Packers head coach Mike McCarthy stated after Sunday’s 27-13 home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that he would take care of a “recurring issue” tomorrow, but would not elaborate on what that might be.
Here is the full quote via Tom Silverstein from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
"“I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed as the head coach of this team because we have a reoccurring issue that we have to get fixed and we’ll get on that tomorrow. I’m not going to get into that right now.”"
Silverstein goes on to surmise that McCarthy is talking about the defense, which gave up a number of long plays to Nick Foles, and allowed the Eagles’ to run out the clock on the final possession of the game. He even goes so far as to suggest that we should not “discount the possibility that [McCarthy] parts ways with [defensive coordinator Dom] Capers”.
Capers, who has been a head coach previously in the NFL (Carolina from 1995-1998 and Houston 2002-2005) and has always been a highly-regarded defensive mind, has been much-maligned ever since the Packers managed to win the Super Bowl over the Pittsburgh Steelers back in January of 2011 with a mostly unreliable defense.
Since the Packers takeaways have been down this season, their bend-but-don’t-break style hasn’t worked out to their advantage. Add in significant injuries to players like linebackers Clay Matthews and Nick Perry and defensive backs Morgan Burnett, Casey Hayward, and there’s been no shortage of adversity that the Packers have faced.
It certainly isn’t McCarthy’s (or general manager Ted Thompson) reputation to simply cut ties with a coach mid-season, but it sounds as if it remains a real possibility. McCarthy will address the media tomorrow afternoon, so we’ll see if any news leaks out of Green Bay prior to when he takes the podium.