GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Mike McCarthy couldn't get through the opening statement of his post-game press conference without making it very clear that he was thrilled with the way his Green Bay Packers team played Sunday.
"It's a great day to be a Packer," McCarthy said.
Taking a 38-3 lead over the Carolina Panthers in the third quarter before resting the majority of the starters makes it more than understandable why McCarthy was so pleased.
"We improved today," McCarthy said. "We not only improved our record, but our quality of play improved. I thought we clearly took the game over there in the first half and were in control in the second half."
Carolina scoring 14 unanswered points to close out the game distorted a lot of the final statistics. A glance at nothing more than the box score reveals the Panthers having more first downs, winning the time of possession battle and being right there with Green Bay on third down efficiency and total yards. The reality was a game decided long before McCarthy sat Aaron Rodgers down for the entire fourth quarter.
"Our players did an outstanding job," McCarthy said, continuing to gush with praise for his team. "It was an excellent victory."
The Packers scored touchdowns on five of their first seven offensive series. The action was spread around, too, with three different receivers catching touchdowns (Jordy Nelson, then Randall Cobb and Davante Adams) and both running backs (Eddie Lacy, then James Starks) running one in.
Green Bay's defense forced the Panthers into back-to-back three-and-out drives to begin the game. Carolina's third series would have ended in an even better result for the Packers -- a Clay Matthews interception returned for a touchdown -- had the official not called pass interference on Tramon Williams on a play that could have just as easily went unflagged. The Panthers didn't even get a first down until they were trailing 21-0.
"We got real aggressive trying to set the tone early on," Clay Matthews said. "The offense started off by putting points on the board and it was our job to respond."
McCarthy really liked the way defensive coordinator Dom Capers got Carolina on its heels.
"I thought Dom was aggressive and mixed the coverage," McCarthy said. "The four-man rush stuff was excellent. We hit our targets. Defensively, we needed to stop Cam Newton. He was our focus all week. We have a lot of respect for what he does and what he does in that scheme. We were able to get that done."
Like Rodgers, Newton exited the game early once the outcome was clearly decided. Newton completed 17 of 31 passes for 205 yards with one touchdown and one interception (72.6 passer rating). He also ran seven times for 41 yards, but none of Newton's carries were longer than 10 yards.
"I think it speaks volumes for this team and how we're developing," Matthews said. "I really do think this defense is coming along, where maybe in years prior it was always offense and not the defense. But it's a pretty dangerous combination when the defense can keep doing what we're doing and the offense continually puts up points."
The Packers have been especially dominant at home this season. After trailing early in Week 2 to the New York Jets, 21-3, Green Bay went on a stretch over the next 10 quarters wherein the Packers outscored their opponents 108-16. That included the final three quarters against the Jets (Green Bay went on a 28-3 run to win), a 42-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings and the first three quarters of Sunday's victory.
"You've got to grow with every opportunity and we did that today," McCarthy said. "Not only in the win column but what we were trying to accomplish."
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