's two or three healthiest teams in 2008, into overtime without quarterback Tom Brady, his best running back, his best pass rusher, an exceptional defensive end and the mainstay of his secondary.
But making excuses for injuries in Green Bay went out with Bart Starr 30 years ago. McCarthy understands that nobody really cares about his problems, anyway.
When the ball is kicked off at noon, what do we know about McCarthy as he tries to pull out of this downturn?
Respect given
Well, he clearly has the attention of his players. They seem to respect him. They seem to enjoy playing for him.
McCarthy cuts an everyman kind of figure in his old gray sweatpants at practice. But every successful head coach needs a presence, and McCarthy has one. You observe practice in Green Bay, it doesn't take long to pick out the head coach.
A good conversationalist and keenly intelligent, Holmgren epitomized the imperial coach. Sherman looked like a college professor. Ray Rhodes didn't have much presence after his flameout in Philadelphia. Lindy Infante was in over his head. Forrest Gregg couldn't have been more overbearing. Starr the coach never could live up to his heroic image as "Mr. Quarterback."
McCarthy doesn't have a lot of rules and isn't going out of his way trying to fine people. Yet, players seldom are late for meetings, and once they get there they're not falling asleep.
Sherman could be so preoccupied that he'd walk past players without acknowledging their presence. McCarthy is easy to talk to and can be engaging, which players very much appreciate after Sherman.
Some of McCarthy's former colleagues in New Orleans have told tales of how McCarthy used to just fly off the handle. Unlike Holmgren, who would go into rages of his own, McCarthy has worked to tone down that temper, and appears to have succeeded.
"Temper? I've never seen that,"
said cornerback Will Blackmon, who arrived with McCarthy in 2006.
McCarthy isn't a polished speaker. He doesn't bring in stacks of money or championship rings as props. He tries hard to vary his Saturday night addresses but doesn't ramble.
"He says what he means,"
defensive tackle Colin Cole said. "Doesn't sugarcoat things. Not a screamer. He does let people have it for mistakes. He's mild-mannered, more personable."
Understanding players
McCarthy has said the most important part of his job is knowing the mood in the locker room. He prefers hanging around the weight room and medical areas, two floors below his well-appointed but certainly not ostentatious office.
When rookie tight end Jermichael Finley spoke out of frustration to the Journal Sentinel's Greg A. Bedard two weeks ago, McCarthy didn't let it slide. Just as his players don't showboat on the field, they generally don't come across as self-promoters during interviews.
McCarthy learned how to coach mainly from Marty Schottenheimer in Kansas City, but he doesn't carry himself with Schottenheimer's swagger.
Like Schottenheimer, however, McCarthy is supremely confident when it comes to his area of expertise, which is coaching quarterbacks, coordinating offense and calling plays.
Together with assistant Tom Clements, he got through to Brett Favre, and then not only changed Aaron Rodgers' too-high ball carriage but developed him into a competent starter.
McCarthy has been coaching the West Coast offense for 20 years, including the first nine under his mentor, Paul Hackett, who was a disciple of Bill Walsh. A major difference between Holmgren and McCarthy is that Holmgren learned the 49ers' system of doing business directly from Walsh in San Francisco, where he earned two Super Bowl rings.
Week after week we see McCarthy's offense, and sometimes familiarity does breed contempt. But it should be remembered that Detroit coach Rod Marinelli said in September that McCarthy did a better job of shifting personnel than any other NFL coach.
"If I'm ever going to be a head coach that would be the scheme I'd have on offense,"
a defensive coach for an NFC North team said last week. "He gives you eight, nine personnel groupings, and he can get in and out of them real quick."
McCarthy calls the next play almost instantly. His sideline operation hums efficiently. He has made mistakes in game and clock management, but not many.
His version of the West Coast is complex, according to defensive coaches who face him. The offensive struggles in 2006 reflect that.
"Most people, you can kind of categorize their personnel groups with the route combinations you're going to get,"
another opposing defensive coach said. "He runs all the route combinations out of all the different personnel groupings. It's hard to get a handle on who's in the game, who's out of the game and trying to match up personnel."
McCarthy defends his zone run game, but several times in the last three games he has taken to wrapping guards and running power plays. He isn't stubborn. He will adjust.
He almost never uses trick plays. He hasn't shown the "wildcat"
formation other teams are using. And his use of the no-huddle is minimal other than in 2-minute situations.
McCarthy hired coordinator Bob Sanders to run and call the defense, but has considerable input in meetings and at practice. He can be tough on assistant coaches, but not anywhere near the extent of Walsh.
Although the current team leads the NFL in penalties, his 41-game averages of 6.7 penalties for 57.3 yards isn't far off the league average of 5.9 penalties for 47.2 yards.
And before anyone brands the Packers under McCarthy as undisciplined, his turnover differential is plus-9 in 43 games, counting playoffs. Green Bay was minus-24 under Sherman in 2005.
The right stuff
Just in the last week, happenings across the league suggest anew the Packers have a solid coach in McCarthy.
First, Minnesota's Brad Childress used the occasion of his first victory over McCarthy in six attempts to second-guess his counterpart's end-game strategy. Then San Francisco's Mike Singletary got into an emotional sideline confrontation with offensive coordinator Mike Martz. And finally, Jacksonville's Jack Del Rio let fester a dispute with one of his top players.
A remarkable number of NFL head coaches simply aren't wired to be NFL head coaches. There aren't 32 men with the ability to lead, teach and discipline 53 highly paid, often pampered athletes under the harshest pressure imaginable.
Since 2006, McCarthy has won more regular-season games (25) than all but Belichick (34), Tony Dungy (30), Jeff Fisher (27), Tom Coughlin (26) and Lovie Smith (25). His record on the road of 13-8 equals Lombardi's after 21 games.
McCarthy has demonstrated that he was a good hire by general manager Ted Thompson. Now he needs to coach above injuries and get his team moving.
