Rodgers started horribly, going 1 for 8, and the Packers” first four drives went: “punt, safety, punt, punt.
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The battle got off to a slow start for the green and gold, as the road team just could not get going in the first quarter.
The Packers and Aaron Rodgers looked good after win over the Redskins.
REED OPTION: The Packers knew all about Redskins tight end Jordan Reed, but they still couldn’t stop him: He had nine catches for 120 yards and a score.
Ultimately that was the difference. Under constant duress, Rodgers was sacked eight times. And the Seahawks didn’t make the Super Bowl the past two years, winning once and barely failing the second time, by chance. “I don’t care if you give me a watermelon [to kick], I should be able to put that through”, Walsh said afterward.
He led his team to a remarkable 31-30 win – the largest comeback in franchise history – and punctuated it by yelling into television cameras after the game as he walked toward the Redskins locker room, “You like that!”.
“I talked about turning it on”. Beyond that, the odds of a return trip to the NFC championship game are stacked against them in the form of a Cardinals team that beat them 38-8 just two weeks ago.
Capers knows. He offered this with a wry wink/nod: “I like our guys and everything we’ve got on defense”. But they didn’t look like the same team against Washington in the wild-card victory.
We’ve called Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers out on a couple occasions for suggesting the team’s offense would just be able to turn it on in the playoffs.
Imagine that. The Packers’ struggling defense creates a goal line stand. The Packers’ rising defense gains six sacks off quarterback Kirk Cousins and hounds him all evening, also stripping him in the pocket and forcing a fumble. “You want to be with people who believe in you and we are going to find out – because we haven’t discussed it much yet – how much I am wanted and where that’ll go”. At the moment, the Packers have had offensive success in one consecutive game.
Rodgers finished with a pair of touchdown passes, completed 21 of 36 passes for 210 yards, and led the Packers to points on five successive drives for the first time this season.
– Russell Wilson, Seahawks, was 13 of 26 for 142 yards and a touchdown, and also ran for 21 yards in Seattle’s 10-9 win at Minnesota.
“The opportunities we had out there today, it makes you ill”, Redskins second-year head coach Jay Gruden said.
With Rodgers and Co. back on track offensively, the Packers now pose a bigger threat to the Arizona Cardinals next weekend. They’ll be underdogs but the Packers are good at using the us-against-the-world mentality and you can bet Mike McCarthy will have them in that mode come Saturday night at 7:15.
The Cardinals should be the ones who feel confident after they rewatch the film from two days after Christmas. On the other hand, Green Bay ran 32 times to Washington’s 18, for 141 yards and 84 yards, respectively.
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Maybe it was the 116 combined rushing yards from Eddie Lacy and James Starks or that WR Davante Adams finally held onto a ball and scored a TD…Whatever it was, Aaron Rodgers liked it a lot.
