The Green Bay Packers now face a major uphill battle to reach the NFL playoffs, and they have Mike McCarthy’s terrible management at the end of Thursday night’s 27-24 loss to Seattle to blame.
McCarthy completely butchered the end of the game with his failure to use a challenge, and his awful decision to punt instead of going for it on 4th down.
The first big mistake came when McCarthy declined to challenge a catch by Tyler Lockett with 6:41 remaining in the fourth quarter. The catch came on a 1st-and-10 by Seattle at midfield and went for 34 yards, taking the Seahawks to Green Bay’s 16. The Packers were up 24-20 at the time, so the catch almost ensured the Seahawks would end up with points on the drive.
You can't lock Lockett @TDLockett12 pic.twitter.com/nKenRuk1EI
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) November 16, 2018
Replay showed that the ball hit the ground as Lockett was rolling over, indicating there would have been a good chance of the call being overturned. The Seahawks ended up scoring a touchdown on the drive, which was the game-winner.
Why didn’t McCarthy challenge the catch? Probably because he only had one timeout left after burning two earlier in the half.
The Packers were late getting a play in/lining up at the line of scrimmage for a 3rd-and-3 at the Seattle 43 and burned a timeout in the third quarter. They ended up taking a sack after the timeout and punting. They took another timeout earlier in the fourth quarter following a long completion to Davante Adams. That seemed like a totally wasted timeout.
Then McCarthy put the kiss of death on his team by electing to punt with 4:20 left and the Packers facing a 4th-and-2 from their 33 down 27-24. McCarthy calculated that he liked the odds of his defense getting a 3-and-out better than he liked the odds of Aaron Rodgers converting a 4th-and-2, so he punted. Keep in mind he only had 1 timeout and the 2-minute warning to stop the clock, and Green Bay was missing some of its best run stoppers. The Packers defense, which had just allowed a touchdown drive on the previous possession, allowed two first downs, which was enough to put the Seahawks in position to kneel out the clock.
Oh, and let’s add this in: If he’s so confident in his defense, then that’s even more reason to go for it because he’d bank on his defense forcing a field goal if they failed to convert on fourth down, which would give the ball back to his offense.
Let me repeat: McCarthy wagered on his defense forcing a 3-and-out rather than Aaron Rodgers converting a 4th-and-2. His offense never got the ball back and they lost 27-24. Great going, Mike.
