Packers offense may be NFL’s worst
GREEN BAY – When the Green Bay Packers were 4-1 and Aaron Rodgers’ right collarbone was not held together by plates and screws, a final record of 8-8 would have been unthinkable.
Now, it’s starting to look like a goal. And a lofty one, at that.
In the absence of Rodgers, the Packers own quite possibly the least dynamic, least explosive, most painful-to-watch offense in the NFL. The warts were on display Monday night in a 30-17 loss to the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field.
Receivers who can’t get open. A running game that is inconsis- tent and, thus, unreliable. A backup quarterback who has done little to inspire confidence that brighter days are ahead. A timid game plan built around horizontal passing and dump-offs and lacking ingenuity.
The Packers had 15 days to prepare for Detroit, which had won once in Wisconsin in the last quarter-century and was on a threegame losing streak, and this is the best they can do?
Green Bay converted on only 22% of its third downs (to Detroit’s 62%). Brett Hundley, with three years in coach Mike McCarthy’s system, completed just one pass longer than 9 yards in the first half – an 18-yard screen to Ty Montgomery – and averaged a paltry 4.4 yards per attempt.
Hundley finished with respectable numbers but had only 170 passing yards until a touchdown drive in the closing 2 minutes, with the Lions playing soft zone coverages. Before
that, it was almost exclusively dink and dunk.
“He’s doing what he’s coached to do,” receiver Davante Adams said of Hundley. “If we’re going with the quick timing, it depends. Part of it is him seeing the defense and figuring out where he wants to go with the ball and part of it is him doing what he’s told to do.”
The other part of the equation is that the Packers’ receivers aren’t speedy enough to separate from defenders. Rodgers had the ability to throw them open but Hundley so far hasn’t demonstrated that kind of arm, that kind of timing or that kind of nerve.
Jordy Nelson is good for a backshoulder catch or two every week and remains effective in the red zone, but no longer offers much with the ball in his hands. Randall Cobb’s 46-yard catch-and-run set up a fourth-quarter touchdown but otherwise he caught four passes for 12 yards. Adams is the nominal No. 1 but he’d be a No. 2 or 3 on most other teams.
Remember how excited everyone was when GM Ted Thompson signed Martellus Bennett and Lance Kendricks? The Packers finally were going to get tight ends running down the seam and stretching the field.
Except it hasn’t happened. Even before Bennett hurt his shoulder in practice last week, he was a huge disappointment. Kendricks has been all but invisible and didn’t catch a pass Monday night until garbage time.
All you need to know about the running game is that Montgomery led the team with 33 yards and rookie Aaron Jones, who’d topped the 100yard mark in both of his previous starts, was held to 12 yards on five carries.
This is what happens when you go nine years without taking a skill-position player among the first 50 picks in the draft and then your all-world quarterback goes down.
Hundley, a likable guy and a pro’s pro, is not easy to dissuade, one of his many admirable qualities. The question is whether he’s talented enough to make a difference.
“Everybody wants to score five touchdowns, have a perfect quarterback rating and win,” he said. “This game was a step in the right direction. I think I did some good things. Obviously, it wasn’t enough of them …”
Anyone who expects the Packers to suddenly and magically improve in the coming weeks is not dealing in reality. What you see is what you get, and what you’re likely going to keep getting.
“I know what we need to do to play better,” McCarthy said.
Just a guess, but it probably has something to do with blocking, running, throwing and catching. Whatever it is, it would behoove the coach to pass along his knowledge to the players because the Bears await in Chicago, on the tail end of a short week.
Green Bay has feasted on division rivals for many years. None of them is going to feel sorry for Mr. Hundley and Co.