After bonehead non-challenge on incomplete pass leading to loss, is Mike McCarthy's tenure in Green Bay finally on its last legs?

In their 27-24 loss to the Seahawks, the Packers once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and they did it on multiple levels. Special teams, of course, contributed with a penalty nullifying a 55-yard punt return, and even a 67-yard punt was kicked line-drive right into the end zone for a touchback. As I tried to point out last time, Aaron Jones might have had some long gains that inflated his rushing numbers against Miami, but on a majority of his rushes he tended to be less than productive; against the Seahawks he had just 40 yards on 11 carries. If he was stopped early and often, the Packer ground game would be a non-factor, and it was against the Seahawks. The Packer defense, once more, failed to make the critical stops in the fourth quarter.

And Aaron Rodgers, despite making some nice throws downfield and putting up numbers that looked good on paper, was surprisingly inert at certain points in the game and especially at the end. As Troy Aikman pointed out repeatedly, Rodgers was either making poor throws (like the hair-pulling short-hop on third-and-two on what would be their last possession), was not seeing open receivers right in front of him, hung on to the ball too long leading to sacks, was tentative when he had a wide open field in front of him, only running after the hole closed. He couldn’t blame his receivers, especially rookie Equanimeous St. Brown, who had to do a “Rubberband Man” stretch to catch the only catchable ball thrown his way.

But the biggest gripe has to be reserved for Coach Mike McCarthy. With the Packers up 24-20 and the Seahawks on the 50-yard line with just under 7 minutes to play, Russell Wilson threw a pass to Tyler Lockett that was clearly juggled and the ball touching the ground before he had possession. Why the official didn’t call it incomplete was likely because he was a coward and wanted someone else to make the call at that critical moment, expecting his “complete” call it to be overturned. When asked, former head of officiating and analyst Mike Pereia did not hesitate in calling it an incomplete pass. The non-catch was shown several times in replay during the remainder of the game.

The question, of course, is why McCarthy did not challenge the call, which ended-up being a 34-yard play and aided the drive that ended in the Seahawks scoring the winning touchdown. McCarthy was given the benefit of the doubt by Joe Buck and Aikman, provided the “explanation” that he wanted to conserve the Packers final timeout, despite the fact that there was plenty of time on the clock even if the Seahawks did end-up scoring a touchdown. But that was hindsight, and they could have been held to a field goal. It was so obvious that the completion call would have been overturned one has to wonder who was McCarthy’s “eyes” on the play who should have advised him to challenge the call. Was he advised to do so, and did he reject the recommendation it because he wasn’t “sure”?

There has been a lot of talk about McCarthy’s play-calling, clock management and bone-head decisions like this one that helped cost the team the game. Too often he has counted on Rodgers to bail him out, and we have seen this season that Rodgers can’t be counted on to do so on every occasion. Is the addition of this going to sufficient to be the final nails in the coffin of McCarthy’s tenure in Green Bay after 13 years with two Hall of Fame quarterbacks and only one Super Bowl appearance to show for it?