The Green Bay Packers have fallen below .500 with their 30-17 loss to the Detroit Lions on Monday night at Lambeau Field. The Packers were in their second full game without Aaron Rodgers, and they have lost their third straight game. Rookie quarterback Brett Hundley has taken over as the starter since Rodgers broke his collarbone a few weeks ago in Minnesota, and the results have not been great.

While Hundley is taking some heat from media and fans, much of the concentrated criticism of the current state of the Packers is going towards head coach Mike Mccarthy.

Not only is he hearing it about his coaching in-games, he is also being heavily criticized for his continuing loyalty to the rookie Hundley and not looking for veteran options. This creates a conclusion by the media and fans that McCarthy's success as Packers head coach is merely a result of the all-time great play from Aaron Rodgers over the years.

Criticisms

After Aaron Rodgers went down, he said he was committed to the quarterbacks he had on the roster which included Hundley. He did not exercise the idea to bring in a veteran quarterback at any point. He even got irritated with a reporter who asked him about bringing in Colin Kaepernick. Hundley struggled in the second half of the game against the Vikings, and against the New Orleans Saints when he threw for just 87 yards with a pick and a 39.9 rating.

While Hundley did a bit better against Detroit, 245 yards and an 86.0 rating, he still did not do enough to make a lot happen on offense. The second touchdown drive he had was in the last seconds of the game and in meaningless garbage time. One of the biggest moments of the game was Hundley taking a sack and not throwing to a wide-open Jordy Nelson downfield.

McCarthy's playcalling last night was questionable with jet sweeps that did not go anywhere and poor clock management on the offense. Packers ran the ball just 12 times and did not utilize Hundley's mobility in offensive mix. Overall there seemed to be very little urgency from the offense when the team was down multiple scores.

Note that 14 of the 17 Packers points scored were in the fourth quarter in no-huddle offense with Detroit having a comfy lead. While they had a good opening drive, the Packers offense struggled to get past mid-field most of the game.

McCarthy stated after the game that, "I have great faith in Brett Hundley. Brett Hundley is not our issue right now." This is right now indicating he has no plans for a quarterback change.

McCarthy's history

Mike McCarthy is in his twelfth year as the Packers head coach. He won a Super Bowl in 2010 and has made the playoffs every year except 2006 and 2008. The most interesting thing to note, which was talked about on last night's broadcast was his quarterback record.

McCarthy is 115-58 combined with Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre. When either has been hurt and another QB has taken over, he is 3-7-1 after last night's game. In fact, the only other quarterback he has gotten a win with so far outside Rodgers and Favre is Matt Flynn (3-3).

Can all the blame be put on him? Not all of it, but he deserves criticism. It has been clear in the past that Rodgers and McCarthy have not been on the same page and Rodgers just takes matters into his own hands. There still does not seem to be any urgency to get a veteran quarterback in Green Bay to start, but things may change. He is going to have to do some better offensive playcalling in the future regardless because Hundley or any other quarterback they might get will not possess the same abilities to move the offense as Aaron Rodgers does.
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