The Green Bay Packers are about to play one of the biggest games in franchise history, and considering recent playoff failures, maybe the biggest game in the head coach Mike McCarthy-quarterback Aaron Rodgers era. The Packers and their fans can feel confident about the Packers’ offense and defense going into the game, but they certainly can’t feel that way about the Packers’ special teams. The bad news is, McCarthy doesn’t care.
In explaining his team’s poor special teams McCarthy said this: “Let’s be real, we don’t draft special-teams players. We draft offensive and defensive players and then they play on special teams. It’s part of the philosophy of how we play our players.”
So if the Packers lose the game on a blocked field goal that is just the philosophy of how they play their players? Nothing to be concerned about? That is mindboggling to me. Since I was a young lad football has always been offense, defense, special teams. Not necessarily in that order.
Not having that third unit may be a big part of why the Packers have not performed well in the playoffs the last four years. Just ask Mike Holmgren how important the role of special teams were for the Packers during his time in Green Bay and especially in their Super Bowl run of 1996. It’s not rocket science.
For McCarthy to completely dismiss special teams like that is simply amazing, but it certainly explains why special teams have been so bad under his leadership. If the Packers were solid in all three phases I would feel a lot more confident about this game.