Mike McCarthy: Best Coach in NFC

There are lots of great stories this year in the NFL, many of them involving great QBs. However, the great job done by Mike McCarthy has been lost to some extent in the resurgence of Brett Favre.

In 2005, the year before McCarthy was hired, Brett had the lowest QB rating of his career (70.9), set a personal record with 29 interceptions, and lost the most fumbles of his career (7). Many people, including Brett, thought his career might be over and perhaps should have been over because the team and Brett had a terrible year, finishing 4-12. No one thought Brett could regain his MVP form of a decade prior.

Over the last two years, McCarthy has transformed the youngest team in the NFL, with an ancient QB, into the favorite to win the NFC Championship this year. The turnaround began last year, when the team won the last 4 in a row to finish 8-8. No one thought much of it at the time, but the team was buying into McCarthy's ideas. Even though Brett's rating was similar to the previous year's (72.7), the INT's had come down and he clearly played better down the stretch.

This year, the Packers are now 14-3, making them 18-3 in the Pack's last 21 games. Brett had the best completion pct of his career this year (66.5%), and had the best rating (95.7) since his MVP seasons under Holmgren. Yards per attempt went up to almost 8, but the sacks went down, so the line was protecting him when he needed to throw downfield. Favre received an MVP vote in spite of the great year had by Brady, and McCarthy would have gotten some votes if the Pats didn't go 16-0.

Looking at the divisional game this weekend, McCarthy outcoached Favre's previous mentor, Mike Holmgren. He developed the running game throughout the season, from almost nothing, to a 200-yard performance by Ryan Grant. He held a young team, especially the young defense, together after an unimaginably bad start. The team responded, with TD's on 6 straight drives while the defense held the Seahawks to 6 points the rest of the game. The Seahawks were outschemed and outplayed, and of course the cold helped (Marcus Pollard will be receiving a gift from the Packers in a couple weeks). Good for McCarthy, a man no one thought deserved the job and a man no one thought could manage Brett Favre. Expect them to beat the Giants next week at Lambeau, and remember in all the Favre fanfare that the coach is pretty good too.