GumboBC

It seems that McCarthy is going to be the scape-goat this year. But, I think the failures on offense had VERY LITTLE to do with McCarthy.

First of all, McCarthy didn't commit all the penalties. And McCarthy had nothing to do with the last ranked defense we had.

And McCarthy wasn't responsible for us having an awful offensive line that couldn't block.

But here's something else McCarthy wasn't responsible for that I hear hardly anyone talking about!!


And that Deuce. It's no secret that Deuce has been our work-horse for the last couple of years. And its no secret Deuce was being counted on to carry a heavy load this year.

Before I go any further, let me make a statement:

I'm not suggesting in any way that Deuce is at fault here. There were way more problems with our running game than Deuce. But, the bottom line is, our running game was totally ineffective for MANY games.

Because of injuries to Deuce and a terrible offensive line, we couldn't get it done on the ground and were FORCED to go to the passing game in MANY games this year.

Here are those games:


vs. Seattle 16 carries for 57yds. Avg=3.6 yds
vs. 49'ers: 3 carries for 1 yd. Avg=0.3 yds
vs. St. Louis: DID NOT PLAY
vs. Arizona: DID NOT PLAY

vs. Raiders: 24 carries for 42 yds. Avg = 1.8 yds.
vs. Chargers: 16 carries for 63 yds. Avg= 3.9 yds.
vs. Denver:13 carries for 42 yds. Avg = 3.2 yds
vs. Panthers: 7 carries for 22 yds. Avg =3.1

As you can see, Deuce missed 2 games totally. Only had 1 carry against the 49'ers because of an injury. And was totally ineffective against the Raiders, Chargers, Broncos, and Panthers.

That's 8 games in which we got very little production out of the running game.

It's hard to win in this league when you can't run.

And the bottom line is McCarthy can't be held accountable for all the problems in the running game.

IMHO, it really put McCarthy behind the 8-ball. What was he suppose to do? Keep running the ball?

Then I think it really affected our passing games. Teams knew, most of the time, that we HAD to pass the ball.

Between the terrible defense and the lack of production from the running game it really killed McCarthy.

Once Deuce got healthy and the defense stepped up, we never lost a game.

Is that just conincidence?

You be the judge.

Danno

When a team has very few penalties, everyone calls them a well coached team.
Why is that?

While I feel he was the better of our two coordinators, I still feel he had some major problems.

There were many games we simply fell behind in the 1st quarter. You don\'t abandon the run in the 1st quarter because you\'re down 10 points.


I could predict just about every play before we ran it.

After 4 years we still can\'t run a screen pass.

In the red zone you DO NOT run slow developing reverses like we did with Donte.


We have the offensive fire-power to put up awesome numbers. We didn\'t.

We have the personnel to stretch the field deep, we didn\'t.

We went into the season with an O-line that was stacked for run-blocking. They didn\'t.

I\'ve read several reports that stated McCarthy\'s offense was difficult to learn. One highly talented WR wasn\'t even activated all year

[Edited on 27/1/2005 by Danno]

GumboBC

I don\'t know. But Parcells and the Cowboys had more penalties than us and he called the players stupid.

Since jumping offsides is stupid. I think the player is stupid for jumping offsides. So, I agree with Parcells.

Now, its stupid if the coach lets those players keep making the dumb penalties.

But, McCarty can\'t cut any players. That would be left up to Haslett.

Haslett deserves some blame there. But I\'m talking about McCarthy.

Danno

Sorry Billy, I added this after you replied.

BayouCajun

This is my opinion but McCarthy is the biggest reason why our offense sucked and is one reason why our defense sucked. To me the blame for all the false start penalties does go back to McCarthy. I believe his title is Offense Coordinator, that person is in charge of the offense. If our offense would have given some time for our defense to catch their breath on the sidelines in most of the first quarters our defensive stats wouldn\'t have looked so bad.

I put all the blame of how Brooks plays on McCarthy. He is pretty much the only coach Brooks his been under in the NFL. Brook needs someone else too guide him. I do believe we can win with Brooks, I don\'t believe we can win with Brooks and McCarthy.

Yes, the Saints has a lot of problems to fix, but if they bring in a good OC it will be a great improvement.

Again, just my opinion.

ScottyRo

There are (were) a few arguments in McCarthy\'s favor. I don\'t think anyone will dispute that he\'s done some good things here. The problem is that he\'s done some boneheaded things too.

Point in case: all of 2003 I wanted him to move up to the box in hopes that he\'d get a better perspective of what was really happening. Finally, word comes down that in 2004 he\'s going to do just that. How long does that last? One game. Somehow he came to the conclusion that it is easier for him to radio plays into AB;s helmet from the sidelines than from the booth. One game.

Another? The 2 TE set as our base offense. HEllo?:iamwst:

Playcalling. So, here we are about to run out the clock on the Panthers and maybe go to the playoffs. The whole world is expecting run, but that shouldn\'t matter. Even a losson the play would subtract 40 seconds off the 60-80 seconds remaining. Plus the time for the punt would run off. Does he call a run. Hell no. He calls a pass which luckily was completed and not intercepted for a TD, but the TE steps out of bounds stopping the clock. It was the only time ALL YEAR that a rruning play up the middle was an absolute necessity and he calls a pass. A pass. :mad2:

GumboBC

Okay, I have some problems with McCarthy too. But, beleive me, I don\'t blame him nearly as much as some of you.

First: I don\'t think McCarthy is flexible enough. He doesn\'t game plan for particular opponents.

He\'s got ONE game plan for every game. That\'s fine if you don\'t have injuries and you\'ve got your full compliment of weapons.

But, that\'s hardly ever the case for ANY team.

Just look at the Pats, Panthers, etc., ect...

Those teams are able to overcome things we are NOT!!

McCarthy doesn\'t seem to be a good \"game day\" coach.

Again, there were things outside of McCarthy\'s control that contributed to that.

But, he\'s still not a good \"game day\" coach IMO.

He seems to just stick to what he wants to do for too long.

saintswhodi

Just a note. Stecker went over 100 yards in the game Deuce missed against the Rams. He was pretty effective. They still almost lost cause Aeneas Williams forgot how to intercept a pass, but nonetheless. If Deuce doesn\'t play but Stecker goes over 100, isn\'t that an effective running game?

GumboBC

The Ram game was the ONLY game Stecker was effective running the ball.

Look, you can still want Haslett, McCarthy, Venturi, and Brooks gone and still tell the truth.

And the truth is our running game let us down this year.

Stecker never rushed for over 50-yards in any game but ONE.

When he rushed for the 100-yards, we won the game.

saintswhodi

We also won games where we didn\'t get 100 yards rushing so what\'s the point?