Mike McCarthy gets defensive when asked about Packers’ struggles

Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy is feeling the heat with his team sitting well below expectations at 4-5.

McCarthy spent a lengthy part of his Monday press conference defending his track record as a head coach a day after the team’s 47-25 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

“Let’s just state the facts: I’m a highly successful NFL head coach,” McCarthy said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN. “With that, I’ve never looked at the ride to this point as smooth or whatever the words you used. To me, it’s always bumpy, and to me that’s the joy of it. That’s this game. That’s how hard it is in the NFL. Really, what you did last year or 2010, as we know, doesn’t factor.”

McCarthy said not to expect major changes despite the team’s significant issues.

“I’m not into shock and awe, or [a] torch the landscape-type person,” McCarthy said. “I’m a builder. I’m a developer. I’ve said that since the first day I arrived here. You build a program, culture is what makes it go, you have to invest in that culture every single day, and that’s my big-picture focus.”

Business as usual doesn’t seem to be working for Green Bay, and a franchise legend recently said that it was time for both McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers to step up to right the ship. While there are no easy remedies, McCarthy standing up and feeling the need to defend his coaching record probably isn’t what that icon had in mind.