Brett Hundley did not play very well in his first start, but it’s also difficult to tell how he might play with a competent game plan. The coaching staff, led by Mike McCarthy’s play calling, repeatedly put Hundley into difficult situations. Their attempts to protect Hundley through a conservative scheme of short, unproductive throws blew up in their faces. As a result of McCarthy’s game plan, the offense was inept by design and the defense was forced to stay on the field for almost two thirds of the game. If the coaching staff of the Green Bay Packers thinks so little of Hundley that they felt the need to limit him this much, they should cut him tomorrow.
‘Protecting the Quarterback’
It’s common, when a backup enters the game, for a coach to “simplify” the offense to “limit risk” and “protect the quarterback.” I happen to think this is an awful strategy that accomplished the exact opposite of its intention. When you take away reads, you make it easier on the defense. When you are so conservative on first and second down that you repeatedly put your backup in third-and-long situations, you make it easier on the defense. When you call rollout after rollout, essentially taking away half the field, you make it easy on the defense. The chief accomplishment of Mike McCarthy’s offensive game plan was to make things as easy on the Saints’ defense as possible.
This is a mistake if the quarterback in question is a rookie with no experience in the system. It’s inexcusable with a player who has been in the system for three years with a full week of first team reps. In the first half Hundley was at least allowed a few challenging throws, and his scrambles saved the day and put points on the board, but whatever latitude he had in the first half disappeared in the second. Despite trailing late, Hundley attempted only 10 second half passes, completing five for only 31 yards. His receivers were frequently cutting off their routes well short of the sticks but the New Orleans’ defense quickly picked up on this and smothered everyone. McCarthy was clearly hoping to sit on the modest first half lead his offense managed to generate, and given the high-powered offense they were facing, it was a truly foolish decision.
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Any team that gets an electrifying performance out of Aaron Jones and two first half interceptions should have no issues jumping to a multi-score lead. When that lead failed to materialize, the Packers were in trouble, and McCarthy should have reacted in the complete opposite fashion.
Hundley Himself
Much of McCarthy’s post-game press conference was baffling. He stated that Hundley was uncomfortable in the pocket, but upon watching the game again, this is completely backwards. Hundley showed poise and awareness in the pocket, and did a much better job of reading the rush and stepping up this week. Against the Vikings, Hundley was very successful attacking the Minnesota corners outside the numbers. This week, he was presented with few opportunities to actually make use of these routes as McCarthy kept everything tight, or used designed rollouts. Hundley struggled on deep throws and failed to hit Aaron Jones in stride on checkdowns more than once, but on almost every pass play, the Packers telegraphed their intent so blatantly that it’s almost not fair to judge Hundley at all. The Packers did run a few deep plays for Hundley, but on almost all of them they kept seven or eight blockers in to give him time, meaning that the only routes being run were deep routes.
It’s easy for any defense to take away an offense that presents no deception. Hundley had a bad game and in some ways a very bad game, but the Packer coaching staff took out any play he ran well from the week before in favor of theoretically safer, but in truth far more difficult plays.
On the Packer’s second last drive, with 9:10 remaining in the game and trailing by two, the Packers faced a 3rd and 9 from their own 11 yard line. Punting this deep would be a disaster as it would hand New Orleans great field position and the opportunity to take a two score lead with almost no time left. The Packers sent four receivers into the pattern, and not a single one ran more than five yards downfield.
There was literally no way that anyone would pick up a first down, and indeed, Martellus Bennett was stopped after a five yard gain. It’s possible that this play was supposed to go to Davante Adams at the bottom of the screen as it looks like Nelson is preparing to block, but the fact that Hundley didn’t look that way makes it even more of a mess.
Ultimately it doesn’t really matter if Brett Hundley is the problem or Mike McCarthy is the problem, because the combination has been a disaster so far, and the combination isn’t going anywhere. If they want to make any kind of a run after the bye, McCarthy needs to drastically change his philosophy with Hundley. The Packer defense is not good enough to support anything worse than an average offense, and average offenses take chances, and don’t hide their quarterbacks.
The Defense is Gassed
Sometimes a defense will wear itself out by not getting off the field, and there was some of that on Sunday as Tedd Ginn, Alvin Kama and Michael Thomas had their way with the Packer secondary, but the true cause of the Packers’ defensive woes was the offense, which simply couldn’t mount any kind of sustained offense, resulting in the defense having to spend almost 37 minutes on the field. The second half was especially egregious as the Packer offense held the ball for only nine minutes and thirteen seconds. It’s actually fairly impressive that the defense was able to hold New Orleans to just 26 points and intercept Brees twice, but they did fade down the stretch as Brees took better care of the ball, and routinely exploited the biggest Packer weaknesses in the secondary.
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Green Bay has struggled with running backs out of the backfield all season, and on Sunday the primary culprits were rookie Josh Jones, and free safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Jones picked up three penalties and allowed Saints’ running back Alvin Kamara to run right by him for multiple third down conversions. Clinton-Dix continues to be far too tentative in making plays. He’s a big factor in the team’s weakness against pass-catching running backs, and on Sunday, that unwillingness to break on the ball cost them big time.
The pass rush forced a bad throw on this play, and any decent safety would have at the very least met Thomas just as he caught the ball. Many safeties would have picked this pass off as it hung in the air forever. Instead, Clinton-Dix let the ball, and the play come to him. This has happened far too frequently lately, and with Morgan Burnett out, the safety position has gone from a strength to the weakest part of the defense
Overall there was not much to be encouraged about against the Saints outside of Aaron Jones. The rookie should at the very least provide the base for an offensive game plan. Outside of Jones the team failed across the board, from coach to quarterback to defense. If they view Brett Hundley as a Tim Tebow type who can’t run a real offense, they need to make a move at the position sooner rather than later.
