If you want to crush him for his failings, you also have to give McCarthy his props for weathering adversity and keeping his players engaged and faithful. When I caught up with him in Nashville on Nov. 12, a day before the Packers would drop to 4-5 with a 47-25 defeat to the Tennessee Titans, he had every reason to succumb to the notion, at least in confidence, that this would probably not be the Packers' year.