Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy chatted with Bay Area media on Wednesday morning, and he had an intriguing comment in response to the first question. Here is the word-for-word transcript of what McCarthy was asked, and what he had to say (audio).
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When you look at these last couple games the 49ers have played, is it surprising at all that they haven't been competitive in either one of those games?
McCarthy: I wouldn't say that. I think anytime you get into the first quarter of the season, to me, these are some of the toughest games to play in. Everybody thinks you've got a direction you want to go as a football team, let's face it, you don't get to practice as much as you used to in training camp. So there's always some unknowns and some areas you want to work on. I meant that's who we feel about our football team. I mean we've been fortunate enough to win three games, but let's be real, we got a lot of work to do as a football team.
It caught me off guard when he said "I wouldn't say that." At first glance, that reads like, "I'm not surprised they have been blown out." He was asked later about the defense and talked about the big changes in personnel and scheme. He said something similar about changes when talking about Colin Kaepernick.
And that certainly is part of the issue. This is an entirely new scheme, one that requires more thought process, and less instinctual play. The team has a lot of new, young players in the mix, so they were going to take some lumps along the way. The question is whether they can rebound and figure out how to get on track. Whether that be this year, or building into next year, they need to figure something out sooner rather than later.