‘He’s Aaron Rodgers’: QB’s Skill, Leadership a Necessity
GREEN BAY, Wis. – After a red-hot second quarter of the season in which he led the Green Bay Packers to the second-highest scoring average in the NFL, Aaron Rodgers and the offense have fallen into a funk.
Of the 12 playoff quarterbacks, Rodgers ranks 11th in passer rating (84.2), 11th in completion percentage (58.7) and 12th in yards per attempt (5.87) during the second half of the season.
With that, Green Bay’s offense has been consistently inconsistent. During a five-game winning streak that included just one game against a playoff team, it averaged 23.6 points per game and scored a touchdown in nine of 20 quarters. With fleeting success either preceded or followed by lengthy doldrums, the bulk of the Packers’ scoring has come in spurts.
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Rodgers, a two-time MVP, is assured a place at the table of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time. But at a time of year when great quarterbacking is demanded, why should anyone believe he can be the type of great quarterback necessary to get the Packers to Miami for this year’s Super Bowl?
“He’s Aaron Rodgers, first and foremost,” offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said on Friday. “I’ve seen him do some things I didn’t think anybody can do. I thought I could in my imagination at times. But that’s the thing: Not only does he have an amazing skill, but as a person as a leader, how he brings the team together and gets those guys to be able to play at a higher level, just how he goes out there and how he composes himself, I think everybody knows they have to get up to where kind of his standard is, and I think that raises the level of everybody.”
With the Packers trailing at halftime the last two weeks, Rodgers raised his level of play to help the Packers win the NFC North at Minnesota and clinch a first-round bye at Detroit. During the second half against the vaunted Vikings defense, Rodgers completed 80.0 percent of his passes (compared to 60.0 percent in the first half) and led two touchdown drives in five possessions. Rodgers called that the best game of the season. During the second half against the Lions, Rodgers completed 56.8 percent of his passes (compared to 33.3 percent in the first half) for 233 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. In the final eight possessions, the Packers scored five times and missed a field goal for a potential sixth score as they overcame a 14-point deficit.
“There’s been a number of concepts where we’ve looked good,” Rodgers said on Thursday. “The ball’s been coming out on time, I’ve been feeling good about the rhythm and guys are getting open on time. But there’s too many concepts that we’ve really tried to hit and keep hitting and make it work and we just aren’t on the same page timing-wise. And that’s why this has been a good week to just self-scout.”
With the bye week to focus the offense and with Rodgers’ wealth of experience able to focus the offense, Green Bay enters the playoffs with plenty of confidence. The team will lean as much on his right arm as his steady hand.
“In this situation, I think the stakes are so much higher,” Hackett said. “It’s so much more exciting and there are going to be guys that are going to be so fired up, but you’re always going to have Aaron, a guy that’s been there, that’s done that, he’s always going to be able to bring people back and lead them each game, and I think that’s the key. You need a guy like that, that can understand it is just another game, even though it is an important game, just having that guy as a leader is so important. I think not only will it be his arm, it’ll be his voice, his demeanor, everything.”
