Mr. Fix-It

When Mike McCarthy was relatively new, I remember being impressed by what I heard during a post-game news conference. He was asked about something the Packers had done wrong -- turnovers, penalties, something -- and Coach McCarthy answered matter-of-factly: "We're going to identify our mistakes, and we're going to fix 'em."

It sounded so convincing when he said it then. So determined. So authoritative. So no-nonsense.

When Tony Siragusa was reporting at the start of Green Bay's second half, he mentioned his halftime conversation with McCarthy. He had asked McCarthy about the first-half sacks. And McCarthy, in reference to the sacks and the penalties, evidently said that they were going to fix that during halftime.

Fix those things during halftime? They had just come off of their bye week! Had McCarthy & Co. not observed the problem with penalties and sacks prior to the first half of the Lions game?

Now, in fairness, we did give up fewers sacks and commit fewer penalties in the second half than in the first half on Sunday. We also only scored 3 of our 26 points in the second half, however. And so I'm not all there with McCarthy's halftime adjustments.

The first time I heard him say that he was going to identify the team's problems and fix them, he sounded so convincing. I find that he doesn't sound convincing any more.