Ben McAdoo’s former boss, Packers’ Mike McCarthy, impressed by Giants

Ben McAdoo may have broken Mike McCarthy’s heart when he left the Green Bay Packers for the New York Giants two years ago, but his former boss thinks he is doing a great job in the Big Apple.

With Green Bay since 2006 before leaving after the 2013 season to become the Giants offensive coordinator (and of course, now their first-year head coach), McAdoo has a long and storied history in Green Bay. Now with Sunday’s game at the Packers marking the second meeting between these two teams (both matchups will have been in Green Bay), there will be plenty of emotions for the Giants head coach.

Beyond, of course, the fact that he’s in his first playoff game as a head coach. But McCarthy has watched from Green Bay as McAdoo has taken a team without a playoff appearance since 2011 back into the postseason.

“Well, I think it is obvious that he has done a great job. Your first year is — I don’t care how well you prepare or how well you think you are, there are always things that come up that there is really nothing to point to. Situations arise and it’s not like there is a handbook sitting on your desk where you just look it up in Chapter Six, so I think he has done a great job navigating the challenges of the first year as a head coach,” McCarthy said on Wednesday in a conference call with the New York media. “Personally, yeah, I am very proud of him and what he has done and you want to see your friends be successful and so forth. But you have to realize what this is all about, it is about the Packers and the Giants in the playoffs. But yeah, I think he has done a great job, especially for it being his first year, and it is no surprise to any of us or anybody who has known Ben over the years. He has prepared himself for everything.”

As for his team, McCarthy has to be pleased.

Green Bay has won six straight games to take the NFC North. After a 4-6 start (including a Week 5 win over the Giants), Green Bay is the postseason for a remarkable eighth straight season.

“I think that winning is never just one thing and no different when you are not winning, so it is a combination of things you mentioned in your question. We obviously were not very healthy during that stretch, we are a little healthier now, and like a lot of things, too, you know that injuries are part of the game,” McCarthy said. “You would like them to be spread out a little more through the positions. We just got into a situation where our corners, all of our cornerbacks were hurt and then all of our running backs were hurt, so we just had some positions that were really under siege and I thought that our players and coaches did a great job of pushing through that time period. We got that first win in Philadelphia and we just kept going and building off of that.”