In addition, production on deep passes all but vanished, first due to some narrow misses and later thanks to wild throws and a virtual elimination of deep balls from the playbook. While Hundley made some good things happen with his legs, he also seemed to get little help from a Packers coaching staff that seemingly struggled to adequately adjust the offense to his skill set. In a mind-boggling oddity, Hundley failed to throw a single touchdown pass in five starts at Lambeau Field, posting a passer rating of 50.6 at home compared to a much more tolerable 91.7 on the road. Once Rodgers went down, Hundley came on with plenty of time to prepare for this opportunity and some rather high expectations from coaches and Packers fans alike. Backup: Brett Hundleyġ92-316 (60.8%), 1,836 yards, 9 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 70.6 passer rating Once the Packers were officially eliminated from the playoffs, there was no reason to keep Rodgers on the field. Rodgers’ return against the Carolina Panthers was an especially ugly game, as Rodgers threw three interceptions (half of his season total). Of course, Anthony Barr of the Vikings broke Rodgers’ right collarbone early in week six, sending him to injured reserve and forcing Brett Hundley onto the field. He was just getting hot, too, with passer ratings over 100 in three straight games from weeks 3-5, including games against the Bears and Cowboys where he put up numbers over 120. He averaged 273 yards per game in the team’s first five as the Packers jumped out to a 4-1 start, and his passer rating - 104.1 - was just a tenth of a point lower than his rating in 2016. Starter: Aaron Rodgersġ54-238 (64.7%), 1,675 yards, 16 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, 97.2 passer ratingīefore his untimely injury, Rodgers was having a decent start to his season. In short, Rodgers’s injury put the team on life support and Hundley’s performance, along with poor defensive play, finally killed it. The Packers were set up to go only as far as Rodgers could take them, and when Rodgers was lost for basically the rest of the season (except his one game return against the Carolina Panthers), the rest of the roster quickly crumbled and Green Bay missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008. He couldn’t throw deep and he couldn’t develop chemistry with any of the wide receivers save Davante Adams on a few select occasions. He could not run the offense like Rodgers could. Green Bay had been preparing Hundley for two plus seasons for just this kind of moment and when the spotlight finally shone on the former UCLA standout, his performance left much to be desired. When Rodgers broke his collarbone against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 6, so too did the hopes and dreams of the Packers and their fans break into pieces. Perhaps nowhere else in the league did a team see as drastic a drop off in quarterback play as the Packers did when Aaron Rodgers went down and Brett Hundley stepped in. If someone were to sum up the quarterback play for the Green Bay Packers in 2017, they would probably use that phrase or some slight variation of it. Over the next two weeks, Acme Packing Company takes a look at each position group on the Green Bay Packers and provides grades and insight on how they performed in the 2017 season.
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