Greg Jennings says Mike McCarthy was to blame for Packers' blown leads
Coach Mike McCarthy would not put the team on his back after they got a lead, according to former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings.
Jennings was on Fox Sports "Undisputed" on Wednesday, and while discussing why the Packers have only won one Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, Jennings pointed to how McCarthy handles leads as a key reason.
"If we had a lead, our issue wasn't the defense, our issue was Mike McCarthy—cause he would cuff us," Jennings said.
He went on to compare McCarthy's approach to New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, saying the Patriots "go for your throat" when they get ahead.
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However, Jennings was speaking about the season after the Packers won the Super Bowl—when they won their first 13 games.
Green Bay went on to go 15-1 in 2011 and lost to the New York Giants in the Divisional Round. In the two games the Packers lost that season, they didn't hold a lead at any point in either one.
In 2012, Jennings' final year in Green Bay, the team went 11-5 before falling to the San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional Round. In that year, the Packers lost three games in which they had the lead, but it's hard to blame McCarthy for all of those.
They lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the infamous "Fail Mary Game," after going up 12-7 in the fourth quarter, but the Packers only had the ball one more time after gaining the lead. And that final possession started with less than two minutes on the clock, so it was obviously a situation where a team would try to milk the clock instead of going for another score. They also led the 49ers 7-0 and 14-7 in their playoff game, but they never had possession of the ball with the lead during that game.
The only instance in his final years with the Packers where Jennings' theory holds true was a Week 5 loss to the Indianapolis Colts when Green Bay jumped ahead 21-3 before halftime and then lost 30-27.
There is also the 2015 NFC Championship Game, when the Packers went up 16-0 on the Seahawks, and lost 28-22 in overtime, but that was well after Jennings left.
There might be something to this idea that McCarthy doesn't help his team hold leads like Belichick, but that wasn't the case while Jennings was there post-Super Bowl.
Jennings played seven seasons for the Packers before spending two years with the Minnesota Vikings and one year with the Miami Dolphins.
