NFL Week 13 recap: The Packers just had to fire Mike McCarthy - SB Nation

Aaron Rodgers’ birthday was bittersweet. The Packers lost to the Cardinals at home 20-17, but Mike McCarthy was fired.

The Cardinals were 2-9 coming into the game, one of the NFL’s worst teams this season. Sunday, they didn’t really do much of anything that would have led you to think that they would have beat the Packers. Josh Rosen was just 11-of-26 for 149 yards passing with a quarterback rating of 38. David Johnson had just 69 yards, while Chase Edmonds had 53 yards and two touchdowns.

Normally, if you’d pit that against the Packers, that’s a win for them. You could really throw those numbers up against any NFL team, and they should be in the game. But the Packers were just so bad on Sunday that they lost and had to dump McCarthy.

Rodgers had just 233 yards and one touchdown that went to Davante Adams. It was vintage Rodgers, who was bouncing around in the pocket before pointing Adams in the right direction. He caught it with a delicate toe-tap in the end zone.

That was it for the passing game though, which wasn’t enough when running back Aaron Jones got just 11 carries for 36 yards and a touchdown. Like many games during the season, the Packers were always in the game, but not consistent enough to get a win.

In the past, Rodgers has been able to will the Packers to a win no matter what. He’s done it with multiple Hail Marys and surgical drives. But this year’s team seems to be lacking the low bar of talent he needs around him to win, along with differences in opinion when it comes to execution.

Rodgers was — rightfully so — critical of McCarthy at times when he was head coach. After the Packers beat the Bills 22-0 in Week 4, Rodgers said the team’s offense was “terrible” and added that, “We need to find ways to get our playmakers in position to get some more opportunities.” He elaborated by saying, “It’s by the plan. Find ways to get him in No. 1 spots.”

McCarthy was fine with the criticism, and described his relationship with Rodgers as fine. But a team with arguably the most talented quarterback ever shouldn’t be 4-7-1. And when a player like Rodgers still isn’t comfortable in victory, something’s not right.

Between the boos from the Lambeau crowd and four more weeks of football left, it makes sense why the Packers moved on now. They aren’t making the playoffs, and if the Packers stuck with McCarthy to the end, the conversation surrounding the Packers would be dominated by his inevitable firing.

And now if they wish to do so, the Packers can offer Kliff Kingsbury a job before he has to decide on whether or not he’ll become the next USC head coach by mid-week. But that’s just speculation.

Whoever the Packers hire, I hope they can get the most out of Aaron Rodgers, because there’s not a more exciting football player to watch when he’s on his game than No. 12.

Now, let’s get to Week 13.

Bill Belichick got super mad at Adam Thielen

In the fourth quarter of Vikings-Patriots, Bill Belichick and Adam Thielen were seen yelling at each other. Fox had some impeccable camera work, and caught Belichick yelling “shut the fuck up” to Thielen:

The argument was sparked because Thielen felt that the Patriots were buying time to challenge a Latavius Murray fourth down run that the Vikings were given a first on:

From the lip-reading department:
Adam Thielen (yelling in referee's direction, close to Bill Belichick, after Belichick threw challenge flag but had extra time ase Patrick Chung was injured): "That's bull---"
Bill Belichick (looking in Thielen's direction): "Shut the f--- up."
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) December 2, 2018

The Vikings got their first down, so it worked out for them, while also costing the Patriots a timeout. The Patriots won 24-10, but now we have a video of Bill Belichick telling Adam Thielen to shut up. We’re all winners for that.

Johnny Hekker had the coolest hold of all-time

Johnny Hekker is the NFL’s best punter. On field goals, he also acts as the Rams’ holder. His jobs aren’t glorious, by any stretch.

Against the Lions, he went full Jim Halpert on this hold, looking into the camera as Greg Zuerlein put one through the uprights:

This is one of the coolest things that a punter/holder could possibly do on a football field. In fact, I’d rank it on par with Mike Tomlin’s smoothest timeout ever:

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Hekker’s breaking of the fourth wall and pointing into the camera DURING a play is 1b, with Tomlin’s timeout being 1a. These moments are like children — I can’t pick a favorite.

Richard Sherman made his return to Seattle on Sunday. While it was a good one for the Seahawks, who won 43-16, they made a nice tribute to Sherman’s classic tip to Malcolm Smith in the NFC Championship Game.

The Legion of Boom was a legendary group that is going to give Seahawks fans nostalgia for the rest of time, and Sherman was its most recognizable face. It’s nice that they recognized him, even if it came at his new team’s expense.

The Bears called on Refrigerator Hicks

The Bears and Giants game had a ridiculous ending that resulted in a 30-27 New York victory. But before we got there, they went to 332-pound Akiem Hicks on fourth-and-goal for a touchdown in the second quarter:

That is a lot of man moving into the end zone. The Giants did their best to swarm the line, but when somebody that big has that much momentum, it’s almost impossible to stop him from advancing one yard.

Josh Allen pulled a Kyrie Irving

Josh Allen — yes, that Josh Allen — had 135 rushing yards on Sunday. That was more than Todd Gurley, Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, Ezekiel Elliott, Alvin Kamara, and many more.

The most impressive run of them all was this one early in the second quarter, where he put Kiko Alonzo on skates twice:

The Jaguars broke their losing streak with a win over the Colts on Sunday in Jacksonville, 6-0. As the score would indicate, it wasn’t a very thrilling game.

In the second quarter after a slide, Jalen Ramsey offered a hand to Andrew Luck, only to take it back because he couldn’t get to it fast enough:

We could have seen this coming, based on pregame shenanigans:

Ramsey pulling a fast one on Luck was funny for a couple of reasons. The first being that we wouldn’t expect anything less from Ramsey. He’s the ultimate trash talker, and unapologetically so. Some people will say the move isn’t #classy but those people are also corny.

Second, it’s because he did it to Luck, who is usually complimentary of opposing players in a weird way:

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OBJ can also play quarterback

The New York Giants have a lot of talent on offense, but quarterback isn’t one of those positions. Eli Manning is a fine player who will be in the Hall of Fame one day, but he’s not what he used to be.

Against the Bears, the Giants dialed up this Odell Beckham Jr. touchdown pass to Russell Shepard:

Beckham now has two touchdown passes of 40 yards or more on the season. Manning has zero.

Beckham is one of the best receivers in the NFL, but I’d like to imagine that he’s the Giants’ emergency quarterback strictly because of these two plays.

The Vikings did a terrible and funny celebration

Adam Thielen’s first catch against the Patriots was a touchdown. He followed up the play by trying to organize a game of pickle with Kirk Cousins and Dalvin Cook.

It did not go well:

The idea for the celebration is fine, but it seems safe to assume that Thielen hadn’t run it by neither Cousins or Cook in advance. So it turned into a pretty embarrassing effort for all of us to see.

To be fair to the Vikings, though, they’ve had some good ones the past couple of years like curling, freeze tag, and duck, duck, goose (I refuse to call this duck, duck, gray duck).

Russell Okung got his masters this offseason

Okung played his college football at Oklahoma State, but got creative with his intro for Sunday Night Football by announcing his alma mater as Wakanda Tech.

If you aren’t up to speed, Wakanda is the ~~fictional~~ setting for the movie Black Panther. Go see it if you haven’t.

Nuk is with Kap

DeAndre Hopkins showed up to the Texans’ game against the Browns wearing one of Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp #I’mWithKap jerseys:

Hopkins showed up in support of Kaepernick just over a week after Texans owner Bob McNair died. At a meeting between players and owners last year, McNair told the other NFL owners that they “can’t have the inmates running the prison.” McNair apologized for the comments, and later said he regretted apologizing for his comment.

Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016 because of his protest of the oppression and injustices that people of color in America face. Some players like Kenny Stills, Albert Wilson and Eric Reid have still shown support for Kaepernick.

Hopkins adding his support as one of the NFL’s best receivers is valuable, and admirable.

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