Tuesdays with McCarthy
packers.com
Tueday, September 27th, 2011
There's lots more past the click.quote:Three fan questions will be selected each week and presented to Coach McCarthy. Go to the Green Bay Packers’ official Facebook page on Monday mornings to post your question.
Q. What can you do to help avoid penalties?
A. Marty Schottenheimer taught me this: Our job is to emphasize and to emphasize some more. As coaches, we’re problem-solvers, and our job is to give solutions. More importantly, we must be proactive in giving players the answers and solutions to any kind of situation they’re going to encounter during the course of a game. We’ve been very proactive with our approach toward penalties. We have game-education segments throughout training camp and every Thursday morning’s team meeting is about game education. We have referees at practice every day and penalties are charted at every practice. Following practice, that day’s penalties are addressed with the team. It’s a continued emphasis with our football team.
Q. When and where did you develop your philosophy of offense?
A. I developed my offensive philosophy during my time as an assistant coach. As an assistant, you’re striving for the opportunity to become a coordinator. I’ve always felt that every coach should spend a year as a quality control coach. My time in that role clearly served as the foundation for my beliefs as a coach. In that role, you break teams down, not only on offense, but you learn about defense and are able to develop a well-rounded education. During my time at Pitt, I also had the opportunity to work with special teams. My belief is that the development of the quarterback position is a major factor in how an offense should be structured. I learned from Paul Hackett, and he worked alongside Bill Walsh and Tom Landry, that the offense is built around making the quarterback successful. The quarterback has the ball in his hands on every single play, so it’s important that we manage the time we spend with him to make sure he’s the most prepared. When push comes to shove, he’s the one we need to count on. That’s where my philosophy of offense starts; it starts with making the quarterback successful. A good running game is one of the best ways to ensure that the quarterback is successful; it takes the pressure off the quarterback to have to make every play and win every game. I’ve been in the same offense since 1989 and it has truly evolved. I’d be curious to know how many coaches can say they’ve been in the same offense since 1989.
Q. Are you a ball-control guy, an attack guy, a schemes guy? How would you describe your philosophy of offense?
A. We have to be capable of all the components in your question, but our starting point is to attack. We have an up-tempo philosophy, and from the first day we get together, our goal is to run as many plays as possible. Specifically, we want to run more than 72 plays a game and if we do that, we feel our offense is going to be extremely productive. continue
