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| Aaron Rodgers directing traffic in the win over Atlanta |
There are different types of hot. There is jalapeño hot. There is Pamela Anderson hot. There is sitting in a sauna hot. And then there is Aaron Rodgers hot.
Rodgers put together a playoff game for the ages against the best team in the NFC in Atlanta. How hot was Rodgers? Try these numbers on for size: 31 for 36, 366 yards, 3 TD’s, 0 ints, 13 rushing yards with 1 more TD and an off the charts QB rating of 139.3. And this came against a defense that considered itself ready.
Rodgers was hotter than the other side of the sun and the Packers improbable road tour will continue next week.
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| WR Greg Jennings and FB John Kuhn celebrate |
The Falcons are good, young team that makes its’ opponents pay dearly for mistakes. They not only make them pay they make them happen. After being stuffed on their opening drive the Falcons gave the ball to Green Bay. A Rodgers tracer dart of a throw hit a wide open Greg Jennings over the middle and LB Steven Nicholas who was beaten on the play caught Jennings from behind and punched the ball loose and the alert Falcon D scooped up. Matty “Ice” Ryan took the field and calmly directed a short field drive putting the Birds up 7 -0.
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| Jordy Nelson tying the game at 7 |
As he has done for a while now Rodgers started all over again and drove the Packers to a tying score by hitting Jordy Nelson who tucked the ball around the pylon for the score.
Never ones to rest on a good drive the Special Teams nightmare reared its’ ugly head as Eric Weems took the kick and blazed 102 yards to give the lead immediately back to the Falcons. The Packers are simply not able to tackle on Special Teams and it is a source of continued woe for Head Coach Mike McCarthy and Special Teams Coach Shawn Slocum.
In a different time in a different game there would have been a lot of heads hanging and a sense of all is lost. But the Packers are by now a battle tested group that has learned to cope with adversity and plug on. Green Bay has been in full blown playoff mode since playing the Giants in week 15 of their season. Now was not the time to fold.
So Rodgers did what he does best. He reassembles the offense and marched Green bay right back down the field to knot the game at 14 when fan favorite John Kuhn plowed over from the 1.
While the game was even on paper there was a feeling that things were, in fact, going the Packers way. The offense moved the ball. The Defense was shutting down Atlanta. In spite of the mistakes the Packers were poised to assume control of the game.
Under the brightest of spotlights that can make the flowers wilt under the intensity Rodgers was both cooler than the center of a snowball while his play became as hot as an inferno.
Pass after pass found its’ mark. There were no huge plays. Over the middle. Out in the flat. A quick dump off. A change of pace run by rookie sensation James Starks. The Pack moved the ball liberally against the Falcons D and kept Ryan and all his Pro Bowl weapons on the bench where they could only watch helplessly. WR Jordy Nelson had a coming out party as he grabbed 8 balls for 79 yards and 1 TD.
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| Jordy Nelson and Aaron Rodgers connect |
Last week against the Eagles James Jones had a shoe top grab for 6 but also an awful drop, but in this game he was money. Rodgers threaded the needle to hit Jones on the right sideline who took the ball deep into Atlanta territory. Rodgers then found him in the end zone and Jones outwrestled his cover to haul in the pass to give the Packers the lead with 1:38 left in the half. Jones finished with 4 catches for 75 yards, a TD but most importantly no drops.
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| LB Desmond Bishop harrassing Falcon QB Matt Ryan |
But 1:38 is an eternity to Matt Ryan, the cool under fire Pro Bowl QB who does not make mistakes. Playoffs are a different matter. Playoffs are tougher and tighter and youth is generally not rewarded quickly. Ryan had an interception, his first since it’s been so long no one could recall when exactly when he foolishly targeted Tramon Williams who scaled a ladder to swipe the ball away.
On the drive just before the half ended the Packers broke the backs of the young Falcons when Williams, snubbed by the fans and coaches in the Pro Bowl voting jumped an out route and ran the pick back for a TD with no time left on the clock.
Thanks to the stellar play of the D and Rodgers’ hot hand the Packers turned their nightmare of a start to a “Pinch Me – I must be dreaming!” halftime lead of 14 points.
Gently, like falling safe, the Packers expanded their lead. The opening drive of the second half was capped off when Rodgers dropped back, found no one open and took the ball in on a scramble from 7 yards out.
John Kuhn added to his rapidly growing resume with another TD that saw him snag a Rodgers toss in the flat and manipulate himself over, around, and through his cover to cross the plane of the goal line with an outstretched ball to send the Packers over the top.
Give Rodgers and coach Mike McCarthy credit. They do not shun those that don’t make a play or make a mistake. Jones rewarded that faith with a great game and Jennings went back to his Pro Bowl status. Other teams and other coaches in other games would toss them under the bus but the pack held together. Rodgers literally willed his team together.
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| Michael Turner was held in check by the Packer D |
The Packers followed their own script to a ‘T’ as they took Atlanta out of its’ game plan and forced them into 2nd and 3rd and long situations time and again. Michael Turner’s burner was set to a very cool setting as he could not break free to tear up the Pack as he did in their last meeting. The Falcon offense features a clock killing ball control efficiency machine that does not make mistakes under normal circumstances. These were not normal circumstances.
The Falcons have never had to play from behind and under as much pressure as they had to against GB. The pass rush was relentless and the D forced 5 sacks, 2 interceptions, and 2 fumbles, both of which the Packers recovered. The Green Bay offense outgained the Falcons 96 - 45 in the running game, considered an Atlanta strength and decided advantage.
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| Yep. It was a touchdown |
The Falcon offense so accustomed to holding the ball and forcing its’ opponents into gambling and mistakes was kept on the bench as Green Bay and Rodgers held the ball for a staggering 38 minutes. Rodgers was in that rare zone that the elite athletes occupy. His California cool he maintains under center belies the competitor’s fire that burns inside him. Watching Rodgers at his best is watching a bubble that sits on top of the boiling and rolling Niagara River as it charges towards the Falls. Somehow
Whatever goes on around it does not affect whatever is inside that bubble.
When Aaron Rodgers can play inside that bubble, he is not only hard to beat he becomes almost impossible. The bubble manages to sit on top of the water, connected to it but somehow impervious to the disaster that is all around it.
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| Mike McCarthy continues to shine in the playoffs |
Mike McCarthy called a brilliant game, and having James Starks as a viable running threat now expands McCarthy’s playbook. As Starks improves and the workload of John Kuhn has increased the Packer Offense is finally starting to resemble the team that many thought they could be in the preseason. McCarthy also challenged a Mike Jenkins catch on the sideline faster than Rodgers can fire the out route and saw the play overturned.
This is a new Mike McCarthy of late as well. Bold. Decisive. Clear in what he wants to accomplish. He has shown incredible patience with his beat up, patched together team and is reaping the rewards. No one can ever be certain what goes on inside 1265 Lombardi Drive but it is evident that players all put out on Sundays for MM. MM has even stepped up his level of coaching and this Packer team is not only coming together but they are getting red hot at just the right time. They are the team no one wants to see roll into town. They can beat you with offense, defense, special te…. Check that… offense or defense.
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| Feeling hot, hot, hot. Packer QB Aaron Rodgers |
They are as hot as hot gets right now. They are as hot as the other side of the sun now.
In New York and Philadelphia, and Atlanta there are franchise locations popping up. The Packers come to town and ransack the place and build another neighborhood for Mr. Rodgers.
Right now they even have a franchise location on the other side of the sun.
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