Packers HC Mike McCarthy defends Dom Capers
By Mike Dyce
The Green Bay Packers fell behind the Minnesota Vikings in the game despite scoring first in the game. Less than a minute into the fourth quarter, the Packers were trailing 23-7. An offensive burst pulled the Packers even with the Vikings to force an overtime. With quarterback Aaron Rodgers out, the Packers were leaning a little bit more on the defense, and they’ve let them down to an extent.
“We went through every call,” McCarthy said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. “It’s a very talented, organized defensive staff. I really like the teaching ability, the demand and their personality. . . .
“I’m very comfortable in our coaching staff. I think it’s definitely one of the strengths of our program.”
The Packers were allowing 79 yards a game on the ground and that has ballooned to 171.3 yards in the last three games.
“That’s why they’re season stats,” McCarthy said. “We’re in a valley right now. We need to get out of it in some aspects of our team. Going through the grades, going through every call, every assignment, it really comes down to leverage, fits and tackling and tenacity of the finish of the play was a little up and down. Time and time again, we had excellent leverage but then we don’t complete the play.
“They had two excellent runners that extended runs and that’s the part you’ve got to win. When you create leverage and fit in run defense, that’s where the play starts, that’s not where it ends. We just didn’t do a very good job finishing once the leverage and the fit was established. You can go all the way through it, double teams and this and that, but it really came down to execution.”