Former head coach Mike McCarthy highlights the Green Bay Packers' gritty wins and elite defense, suggesting their tough games forge playoff-ready contenders.
Mike McCarthy knows what it feels like to win a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers. Currently, nobody on this 2025 team can say that.
That's not to say this Packers team can't win it all this season, though. They've certainly got the talent on both sides of the ball and that's despite the fact that they've lost a few star players to injury this season.
The Packers are playing good ball right now and they're rolling. At 9-3-1, they've won four in a row and they're looking to make another big statement this weekend against the 11-2 Denver Broncos on the road.
There have been some bumps in the road, especailly right in the middle of the season, but the Packers and head coach Matt LaFleur have figured out how to iron everything out.
They're playing their best football of the season right now, and McCarthy, who was the head coach in Green Bay from 2006 to 2018, believes it all starts and ends with Micah Parsons and the defense.
"I love what the Packers are doing," McCarthy said Thursday on The Pat McAfee Show. "The most important part of your football team is the defense, and that defense is playing lights out. I can't say enough about the consistency of how they've played week in and week out. I think it's the most consistent component of the football team."
Green Bay hasn't been dominant this season, but they have picked up some gritty and tough wins. That includes two wins against the Detroit Lions, who had won the NFC North for two seasons in a row, and one win each against the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears.
The Packers are 4-0 against the NFC North this season and their last victory, a 28-21 win over the Bears at Lambeau Field, gave them the division lead.
McCarthy revealed that he feels the grit the Packers have shown over the past few weeks of football will help them in the playoffs. In fact, you get the sense that the Super Bowl-winning head coach believes that some of his old Packers teams with Aaron Rodgers could have used a bit more adversity before the playoffs came around.
'I've always felt that winning close games was critical to have during your path. When we were 15-1, we had too many blowout wins -- not that you can ever have too many of them," McCarthy explained. "You need those tough games. You need those physical games. Those reality games. When you get into these late division games, it gives you that,t and it's great preparation for the playoffs."
McCarthy and the Packers won the Super Bowl in 2010 and then went 15-1 in the 2011 regular season. In that postseason, they went one-and-done with a disappointing home loss to the New York Giants in the divisional round.
The Packers haven't gotten back to those heights since, though Rodgers gave it a good run at the end of his era.
Perhaps this 2025 team will be the one to climb back up that mountain. At the very least, McCarthy clearly believes they'll have the grit and close game experience to do it.