Curious about refusal to run

Head coach Mike McCarthy has not done his young quarterback any favors by refusing to run the ball in either of the first two preseason games. I always thought the best way to break in a young QB was to have a strong running game. We don’t know if the Packers have that because they haven’t even tried to run the game yet this year. Shades of 2007.

The play calling against San Francisco was really strange. Four running plays called out of the first 25 plays in the game. Against a blitz-happy team no less. I always thought the best way to slow the blitz was to hit a few running plays or a few screens. The Packers tried one screen and it went for 20 yards. Go figure.

Maybe McCarthy is so concerned with the failings of the offense line to find cohesiveness that he doesn’t have confidence in some of the plays he wants to call. Whatever the case, I know it is preseason, but the play calling has certainly been suspect. I mean, don’t you have to get the running game ready for the opener as well?

Another game did nothing to change my mind that the Packers need a veteran backup at QB in case Aaron Rodgers gets hurt. Chris Simms of Tampa Bay will likely be traded but I can’t see Ted Thompson getting into a bidding war for him. Culpepper is still out there and will be considerably cheaper now than he was in April. It has to be disappointing to McCarthy that neither Brian Brohm nor Matt Flynn made any positive strides in their second games. They might both be headed for the practice squad.

I’m looking forward to the return of Greg Jennings and Ryan Grant, both hopefully will be back Friday night at Denver. Maybe with Grant back McCarthy will actually try to run the ball. Then again, maybe this zone blocking scheme still isn’t working.

More to come…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Al Davis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Rick

    McCarthy supposedly was game planning for the 49ers like a real game, but poor line play and another injury to Wells changed the plays available. The offense’s season will come down to settling the OLine.

    We have the QB, we have the receivers, heck with Grant back we have the RBs too. We just need solid line play and injuries are showing. Then again if you are going to suffer through poor line play due to injuries, then preseason when the games do not count is the best.

    As far as defense, it is simply Jolly. If he can play with what legal issues will be facing him we will be okay. The 1st round pick for Herrall is suspect right now. We may have to see if there is another 2nd day draft pick guy we can pick up for the Dline. Sort of what we did for Ryan Grant to add depth.

  • Rick

    Update:
    Rodney Allen DT-Kansas
    Was signed today and after watching him in his first practice, NASTY. He looks hungry and nasty and wants to play in the NFL. Scratch out the last line from my previous statement. He is no probowler but he will claw scratch and kill to make the team.

  • Matt Hayton

    this is typical MM playcalling…it is just no longer shielded by a 3-time MVP, instead you’ve got a first year QB trying to feel his way out there.

    Hopefully, MM recognizes that Rodgers is no Favre, and adjusts his playcalling, otherwise Rodgers is gonna get killed out there.

    Favre would regularly audible to a better play, making that O-line and running game look better than it was, Rodgers just doesn’t know the defensive fronts well enough to make those adjustments, yet…

    MM has preached the run since he’s been here but never backed it up in his playcalling. It’s just how he calls a game. He’s more Holmgren that tough-nosed Pittsburg guy, like he led on when he was hired. He better mix it up better or Rodgers won’t make it out of the opener against the Vikes standing up.

  • Jeff

    O-line – yeah. You can’t have a running game (at least not a consistent one) if you don’t have the linemen to pull it off.

    I’ll go to my grave saying that if we’d gone out and gotten one really good guard at some point in the last three years, we’d have been in the Super Bowl last year.

    I recall reading when Ted Thompson came in that he was reluctant to overspend at safety and guard. Personally, with the exception of Bigby’s occasional flashes, I think it shows.

  • Ed

    I really like Rodgers and think he’ll do good. He needs time (playing experience) and a few wins under his belt. He’ll get better as the season progresses.

    My biggest concern is the o-line. They need improve in a big hurry!

    The defense is very talented. About the only thing that can hold them back is coaching. Hopefully they will start blitzing a lot more this year and mixing it up. Look what it did for the Giants!

  • Jack in Columbus

    I, for one, do not care how many runs, how many passes or how many wins the Packers have — in Preseason. The only thing I care about is the team getting players healthy and ready for the regular season, and the best 53 players possible on the field. The O and D lines are a bit dinged up right now, so options are rather limited for the Pack. And MM is not famous for tipping his hand before the regular season starts. When our running game was weak last year to start the regular season, MM came up with a winning plan. I trust he will do the same this year — adjust to whatever circumstances are presented to him.

  • Matt Hayton

    Jack-
    hate to burst your bubble but MM didn’t come up with a winning plan for the run game last season…Favre had softened up defenses the first half of the year w/out a running game and put the fear of God into Defenses by beating Champ and Dre Bly that night in Denver…Grant came in and was the only semblance of a RB in a bunch of TT castoff selections.

    Look it up – The Packers were 6-1 after beating Denver and the Packers were the 27-28th ranked rushing team in the league…no running game and Favre was still killing people…so D’s had no choice but to drop 2 safeties into coverage and try and slow him down…it was against a majority of these fronts that Grant racked up his impressive stats – 2nd most rushing yards only to LT in 2nd half of the season.

    Grant started for the first time against Denver and only faced 7 man fronts for a majority of the 2nd half,however, when he faced 8 man fronts he struggled (Bear game in Dec. against 8 in the box – he had a 100 yds, but 66 came on one play…only 34 yds the rest of the game; Giants playoff game, 8 in the box on almost every snap – only 28 yds…

    Most RBs are good or even great against 7 man fronts, against 8 in the box, though, that is when the elite backs shine. Ryan Grant simply has not done this yet. I have a feeling he will get his chance early and often, as defenses tempt Aaron Rodgers to beat them through the air. I hope Grant can get it done, but to be honest, I’m not optimistic, since he couldn’t beat 8 man fronts with Favre behind center…

    So let’s set the record straight it wasn’t MM who adjusted. During the 2nd half of the year, it was the Defenses the Packers played, that adjusted to Favre’s dominating performance, without a running game, the first half of the year.

  • cali cheeez

    Dude, what games were you watching last year? BFdid squat the first games last year. Special teams won the Philly game, Wynn ran against NY and scored ,Woods fumble recovery won the game against the Skins while BF was throwing air balls to their secondary. All in all TEAMWORK is what got us to 13-3.

  • http://Orlando Mark

    Cali, I don’t know why people like you downrate what #4 did last year. It’s the main reason he’s gone. I saw those games as well. We had no business winning some of those without a run game. Matt was right, MM was smart enough to go four wide. Only an accomplished vetQB could win with that. We have the same team this year and coach. Exept everyone has more experience. We’ll soon see if the team carried #4. Either Matt’s right or you are. That makes this season very exciting.

  • Jack in Columbus

    Matt – The adjustment MM made was to go to 4 and 5 receiver sets, which made it easier to pass, especially shor passes. Most Os cannot pass well if they cannot run well. But MM turned that old maxim on its ear by passing effectively even with no running game to speak of. That is what I meant I did not mean that he found a way for the Packers to run. That did not happen until much later in the season and it was not a consistent thing then. Unfortunately Rodgers is no Favre, so MM will have an even bigger challenge this season if the O can’t run the ball effectively.

  • Tim

    What???? ” It has to be disappointing to McCarthy that neither Brian Brohm nor Matt Flynn made any positive strides in their second games. They might both be headed for the practice squad.”

    This is ridiculous, there is not way Brohm goes to the PS, he would not clear waivers. someone would snatch him up in a millisecond. I am willing to bet Flynn would not make it to the PS either.

  • Lew

    Tim, at least you caught the most ridiculous statement Al has made since the, “We should trade Rodgers” tirade. Neither of those QB’s is going on the practice squad. Come on Al

  • imatic

    Rodgers audibled out of some of the run plays. Teams are going to line up to play the run. Make the first-year starter beat you.

    “Q: So you are calling more running plays than we are seeing?
    A: Yeah, that’s the way we’ve played the last two years. We do things at the line of scrimmage. . . ” McCarthy Transcript 8-19-09 packers.com

    “According to offensive coordinator Joe Philbin, Rodgers audibled out of a number of running plays. Often he found nothing downfield. His hesitation made him look like a backup quarterback who hadn’t played in a long time and often he read the pass rush incorrectly, thinking he had time to pump and reload when he didn’t. “There were a lot of mental mistakes on offense at every position,” Rodgers said. “Myself, I made some poor decisions.” http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=784295

  • matt

    Who cares if we win pre-season games? I don’t think McCarthy cares to defeat the defense and play lights out. You are missing the point if you want him to do that. He probably wants his O-line and QB to face adversity, which means forcing him to make audibles and forcing the lineman to make adjustments. At this point in time, the line is probably decent and now he wants them to be more flexible. Thus, the reasoning for moving them playing more than one position.

    The Packers have been vague about Hawk’s injury and it seems unusual that he would sit this long with a hurt chest that is not torn. I wonder if they are sitting him so that Chillar can get experience playing Will linebacker in the Packers system. The team might need Chillar to play during the regular season, and it would make sense for him to become familiar with Barnett’s thought process regarding play calls.

    The point of the pre-season is to learn and improve, not to win meaningless games.

  • CheesyD

    A person calls the site admin a “f’n loser” and wonders why his posts are deleted.

    Amazing.

  • Reid

    The pot calling the kettle black?

  • Jeff

    Matt,

    I’m not concerned about winning. I am concerned that a substandard defense sacked our QBs 6 times. Do you honestly think MM is exposing Rodgers to this intentionally to build character or something?

    Given the general agreement that this season’s success at any level is predicated on Rodgers remaining healthy, I think that would be a stretch. Nobody wants their only real option at QB getting smacked around when the games don’t even count. I see those four sacks on AR as a pretty good indicator that our Oline is not where it needs to be.

    I am also worried that our #1 defensive line allowed JT O’Sullivan time to look pretty good in the pocket. It’s not really about the whole team performance at this point in the year. It’s more about the performance of particular packages, and the basic packages of our Oline and Dline looked a little troubled.

    Still – I’ll be a great deal more interested when the games start counting. It can’t come soon enough.

  • matt

    Jeff,

    I don’t think McCarthy is trying intentionally to have Rodgers sacked. I think he is testing the passing unit to prepare for the regular season. Favre is no longer around and now Rodgers has to be precise and accurate with his audibles. This is of import because McCarthy knows it will be very difficult to run against eight defenders in the box every week.

    Reports say that Barbre and Sitton are better at run blocking and probably need to be trusted to protect Rodgers. This is similar to a coach having trust in a running back to pick up blitzes, before they are allowed to play. Countering pass defenses is mental while countering run defenses is mostly technical. The fundamentals of run blocking can be taught all offseason, whereas pass blocking is best taught during dynamic situations.

    I also think the 49ers defense will be much better this year. The additions from last year will be able to react this year instead of thinking first.

    I agree that I don’t want Rodgers getting hit in the pre-season or at all, but that is part of mixing it up.

    I agree that our defensive line has to play better, especially the defensive tackles. They need to get healthy very quick or we will have big problems. Remember when our run defense was a sieve? It was really tough to outscore opponents.

  • Jeff

    There’s sense in that if MM is figuring on moving forward with Barbre and Sitton as starting guards. If they’re going to be the guys, they might as well start being them now.

    It just troubles me that, for the fourth straight season, we don’t really have a stable set of starting guards. We’re three weeks out from hosting the Vikings – a damn serious defensive line – and MM still seems to be working it out. Yikes.

    I won’t castigate Ted for it; I know there were cap and market forces involved with Wahle and Rivera was past his prime, but it’s the same blasted hole in the Oline year after year.

  • matt

    Jeff,

    Look for McCarthy to use four and five wide receiver sets against the Vikings. Then, their defense won’t be able to keep run-stuffing defensive tackles on the field. They should counter them with screens, draws and throwing checkdowns to running backs and tight ends.

    I think the running blocking by the O-line will start off much better this year than it did last year.

  • Larry

    We can only hope Babre and Sitton are capable of starting. Colledge becomes the backup tackle (where he belongs) or we have a bunch of trade bait. Frankly, like Alice, I can only wish, wish, wish.

  • Dan

    The Packers should have given Wahle the money instead of Bubba in 2005.

    Both Bubba and Wahle were shown the money that year.

    Once Bubba was shown the money in August of 2005, he became injured every single year.

  • Rick

    Matt,

    Excellent post. I think you hit the nail on the head about how you play against the Viqueens.

  • Roy Jamison

    Trade for J.P. Losman of Buffalo. Give them a linebacker. Losman will push Rodgers more than the rooks ever will.

  • snyz

    yes, let’s get JP losman on our team. that would be productive…

  • Rick

    An experenced vetern that is much calmer is a plus as a back up QB but there is really no one we want out there right now other than Craig Nall. I think what we have is as good at QB as Nall so why worry unless we lose Rodgers. Getting opposing teams to back off from 8 in the box is what we need. Then it frees up the run game.

  • TRIP

    Losman? Interesting. But who thinks that TT would dare give a hint he wasn’t perfect in his QB trades/draft? Not I. Rodgers, Brohm, Flynn it is.

  • Larry

    Rick, right on! Nobody is even giving this a chance to work. Of course theres going to be some mistakes, Favre and Starr made ‘em too…

  • Roy Jamison

    Which is better? Jamal Reyonlds or Justin Harrell?

  • Lew

    Reynolds or Justin Harrell? How do you quantify horrible picks and huge busts?

    Which is better Roy, herpes or crabs?

  • Larry

    Crabs by far……….!