MM Press Conference 10-08-12: Raji/Finley/Benson updates...

Finley said it may be best if rest his hands for the next few games. He is concerned the gloves that assist him in catching the ball may become worn out.....

Methinks he's been playing with replacement gloves all season.

From MM's Monday presser:

Raji: will have a chance this week

Benson: will be out this week

Finley: will have a chance this week

Per MM Benson will be out this week.

Raji/Finley both "have a chance" to play this week.

Monday presser:


McCarthy: Very disappointing loss. Watched tape, graded with the players. Grades were not very good. A lot of fundamental errors.

McCarthy: "I feel good about the psyche of our football team."

Raji and Benson are in boots. Raki has a chance this week vs HOU, Benson is out. Finley has a shoulder and has a chance for this week. Benson "clearly won't be available this week."

McCarthy: "We went into the game thinking, 'Try to have some balance.' ... A lot of our decisions are made on how they play us, too."

McCarthy: I'm sure there are plays Aaron would like to have back. Rush was heavy. Consistency of whole team not where it needs to be.

McCarthy: Aaron has had a solid year.We're a different team this year. It never stays the same. Benson was coming on. Now need younger backs

McCarthy: "We need the run game. It's important. I'm not interested in throwing it 50 times a game."

McCarthy on going away from the run after Benson's injury: "I thought we had some favorable matchups outside."

McCarthy on missed opp's in passing game: It's about execution. Comes down to fundamentals -- throwing, catching.

McCarthy: Never the same year to year. Never that way. Why you have off-season program. Haven't established rhythm in five games.

McCarthy: "We didn't have rhythm coming out of training camp, we haven't established it in the first five games. That's where we are."

Starks will get his chance to re-establish himself. Let's see if he does.

Of the three was most concerned about Raji. That there is at least a chance he could play is a little encouraging.

MM with not a lot of clear cut answers but I think that's also because there isn't any. It's a lot of little things that need "to get cleaned up".

Even if Raji can play, will he be able to be effective? If Capers doesn't think Pickett can hold up in there, would he try to play different fronts or alignments to compensate?

Likely to see more of Neal if Raji either can't go or they limit him.

The Texans are good at attacking the middle of the field with Foster and Tate, Daniels, too. I fear that they're going to move the chains pretty easy against the middle. Their RBs are just as good in the passing game as the running game.

quote:

Originally posted by packerboi:
Per MM Benson will be out this week.

Raji/Finley both "have a chance" to play this week.

Oh Christ, Benson is dead & Raji/Finley are having last rights read.

FYI, Tate is out tonight. Don't know if he'll be ready for Sunday Night

BTW, on that presser MM said something to the effect of "I'll need to confer with Ted on possible surgery" regarding Benson and said that Benson had further testing done late this afternoon and he wasn't aware of the results.

Our geenyus media of course didn't press MM on what he meant by "surgery" and what possible reason Benson would need it. They also failed to ask if Starks is then the starter come Sunday night. Or is it Green?

Gah, I may not have a journalism degree but I swear half the members on the board here could ask better questions.

Maybe because they know MM won't answer who his starting RB is going to be. They should still ask anyway.

Really miss the presser transcripts where you could see the questions that were asked. The videos are awful at picking up sound from the reporters. Is it that hard to hand a couple microphones out?

Someone needs to call MM on some of the comments and ask him to expand a bit.

"We went into the game thinking, 'Try to have some balance"
"We need the run game. It's important. I'm not interested in throwing it 50 times a game."

Balance helped build a 21-3 lead. Abandoning the run helped Indy get back into the game. May not be interested in throwing it 50 times a game, but it's close. 38 pass attempts / game thus far vs. an average of 18 running plays (of the 111 runs so far this year by GB, 20 have been AR pulling the ball down himself)

"I thought we had some favorable matchups outside." (asked about going away from the run after Bensons injury)

This one is puzzling. Went into the game looking for balance with Benson which worked well. Benson goes out, and suddenly there are favorable matchups in the passing game? I'm pretty sure Indy didn't say "let's ease up on the coverage now that Benson is in the locker room". If anything, they went more agressive in coverage and went after Rodgers with the pass rush.

Where's Cedric being shown?

Green was getting stymied in the backfield because he couldn't deal with having guys in arm's reach right when he got the handoff. Benson is able to power ahead through the crappy blocks (Saturday is clearly the worst offender, but the other four guys aren't doing well either) and make a gain, a guy who is more or less a rookie isn't going to know what to do.

quote:

We didn't have rhythm coming out of training camp

gack! so he knows it as well as I did. use the preseason to get some rhythm for chrissakes even if it means playing your starters for 3 quarters. being injury free coming out of the preseason means absolutely nothing if you can't execute your offense.
this confirms what I thought and really pisses me off.

Man, can't believe he said some of the things he did ...

kind of bums me out for our prospects going forward, sounds like a real uphill battle.

quote:

Originally posted by Hungry5:
Monday presser:

McCarthy: "We need the run game. It's important. I'm not interested in throwing it 50 times a game."

We keep hearing this out of his mouth but keep seeing something totally different on Sundays.

His actions speak so loudly I can't hear the BS he is saying.

I'm not ready to say he's handing us BS. I would like for those attending the press conference to ask him to elaborate on some of the comments. What exactly did he see outside in the second half that he viewed as favorable? And what prevented those match-ups from being exploited?

He's been giving us lip service about the run for years.

18 pt lead at halftime and the run disappears?????

What did he open the third quarter with? 7 straight passes and the int??

BS by definition.

Isn't an int a pass or was it a called int?

The 7 passes included (and) the int.

I almost feel MM is like a gambler with an addiction. He just keeps thinking that the next time he'll win, just need to keep trying the same thing and he's bound to hit it big sooner or later. Except....it doesn't happen. Last year's success has permanently given him unrealistic expectations.

That interception is all Rodgers. Not sure what he is thinking at times. If you really don't have anyone open, throw it away. They have one of the best Punters in the league.

peronally, i think we should trade rodgers now, before his value completely tanks.

Any effective offense depends to a large extent on the defense not knowing what you're going to do. McCarthy knows this. So of course it is B.S.. No problem as long as opposing defensive coordinators believe it.

Problem is, it doesn't look like they're buying it anymore.

who'd want him?

he seems like a writer searching for his muse lately. he probably needs to get laid a little more, something simple.

I'm not sure you could find someone to give up their next six drafts and a couple players for him.

Video:
MM Presser Monday, October 8th, 2012

Holygooglymoogly there a mic for the reporters. Every question can be heard clearly. Finally

someone asked if MM if he'd like to see Aaron pull the trigger alittle bit more instead of taking those sacks. His first answer before he expanded: "That's an opinion. We grade our quarterbacks. You grade his footwork. You grade his decision. You grade his throw."

Also thought it was interesting that he said the week of practice leading up to the game was not where he would like it to be.

quote:

Originally posted by packerboi:
BTW, on that presser MM said something to the effect of "I'll need to confer with Ted on possible surgery" regarding Benson and said that Benson had further testing done late this afternoon and he wasn't aware of the results.

Our geenyus media of course didn't press MM on what he meant by "surgery" and what possible reason Benson would need it. They also failed to ask if Starks is then the starter come Sunday night. Or is it Green?

Gah, I may not have a journalism degree but I swear half the members on the board here could ask better questions.

I believe he said that before the team meeting "Dr McKenzie had to go to surgery", so Ted an he didn't discus the later testing(that McKenzie requested).

I will usually give McCarthy the benefit of the doubt but that's some serious denial in the presser. We need to run the ball more? Really Mike? Then run the ball more! You are calling the plays.

I'd rather he just come out and say "we are a passing team, and we're going to pass the ball 70% of the time because that's how our team is built." He's not fooling anyone and personally this team isn't good enough at the RB position to run the ball 50% of the time.

The other factor is that while I liked the Benson move you can't continue to ignore the RB position year after year in the draft. They haven't taken a decent RB prospect in years and that's how this team builds their roster. Plus, even the pass happy teams like the Giants and Steelers and Eagles and Patriots and Falcons use the run to give them balance. About the only team I can think of that throws as much as GB is the Lions and their record speaks for itself too.

quote:

I will usually give McCarthy the benefit of the doubt but that's some serious denial in the presser. We need to run the ball more? Really Mike? Then run the ball more! You are calling the plays.

Rodgers shares much of the decision making in this. He has a ton of snaps where he comes to the line and has the run/pass option. Think all those times they run out of shotgun. It was even mentioned they option post snap sometimes. They're playing to what the defense is showing them, they're just not getting the job done with the option they go to.

It might be time to stop adjusting to the defense constantly and focus with executing the called plays. The offense is too complex for them to execute propperly right now. MM noting he wasn't happy with practice lat week is a good sign of that. They might adjust by taking some of the fancy shmancy stuff out and get back to the basics of imposing will.

when they're rolling MM/AR get away with that empty backfield crap but it still bothers me. MM can solve a lot of his own play calling foibles by NOT going empty backfield. seems every time they line up in the I formation they either have a successful run or a successful pass - wouldn't want to keep doing that would we?