GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Mike McCarthy isn’t pulling a Sean McDermott when it comes to his quarterback.
The Green Bay Packers coach said after Sunday’s shutout loss to the Baltimore Ravens that he plans to stick with Brett Hundley, and he reiterated it a day later with another vote of confidence for his struggling fill-in for Aaron Rodgers.
“I’ll just say it again: I believe in Brett Hundley. I believe in Brett Hundley as a quarterback, and I believe he will improve,” McCarthy said Monday. “And that’s where we are.”
Last week, McDermott, the first-year Buffalo Bills coach, benched starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor in favor of Nathan Peterman just days after he said he was committed to Taylor. The move blew up in McDermott's face when Peterman bombed in a blowout loss to the San Diego Chargers on Sunday.
Instead, McCarthy made the above emphatic statement to end a session with reporters that was dominated by questions about Hundley, who is 1-4 in games he’s finished since Rodgers broke his collarbone in Week 6. In those five games, Hundley ranks 34th among quarterbacks in passer rating (63.1), tied for 28th in yards per attempt (5.99) and tied for 36th in touchdown passes (two).
Just when it appeared Hundley had found a comfort zone with some clutch throws in the fourth quarter of the Packers’ Week 10 win at Chicago, things unraveled in a turnover-filled performance against the Ravens. McCarthy said after the game that he never considered going to backup Joe Callahan, the only other quarterback on the active roster.
It sent McCarthy and his offensive coaching staff back to work on Monday with a difficult task looming Sunday night at Pittsburgh. A loss would put the Packers (5-5) under .500 for the first time this season. McCarthy’s day-after-the-game assessment indicated that the biggest issue with the offense is its timing.
“Anytime your passing game isn’t quite what you want it to be, the first thing, and it’s the baseline, is you just have to look at the timeclock,” McCarthy said. “Every play design has a timeclock as far as the protection, creating the proper platform to give the quarterback and the receivers the timeclock to win. So whether it’s the releases or breaking points of the perimeter group, or is it the footwork and the release of the football, we need to be better there, and that will definitely be a focus for Brett this week.”
Hundley crumbled under pressure against the Ravens, who sacked him six times. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Hundley was pressured (sacked or under duress) 18 times, the most for a Packers quarterback since 2015. Hundley threw two of his three interceptions and lost a fumble when pressured.
“I thought he actually did a good job getting to the perimeter and creating time in the scramble phase, but I don’t think our scramble spacing was quite what it could be,” McCarthy said. “That’s something that we’ll focus on as an emphasis this week from the offense’s perimeter. It will come out of the self-scout segment of our game plan.”