Rodgers Shoots Holes in Vaunted Rams Defense

No team had more passing yards against the Rams than the Packers piled up on Saturday.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jan 17, 2021 4:26 PM EST

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Los Angeles Rams came to Lambeau Field with one of the best pass defenses in the NFL. They left like so many others, slain by the presumptive MVP.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers completed 23-of-36 passes for 296 yards and two touchdowns in a 32-18 victory that sent them to next weekend’s NFC Championship Game.

The key numbers in terms of what Rodgers accomplished against the elite Rams defense:

296 yards: The second-most allowed this season, with Buffalo’s Josh Allen throwing for 311 yards in Week 3.

296 net passing yards: With zero sacks by the NFL's second-ranked pass rush to deduct from the total, Green Bay had the best passing performance of any team against the Rams.

108.1 passer rating: Rodgers was just the third quarterback to hit 100 against the Rams and the first since San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 6.

32: Points scored by the Packers. That was only the second 30-point performance against the NFL’s top-ranked scoring defense. Buffalo scored 35 in its three-point victory in Week 3. The Packers took a knee on first-and-goal from the 9.

Whatever the Rams did, Rodgers had an answer. Of his 23 completions, 18 were within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. He was 6-of-9 against the blitz and led an offense that was 8-of-11 on third down until taking a knee at the end of the game. He did it without an abundance of big plays by Davante Adams, who had one catch for 21 yards and eight others for only 45.

“I think you saw they’re a really good offense,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “I think the thing that’s such a winning edge for them is Aaron has such great command. The game sometimes feels like it’s in slow motion with him. They’re physical up front. They’ve got [Jamaal] Williams, and [Aaron] Jones did an excellent job of churning out tough yards. But then you get some isolations outside or you get a favorable box count or something that you like where you’re just whipping it out and it’s like he’s throwing darts. He gets the ball out on the perimeter, whether it’s Davante or some of their other skilled playmakers, they’re getting good yards and those end up being extensions of the run game.”

Rodgers will carry a couple of impressive streaks into next Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against Tampa Bay or New Orleans. He has thrown a touchdown pass in 15 consecutive playoff games, a streak that started in the Super Bowl a decade ago. That’s the fourth-longest streak in league history; former Packers star Brett Favre holds the record with 20 consecutive playoff games.

Moreover, Rodgers has thrown multiple touchdown passes in eight consecutive playoff games, matching Joe Flacco’s NFL record. That streak continued with Rodgers’ game-clinching, 55-yard touchdown pass to Allen Lazard midway through the fourth quarter. It was the same play that Lazard dropped a potential touchdown on in the third quarter.

“We talked about coming back to it,” Rodgers said. “We’d been running inside zone effectively most of the night, and just hard action off of that. Really tried to sell it (the fake), came up off the fake and saw Allen digging, so I knew that kind of both guys had jumped it. I did throw it a little more inside than I wanted to, and he made a really nice catch, kept his feet and put that thing away. That was pretty special.”

In four consecutive January home playoff wins, he’s thrown 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions. His 108.3 rating vs. the Rams was the lowest of those games.

In the last five seasons of December and January home games, he’s thrown an absurd 30 touchdowns vs. one interception, good for a 110.1 rating.