Mike McCarthy thinks the ’13 Green Bay Packers can be great
By Mike Dyce
Despite losing Greg Jennings and Donald Driver retiring, the Green Bay Packers look like a good football team and a playoff contender again. Head coach Mike McCarthy thinks this year’s team could be a “great team.”
“This team has every chance to be a great football team,” McCarthy told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It’s a challenge every year. But when you see the work from April into training camp to now, there’s definitely a lot to be excited about. I know how the off-season began and the commitment. It wasn’t just a bunch of words. I’ve seen individuals step up. Good bunch of men.”
Mike McCarthy avoided the trap of making predictions or the usual Super Bowl aim claims.
“Our goal is the same every year,” McCarthy said. “I’m not here to make statements. I’m the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Every player that plays for the Green Bay Packers clearly knows what the goal is. We’re the 93rd team in the history of this franchise. We’re going to line up with the rest of them and have the same expectations.”
McCarthy is also holding off comparing this team to the Super Bowl team of a few years ago.
“Let’s be honest. The Super Bowl year was a different year. The ability to overcome adversity, to me, will always be the biggest attribute of the 77 men that won that Super Bowl. The way we started the season, I really felt good about our football team. The ability then to take so many new players into our program was a real credit to our locker room. We played our best football at the end of the year. We had the complement of the offense playing to the defense and the defense playing to the offense. There was balance that year. Big plays are such a huge factor in the outcome of games. It is so difficult to go the distance on a defense.”