
Pete Dougherty, Olivia Reiner and Tom Silverstein discuss the Packers' mathematical playoff chances following their win against the Atlanta Falcons. Olivia Reiner, PackersNews
The Green Bay Packers played a pretty good football game the week after they fired Mike McCarthy as coach.
So what?
If you’re looking for deeper meaning in their comfortable 34-20 win over the Atlanta Falcons, you’re not going to find it here. It will take more than whipping their equal in 2018 underachievement to prove anything about anything with this team.
It’s no surprise the Packers played well. According to ActionNetwork.com, NFL teams that fired their coach in-season dating back to 2003 are now 10-14 in their next game, which might look unimpressive until you find out that those same 23 teams were 64-172-2 (.269 winning percentage) before the firing.
In other words, coming off a firing, teams either have something to prove or no longer feel the pall of a dead-man-walking as their coach. Or both. Whatever it is, they get a temporary lift.
None of those other teams had a future Hall of Famer at quarterback, either. The Packers were capable of playing like this in any given week regardless of their coach.
The only real test they face in their final three games is next week at Chicago, which was 8-4 going into its game Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams. (The Packers’ other two games are at the New York Jets and at home against Detroit).
Posted!
A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.























































































































Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:
1 of 119
2 of 119
3 of 119
4 of 119
5 of 119
6 of 119
7 of 119
8 of 119
9 of 119
10 of 119
11 of 119
12 of 119
13 of 119
14 of 119
15 of 119
16 of 119
17 of 119
18 of 119
19 of 119
20 of 119
21 of 119
22 of 119
23 of 119
24 of 119
25 of 119
26 of 119
27 of 119
28 of 119
29 of 119
30 of 119
31 of 119
32 of 119
33 of 119
34 of 119
35 of 119
36 of 119
37 of 119
38 of 119
39 of 119
40 of 119
41 of 119
42 of 119
43 of 119
44 of 119
45 of 119
46 of 119
47 of 119
48 of 119
49 of 119
50 of 119
51 of 119
52 of 119
53 of 119
54 of 119
55 of 119
56 of 119
57 of 119
58 of 119
59 of 119
60 of 119
61 of 119
62 of 119
63 of 119
64 of 119
65 of 119
66 of 119
67 of 119
68 of 119
69 of 119
70 of 119
71 of 119
72 of 119
73 of 119
74 of 119
75 of 119
76 of 119
77 of 119
78 of 119
79 of 119
80 of 119
81 of 119
82 of 119
83 of 119
84 of 119
85 of 119
86 of 119
87 of 119
88 of 119
89 of 119
90 of 119
91 of 119
92 of 119
93 of 119
94 of 119
95 of 119
96 of 119
97 of 119
98 of 119
99 of 119
100 of 119
101 of 119
102 of 119
103 of 119
104 of 119
105 of 119
106 of 119
107 of 119
108 of 119
109 of 119
110 of 119
111 of 119
112 of 119
113 of 119
114 of 119
115 of 119
116 of 119
117 of 119
118 of 119
119 of 119
If Joe Philbin’s and Aaron Rodgers’ offense shows up against the league’s No. 4 scoring defense and plays with the rhythm it had against Atlanta, and beats the NFC North-leading Bears, then it might mean something.
If you’ve been following the Packers, the main thing you’re wondering is whether Rodgers will play better in the final four games with the change at coach.
Yes, he played winning football Sunday (103.1 passer rating, 44 yards on three scrambles), and maybe he felt more energized or more engaged or more something after McCarthy’s firing. His throwing accuracy might have been a little better than the past couple months.
But it’s only one game, and against a defense that ranks No. 28 in points allowed and defensive passer rating. When Rodgers was playing at an MVP level, this kind of game, even with three backups starting on the offensive line, would have been ho-hum.
Rodgers wouldn’t cop to anything feeling much different even though McCarthy wasn’t at the helm for the first time in the quarterback’s 11 years as a starter. But you have to think he had a little something to prove after his obvious differences with McCarthy boiled over this year.
“I just was trying to have fun out there and lead and inspire,” he said.
Our subscribers make this coverage possible. Click to subscribe to Packers News at packersnews.com/subscribe. Or click to subscribe to one of our local Wisconsin news sites, which includes PackersNews coverage. Be sure to download our app on iTunes or Google Play.
The most obvious difference with Philbin running the show, at least to the naked eye, was the mixing and matching of personnel. This game took you back to circa 2011, when McCarthy routinely ran players on and off the field snap after snap after snap, which made it hard for a defense to get a bead on anything.
McCarthy had grown much more static with his personnel the last few years, but Philbin turned back the clock. His plan from the start was to change players on almost every down.
On the Packers’ first series, which was a 75-yard touchdown drive, Philbin subbed in at least one player on each of the 10 snaps. He nearly kept up that pace the whole game. Until the Packers were killing clock in the fourth quarter, Philbin rarely kept the same players on the field for back-to-back snaps.
Philbin and Rodgers also pulled that old West Coast-offense standby, the slant, out of mothballs on that first possession. In fact, Rodgers pointed to that play – an eight-yard pass to Randall Cobb against a blitz – as one that jumped out to him.
“That one felt great,” Rodgers said. “Felt like we were in a great rhythm down the field and an important drive for us to get going.”
The offense’s tempo seemed good, though it’s hard to know whether that was anything more than the product of making a few more plays than usual. It looked like Philbin might have been getting his play calls to Rodgers a little faster than McCarthy had, and that Rodgers was getting the ball snapped with five to 10 seconds left on the play clock more than previously this season. He certainly didn’t flirt with any delay-of-game penalties.
“Joe did a great job on the calls and the flow and the timing,” Rodgers said.
Winning NFL games is rarely easy, so Philbin has to feel good about how his first as interim coach went. The side of the ball (i.e., the offense) that had been the problem most of this season performed well on his watch. No matter what the numbers suggest – the Packers’ 300 yards in total offense isn’t going to impress anyone in today’s NFL – this one passed the eye test.
Still, what’s happened this season to think it’s anything more than a one-off? The game that will mean something is next week. If Rodgers plays like an MVP against the big bad Bears, then there will be something to talk about.
More Packers-Falcons coverage:
Box score | NFL scoreboard | Standings
DOUGHERTY: Packers prove nothing with feel-good win for Philbin
SILVERSTEIN: Rookie Jaire Alexander rewards Packers for their trust
Backup offensive linemen draw on past experience to find chemistry
Third-down emphasis evident in Packers' offensive awakening
INSIDER: Thumbs up to defense, down to challenge flags
QUICK TAKES: Packers, Philbin find rhythm in victory over Falcons
SUBMIT QUESTIONS: Monday postgame chat with Ryan Wood
REPLAY: Tom Silverstein's live game blog
Join the Conversation
To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs
Comments