Self-Scouting: Packerrats Edition
Just as MM "self scouts" during the bye week, I thought I would take this opportunity to, well, self scout. I wonder if you might do the same. We spend a lot of time telling each other what's wrong with each other; what if we turned the lens inward?
Fritz has been deeply disappointed with Hundley's inability to come out of the gate (after Rodgers's injury) and play well. Fritz thought that with two years of watching and learning and not getting pummeled, Hundley ought to be able to step in and move the offense, albeit not like Rodgers moves the offense.
But why? After lots of pondering, here's one possible answer: Fritz is a child of the 70's. In the 70's, the game was played differently. That era featured, I believe, more running plays than any other decade, maybe ever. I did some research on that several years ago and found that was the case.
So in the 70's, a backup quarterback lived in a system where he could step in and hand the ball off while throwing the occasional pass. In addition, in the 70's, QB's who completed over 50% of their passes were considered decently accurate. Defensive backs used stickum on their hands (perfectly legal), grabbed and shoved receivers all over the field, and aimed to injure receivers who dared to go over the middle or extend themselves for a catch.
In fact, Fritz's fixation on the 70's game caused him to fear people like Mike Holmgren, who seemed to not understand the importance of running the ball. It took Fritz years of therapy (getting Patlerized and PB-ized helped) to get over that reluctance to embrace the forward pass.
So now Fritz expects a backup QB to be able to come in and run that offense, not realizing that the game is much more complicated than it was back in his childhood days. There are more defensive formations to read, more kinds of blitzes to consider, more pressure to pass the ball - you can't just run all the time in today's NFL.
In sum, Fritz's past continues to inflect his understanding of the game, or, more accurately, his misundertanding of the game. He needs to be more patient with Hundley and not expect him to get it all at once, just cuz he had a chance to learn behind Rodgers. That worked in 1973 (unless you were Scott Hunter or Bobby Douglas or the myriad of third-rate or washed-up QB's of the 70's in Packer land), but maybe not any more.
