Agree with your take, Aaron.

As a Head Coach, he is doing well. The area he struggles in is the offensive play-calling.

This is weird. I was calling for McCarthy to be fired a couple weeks ago(and am not completely off that train yet).

He HAS done some nice things dealing with all the injuries, and he HAS improved the last couple weeks(It's like he heard me call for his head and knew he lost his biggest supporter)...

But his offensive playcalling is killing us, and going to kill us in the playoffs. Nagler, you called it...Kuhn screens? Kuhn tosses? No balanced playcalling whatsoever. A lot of deep passes when the underneath is there.

I like MM. I like his style and stubborness. I don't like what he does on offense and we need someone who does. If we get that guy and Capers and the 3-4 stays...superbowl. I don't think we get superbowl with McCarthy. Hope he proves me wrong though.

Trotter left the strength of schedule difference out of the equation this year. 07' and 09' schedules were a joke, not much of a lithmus test. In 08' they played a brutal schedule but couldn't pull out all the close games.

I'll give hime some credit, some grief. They're finishing a few games undermanned and winning. They're still not playing their best ball during the latter-half of tight games (sans the Jets).

Kudos for the progression while short-handed, now put together some complete games and also put away inferior competition by the end of Q3.

He's not worthy of consideration. I get the impression that Trotter, a member of the national media, is looking at this issue from an outside perspective and clearly has not been paying in-depth attention to this season. I'm not even ready to consider Mike McCarthy as doing a good coaching job the last two weeks. His play call management in the fourth quarter of the Vikings game, where he didn't challenge an obvious first down conversion by Greg Jennings and then ran John Kuhn again on 4th and 1, would have cost us the game if Collins doesn't pick off Favre on the subsequent drive and/or if Brad Childress wasn't a moron. Sure, the team has rebounded from injuries better than I ever expected, but I think that's a credit to the guys stepping in and Ted Thompson for establishing substantial roster depth more so than McCarthy.

Mike McCarthy is frankly not a legitimate Coach of the Year candidate unless this team wins out. Compared to some of the other guys Trotter mentioned, McCarthy's accomplishments this year are weak. Period.

I agree that McCarthy's head coaching has been good, but I tend to agree much more with your initial assessment, Aaron. McCarthy the play-caller has done one of his worst jobs this season IMO.

Capers deserves the credit for how well that D has performed. Even McCarthy so much, referring to the defense as "they" rather than "we" in an early-week presser. Semantics? Maybe. But we all know that Dom earned the Jets' W, and maybe even the Vikings W, given the way he's replaced Burnett/Barnett/Neal/Poppinga/Pickett/Jenkins in the past two weeks. Don't confuse McCarthy as COY material just because one of the best DCo's in the league has masked McCarthy's shortcomings on offense.

It's easy to get upset with the way some of the scheming has played out on the field this season. But with so many injuries happening so quickly, I think it stands to reason that things would get shaken up a bit when a team has to start improvising right out of the gates. It's important to recognize, just as Mr. Trotter does, that holding the locker room together and fielding a team that hasn't lost the motivation to win or the belief that they can win can be just as important as a good scheme. You don't have to look far to find coaches in this league who can motivate but not scheme (Mike Singletary), scheme but not motivate (Mike Shannahan), or do none of the above (Brad Childress). And right now the Packers are looking much better than any of that lot.

Since GB's 4-4 status after the TB game in 2009, MM has coached the Pack to 12 wins & 4 losses (Reg season) ...... Those 4 loses have been by a total of 10 points (1, 3, 3, 3)......

Without checking, MM probably has the best W-L record of any HC over the same time period ..... Keep it going another 8 games plus the playoffs & he should at least get an 'honorable mention' ......

If MM was calling the defensive plays as well as he has coached the offense, we would be 1-6, with our only win against the Bills.

Capers and the defensive staff have kept the Packer's alive this season despite MM.

To be the coach of the team the vast majority of the media picked as a SB team,the spotlight was already focused on him and every thing he does or doesn't do.

Struggling on offense and the long list of injuries will only bolster him to earning that award,if the Packers ride through this and get to the NFC Title game.

Anything less will make him another coach that was hampered by injuries like others.Getting wins in important games will overshadow many blunders the fans want his head for.

Coach of the Year? For a guy whose teams always start cold? No.

On a side-note: Do people try to keep their opinions/assessments fluid as information presents itself and the dialogue happens; or do they stick to their pre-conceived notions about teams, players, GM's and coaching staff and dry-hump it to death on a soap-box every opportunity they get?

I wish we could have a polling function to vote on this site, I wonder what the split would be (how do people perceive their fellow commentors?)?

What Trotter doesn't realize is that the injuries, while prevalent and numerous, haven't really had a huge effect the team's effectiveness. McCarthey has done okay as a HC, and below average with play calling. From an outsiders perspective, you look at the record and say, "Wow, look at all those injuries, and they're still 5-3." From our perspective, following the team very closely, we see that this team would be 8-0 or 7-1.

McCarthey has been overall very average and he said it himself, he needs to do better.

8-0 or 7-1 with better offensive coaching meant to write. :)

I give him an A for keeping the locker room focused. But he is doing it with veteran leadership. Besides that I think Haley is having much more success. Capers should get the credit for the D; ST is improved, but not outstanding; and O is currently the weakest link. Either MM play calling and game mgt or AR decision making or both needs to step up.

NOT COY material.

McCarthy is the head coach of the Green Bay Packers which means he is awesome.

He is my favorite head football coach.

Lombardi was known as a great coach, But really he was a superior teacher (Even won an award). He was considered kind of useless on the sidelines during the games because he taught his players everything they needed to know for that game, so there was nothing left to do except yell at the officials during the game. McCarthy is a good coach, but probably not the best teacher since they always seem to have to "clean things up" over and over again. (Or he has hardheaded students).

I rip on McCarthy quite a bit, especially for his in-game adjustments and awareness in general (including use of that red flag).

But I think he has been very good, in-game, the last two games. I'm having a hard time citing specific examples, but it just seems to me that, especially in the Jets game, he made calls and decisions knowing exactly how the game would play out. Oddly, I think he is normally a very good gameplanner, but the Jets was a dud, which is rare for him.

A month ago, I was thoroughly convinced that he would never get any better at the in-game aspects. Now I think there is some hope. If he comes out Sunday night and successfully alters a gameplan at halftime, I'll faint.

I would agree with Trotter, but with a few stipulations. McCarthy is doing his best coaching job in the context of his career, but not the rest of the league. To be fair, the parody of the league has really skewed this debate. Only one NFL team has more wins than the packers and their two main NFC contenders, the Giants and the Saints are wildly inconsistent.

Back to the topic though: It's just McCarthy had two better games in a row, but in their three losses the offense (his specialty) has really let the team down in the second half. We could be praising his coaching in weeks to come, but the offense has had trouble adjusting and being productive in light of Grant and Finley being taken away. Maybe they turned the corner last week, not giving the ball of once against a great defense. That and a Cowboy team that has given up could go a long way in getting the offense more confident.

Overall, I think it's obvious Capers has done much more with less than McCarthy. The front seven is so depleted, the backups are getting hurt. Defense did it's part against Miami (20 points with Miami getting the ball from the offense twice) and Washington (13 points). I really don't care what the stats say. When you can't sustain a drive or put any points on the board in the second half, you're making the defense's job significantly harder. And without two pick-6s by the defense this team could very well be 3-5.

Anyone who listens to Packershow knows exactly where I feel on this. Today's game is about the head coach laying out a philosophy and the staff creating a plan and executing it. Unfortunately, McCarthy calls the plays ... but that is not what this post is about.

#1. McCarthy has no defensive philosophy other than 'get it done.' Dom Capers is the reason we are 5-3. The defensive players obviously understand the scheme they are playing and will do whatever, yes, WHATEVER is asked of them.

#2. In contrast the offense does not do this. It is in a fight for direction and only last game did they really begin to work as a unit.

#3. Quick - Name 2 in game adjustments that Lombardi made that made him a great coach. HA! Why was Lombardi a great coach? Because the players loved him, feared him and would cut their left arm off to please him.

And there is the answer to this question. A head coach, whatever their style (Dungy or Cowher)must INSPIRE players to WANT to win. Part of inspiration is fear, part is love. I don't see that in Green Bay.