RODGERS ROLLING NOW

Pack Buries Panthers in 1^st Period Avalanche of Points

This just in… in breaking news the Green Bay Packers are one of the NFL’s hottest and best teams right now. After spanking the Carolina Panthers all over the field from the first play of the game the Packers dominated on both sides of the ball and cruised to an almost too easy 38 -17 win on Sunday.

Aaron Rodgers is making a very strong and compelling case for the NFL’s MVP Award again. And he is doing by not padding the stats with “el cheapo” TD’s or throws that come in mop up time. Rodgers has been held out of a 4^th quarter yet again as the Pack dumped a load of snow on Cam Newton and the Panthers.

Whatever fear Newton brought with him was doused after the Packers defense – the same defense that was at one point in the season last against the run and dead last in points allowed – rose up and smothered, suffocated and stifled whatever Newton tried to throw at them. The athleticism sought by Mike McCarthy and Dom Capers was on display as the front 4 played intelligently and ferociously. DE’s Mike Daniels and Josh Boyd continually collapsed the pocket from the outside and used storming bull rushes to shove their man into Carolina’s backfield. By attacking Newton from an ‘outside in’ approach the ends went deep enough that the interior of the line could not only harass Newton they took Newton’s ability to hurt them with his legs completely away. With outside avenues gone Newton was kept in the pocket where he is less imposing.

When a defense can hold any opponent in the NFL to 3 consecutive 3-and-outs as the Packers did in the first quarter, then turn the ball over to the hotter than the other side of the sun Aaron Rodgers it will make for a very long day for the opponent. That is what the Packers defense did. On Carolina’s first three drives they were limited to but 9 plays. Rodgers did his thank-you-very-much part by staking the D to a 21-0 lead before Newton could even think of a first down. Mike McCarthy last week said he needed to expand his vocabulary to describe Rodgers’ play this season. Simply stated there are no adjectives, no descriptive nor statements about Rodgers that could be considered overstatement.

Even considering what Mr. Wonderful is doing out in Denver Rodgers’ best moniker would MVP. Peyton Manning is riding off into the sunset and is taking Brett Favre’s total TD record with him after Manning threw #509 of his career to pass Favre. Yes, Manning is a very likable guy. Yes, Manning has played tremendously well in this, his 87^th NFL season. Yes, he is the sentimental favorite and darling of the media.

But…

Consider this: The Packers are nowhere near where they are with #12. Rodgers is now setting his sights on Bart Starr’s consecutive passes without an interception streak. Rodgers has now thrown 18 TD’s against 1 interception. Jay Cutler has 1 interception before he even leaves the locker room. Rodgers just moved into 2^nd place in Packer history with 194 straight throws without being picked. Starr holds the record at a staggering 294 passes with an INT. And Rodgers tied another Packer record with his 6^th straight game without an interception.

Consider this: Green Bay scored 5 TD’s on Sunday. 2 were on the ground by Eddie Lacy and James Starks and Rodgers 3 TD’s went to his top 3 receivers in Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams. McCarthy may be seeing his vision of a balanced offensive attack come together right now. When Rodgers is on is anyone in the NFL better? And when Lacy and Starks are running a 5+yards/carry as they did against Carolina how much more deadly are Rodgers play-action fakes? There are few in the NFL that can use the play fake as well as Rodgers.

Consider this: who else this year would you want to lead a 2 minute drive with no timeouts and needing a TD or it’s a loss? Rodgers mastery of clock management was made apparent to the rest of the world last week against the Dolphins when he tossed a TD with 3 seconds left.

Nelson and Cobb are in the top of the NFL in TD grabs this year. Rodgers is on a roll. Davante Adams is becoming more of an option each week as he gains Rodgers’ confidence. The defense is becoming more defined each week. With the limited number of padded practices a team can have watching this defense come together is showing Capers’ creativity in how he is sending out the dogs. Nick Perry had a sack from the DE position and also lined up as an OLB as did Julius Peppers. Lambeau Field offered a new dish on Sunday. It was a Fig Newton sandwich with Peppers and Clay. When Cam was crunched by the Packers outside backers Matthews promptly smacked Peppers on the helmet then said something else that promptly drew a flag. The score could have been worse: a Matthews INT that he skipped in for a TD was called back on a very soft pass interference call against Tramon Williams.

Casey Hayward is backing doing what he does best when he snagged a misguided Newton toss for his 2^nd pick of the year. The loss of Sam Shields was barely felt. By the time Newton had enough time to exploit the size mismatch between Tramon Williams and the 6’4” Kelvin Benjamin the Panthers’ staff had the bus packed and ready to go.

The run defense has taken its’ fair share of lumps and knocks in the media but of late the Packers are a defense that is steadily and clearly ascending. As the players become more familiar with each other the strength of the unit as a whole becomes measurable. Carolina still leads the pathetically soft NFC South and yet managed only 108 yards on the ground. While the Pack didn’t post yardage that was much better at 122 yards the biggest difference is in how each team used the run. The Panthers tried to run but couldn’t. Newton escaped but not enough to inflict damage. Green Bay on the other hand used Starks and Lacy to average more than 5 yards/ carry. Once again the X Factor is Aaron Rodgers. As long as Green Bay has a serviceable run game – and they do – it makes Rodgers that much better and the Packers that much better overall.

When the defense can come off the field and after 3 downs and put the ball in Rodgers more than capable hands the Packers are going to be a very tough team to beat. At this moment Green Bay is among the Top 5 in the NFL as far as the mythical Power Rankings go. Yes, Manning and the Broncos are the cream of the AFC’s crop with New England and the Dallas Cowboys have stunned almost everyone with their unexpectedly solid play but the Pack is trending upward and is now officially on a roll. The suddenly vulnerable underwhelming Seahawks and 49ers aren’t even playoff eligible let alone playoff caliber right now.

This is a very different Packers squad than the one that was manhandled by Seattle to open the campaign. Seattle has approached much of the season like a boozer with a massive hangover… loud, abrasive, and obnoxious but very uneven and unsteady on their feet. They still have the capability to knock anyone off but they’re going to have to do it with more than posturing. Super Bowl Championship teams tend to carry some of that momentum forward but Seattle has been blithely ignorant to the fact that they have been manhandled in the past few weeks and are now trailing the Arizona Cardinals by 2 games. San Francisco is threatening to implode before the season is even over. There is a very strong sense that the results would be much different of the Packers were to face the Seahawks at this juncture.

The schedule favors Green Bay right now. At 5 – 2 the go down to face a New Orleans team that is a mere shell of its former self. Drew Brees is getting pounded and the defense is truly atrocious. Many Packer fans were outspokenly vociferous in clamoring for Bills S Jarius Byrd in free agency but Byrd flew south to New Orleans and is now lost for the season with a knee injury. That left the future and the door open to grab Ha Ha Clinton- Dix in the draft and that sequence of events is looking solid gold now. The Saints can still put points up in bunches but can’t seem to outscore anyone anymore as they give up even more points in bunches. The Lions picked off Brees to steal a W back away when the Saints led going down the home stretch. There should be points aplenty when Rodgers continues his march playing as he is. Mike McCarthy has said “He’s (Rodgers) playing even better than he did in 2011 (Rodgers’ last MVP season)”. After the Saints Green Bay gets a bye at the halfway point and can get some rest and look ahead to the future.

And with one of the 2 leading candidates for MVP (the other being Manning) under center in Aaron Rodgers it is a future that is nothing but optimistically bright.