Big Ten: Packers-Giants Noteworthy Numbers

There are 14 teams in the Big Ten, so our postgame numbers piece includes 14 storytelling statistics from Sunday’s victory over the New York Giants.

There are 14 teams in the Big Ten, so our postgame numbers piece includes 14 storytelling statistics from Sunday’s victory over the New York Giants.

0: Interceptions thrown by Aaron Rodgers on Sunday. In five road games encompassing 198 attempts, he’s thrown 10 touchdown passes vs. zero interceptions. Jacksonville’s Gardner Minshew (six touchdowns, 142 attempts) and New Orleans’ Teddy Bridgewater (five touchdowns, 131 attempts) are the only other quarterbacks with 100-plus road attempts and zero interceptions. Rodgers has only one road interception the past two seasons. 

0: Sacks allowed by the Packers. They are 7-1 when allowing two or fewer sacks. “The protection was great all day,” said Rodgers, who will turn 36 on Monday. “I told the guys that was a nice, fairly clean day with no sacks. I felt like my movement in the pocket was good. It felt very comfortable at times. We did a good job of mixing up some cadences but I thought the communication up front was really good, and when I had to get the ball out, I wasn’t holding onto it.”

1.64: Yards per attempt by Aaron Jones, who had 11 carries for 18 yards. In career games with at least five carries, that’s the second-worst day of his career ahead of only his 1.62-yard average vs. Philadelphia earlier in the season. He had 13 carries for 21 yards in that game.

3: Interceptions by the Packers against Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, who had 11 touchdowns vs. one interception the past four games. One of those was by Kevin King, his team-high fourth of the year after tallying one his first two seasons.

3: Yards of Tremon Smith’s punt return in the first quarter. That was Green Bay’s longest of the season but, fittingly considering it entered the day with minus-11 punt-return yards for the season, Smith fumbled. Fortunately for Green Bay, it bounced out of bounds.

4: Touchdown passes by Rodgers. It was his first road game with four touchdown passes and zero interceptions since beating Detroit 31-24 on Jan. 1, 2017.

5: Quarterback hits by Za’Darius Smith, according to the official stats. That gives him 28 for the season, tops in the league heading into Monday night. Last year, the Packers’ leaders, Clay Matthews and Kyler Fackrell, had 12 apiece for a combined 24. With four games to go, Smith might wind up with more than the combined 33 of Matthews, Fackrell and Kenny Clark.

12: Men on the field on Rodgers’ 17-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams. According to ESPN, that’s Rodgers’ 14th such scoring pass since taking over as the starter in 2008. Nobody else has more than five. “It’s something we practice,” Adams said. “Obviously, we’ve been doing it for years and Aaron’s been doing it pretty much his whole career. He’s the captain of that ship, so when he signals that we need to get on the ball, everybody gets on the ball and we go at it. We’ve done a good job historically converting on those.”

14: Green Bay’s advantage in pass-interference penalties, with a league-high 15 called on the opponent and only one called against the Packers. Green Bay “won” that stat 2-0 on Sunday, with Adams drawing a pair of penalties that led to touchdowns.

23: Career games with four-plus touchdowns and zero interceptions for Rodgers. That’s tied with Brett Favre for the fourth-most in NFL history, behind Peyton Manning (35), Drew Brees (34) and Tom Brady (29).

42.7: Punter JK Scott’s net average. He hadn’t reached even a 40-yard net in any of the previous five games. With a pair of inside-the-20 punts, he’s up to 21 (with two touchbacks) this season. Last year, he had 19 (with nine touchbacks).

49.4: Daniel Jones’ passer rating, the second-lowest of his rookie season. Green Bay entered the game ranked 18th with an opponent passer rating of 91.4, including 94.2 in previous road games.

103: Receiving yards on three receptions by Allen Lazard. Lazard’s previous career high was 65 yards during his breakout game against Detroit in Week 6. “It felt great as an offense being able to get back in the rhythm of things,” Lazard said. “Obviously after last week, that was a very sour, bitter taste in our mouth. That was the biggest thing for us; get out here and get back to playing Packer football and being able to go out there and be able to control the game.”

204: Consecutive passes without an interception for Rodgers. His last pick came early in the fourth quarter of the Week 6 game against Detroit. This is Rodgers’ fifth career streak of six-plus games without an interception. He had a nine-game streak last year that reached an NFL-record 402 attempts.