McCarthy Steps on the Gas (1/3/10):
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/80484832.html
There is no manual to consult when it comes to playing out the season with a playoff berth in hand and nothing much to gain.
Mike McCarthy went with a gut feeling.
As he headed into what was essentially a meaningless game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, the Green Bay Packers coach took stock of the makeup of his team, the road it has traveled to get here and the health of his players and kept coming to the same conclusion.
Let the train roll on.
"I'm not going to stand here and act like I have all of the answers," McCarthy said after his team disposed of the Cardinals, 33-7, to finish 11-5.
"But I have the pulse of my football team. Our football team needed to stay on course. We set a path.
"We had some bumps in the road at 4-4. We continued to improve each week and won some football games along the way. I thought it was important to take this last opportunity to make sure that we were playing the best we possibly could coming out of the regular season."
McCarthy's team will turn around and play the Cardinals again at 3:40 p.m. Sunday in the first game of a wild-card doubleheader. The networks deemed Philadelphia-Dallas more worthy of prime-time than Packers-Cardinals, so despite reports the Packers would play Saturday, they'll get a full week to prepare for the first round.
Officially, the Packers are seeded fifth in the NFC, which pits them against the No. 4, which became the Cardinals when Minnesota and Dallas both won. The only way the Packers could host a playoff game would be to face the No. 6-seeded Eagles in the NFC Championship Game.
Anticipating a Saturday matchup, McCarthy made plans to give the players off Monday and hold practice Tuesday, figuring that if they ended up getting a Sunday game he could lighten the workday and proceed with a normal Sunday schedule thereafter.
McCarthy seemed to like the idea of playing Saturday - "You can only go back and look at the (video) cut-ups so long," he said - but this will allow him to maintain a regular schedule for the week, something he credits for the Packers winning five games on the road this year.
McCarthy's decision to play his starters most of the way - quarterback Aaron Rodgers played his last snap with 4:16 left in the third quarter and the Packers ahead, 33-0 - was
similar to New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin's plan in 2007. The Giants fought hard in their final game against New England despite knowing they would be a wild card, then went out and won three road playoff games and Super Bowl XLII.
By playing it that way, McCarthy risked someone suffering a major injury. Earlier in the day, New England coach Bill Belichick lost receiver Wes Welker to a season-ending knee injury in a game that meant nothing to the Patriots.
But flip things around. Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt played the majority of his starters on defense less than a quarter, yet lost cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie to a bruised knee and wide receiver Anquan Boldin to a sprained knee. Neither has been ruled out of the playoff game
The lone injury the Packers suffered was to arguably their most valuable player, cornerback Charles Woodson, who aggravated a shoulder sprain that first showed up on the injury report after the Detroit game Thanksgiving Day. Woodson hurt it Sunday reaching to make a tackle and was taken out of the game for good.
McCarthy said he didn't think it would affect his status for next week.
"I think he's going to be fine," he said. "We know that Charles has always fought through injuries. If the situation was different, he would have returned in the game."
The majority of players said they were glad McCarthy played it the way he did.
It's been a long season, but McCarthy built in extra down time after a Thanksgiving Day game against Detroit and a day off on Christmas. Coming into the game having won six of seven, some thought it was better to keep going.
"Nothing was brought up the whole week about coming out of the game," center Scott Wells said.
"We knew we had to carry some positive momentum into the postseason, and we felt coming here and playing good football and trying to get the win was the way to do that."
During the week, McCarthy had an extended practice that was presumably held to introduce the players to the game plan they would use against the Cardinals come playoff time. Some of the plan was available for the regular-season finale, but McCarthy said he crossed a lot of things off his play sheet as the game went on.
The one thing the Packers didn't know was Whisenhunt's approach. Wells said the Packers applied all their knowledge of the game plan throughout the game, expecting that Whisenhunt might eventually throw some meaningful defenses at them.
"We didn't know if they'd be vanilla or bring the house to give us something to think about," Wells said. "The way they played this game is not an indication of how the playoff game is going to go. They've shown some pressures in other games that we didn't get this game. So we're going to have to be prepared for everything in their repertoire."
On defense, it was apparent coordinator Dom Capers was not going to tip his hand as to how he would attack quarterback Kurt Warner and this talented trio of receivers, Larry Fitzgerald, Boldin and Steve Breaston. He threw in a cornerback blitz or two, but for the most part, he rushed four guys all day long.
"We didn't call any exotic blitzes or personnel," linebacker Nick Barnett said. "Sometimes, we don't do that. Every other week we have something different. But I like the way we look right now. I like the way we're playing. Who knows what Capers will come up with. We'll just play defense."
*********************************
Unlike the New York Giants vs. New England scenario from 2007, Green Bay got an opponent that was clearly less motivated (which was very much the story when Green Bay was a juggernaut in their first three preseason games), and they are drawing the same team in a rematch the following week.
I've been a big admirer of Arizona HC Ken Whisenhunt since I did some extensive research on him before he faced and beat his former Pittsburgh team back in Week No. 4 of the 2007 season . . . Regardless, Arizona got hot at just the right time last year, but I doubt catching that genie in the bottle again is the destiny of this inconsistent 2009 squad.
***********************************
GL
