Third
in the NFC North, probably needing to win out and with a bunch of teams
to jump over even if they do that, the playoffs look a long way off
right now for the Green Bay Packers.
But when you’ve got No 12 on your team, there’s always a chance.
Aaron Rodgers,
the NFL’s best quarterback—including Tom Brady—broke his collarbone
against the Vikings on October 15. The Packers put the two-time M.V.P.
on injured reserve, ensuring he can’t return before Week 15 against the
Panthers.
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In
Rodgers’s absence, Mike McCarthy’s team has lost four of its past six
games with Brett Hundley under center. An overtime win over the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers at Lambeau Field on Sunday probably kept Green Bay’s dim
playoff hopes alive.
Rodgers
practised again for the first time on Wednesday, and received glowing
reviews from Hundley and his Pro Bowl wide receiver Jordy Nelson.
"He throws the ball unlike any I've ever seen," Hundley told ESPN. "Still slinging it."
Nelson was even more succinct. "He looks like himself," Nelson said.
Nelson
and the Packers’ other top wideouts have struggled with Hundley
throwing to them. The 24-year-old U.C.L.A. product threw 22 times
against the Buccaneers for 13 completions and zero touchdowns. The
Packers relied on a bruising ground game instead, with Jamaal Williams
rushing 21 times for 113 yards.
Davante
Adams was alone among the Packers’ receiving corps in prospering
against Tampa Bay, catching four passes for 42 yards. But despite his
relative success with Hundley, Adams has given the pithiest explanation
in a long time for Rodgers’s brilliance.
Writing in The Players’ Tribune
on Wednesday, Adams tells a story from his rookie season in 2014. It
starts off in a pretty standard way—“The adjustment from college to the
NFL was no joke," Adams writes. "Everything’s just a lot more
in the NFL—more physical, more fast, more strong.”—but then goes on to
describe the brutal mental process that constitutes learning your trade
as a receiver under Rodgers.
“It
was Oct. 2, 2014, my fifth game as a Packer," he writes. "We were
playing the Vikings at Lambeau. Aaron called a play, and I knew—man, I
just knew—that I wasn’t getting the ball.”
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The
play broke down, and Rodgers cycled through his progressions and looked
for Adams. Being a rookie, Adams hadn’t run his route properly.
“After
the play, Aaron looked over at our offensive coordinator and pointed at
me,” Adams recalls. “He made a yanking motion with his arm—like, Take this dude off the field. I spent the next eight plays on the sidelines.”
It’s this kind of ruthlessness that makes Rodgers a future Hall of Famer. The Packers can’t get him back soon enough.
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