– Eddie Lacy and James Starks, Packers, each had touchdown runs in Green Bay’s 35-18 victory at Washington. Washington could have been up 16-0 overall and dampened Green Bay’s hopes.
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Fans said they are optimistic this team once again has the swagger – that helped them win their first six games of the regular season. “When we’re rolling, man, we’ve got a lot of weapons that you’ve got to defend”.
Green Bay at Arizona, 8:15 p.m. (NBC). The Packers’ quarterback showed that with the proper support from his offensive teammates and coaches, he’s still got the swagger, the resourcefulness, the arm and the accuracy to dominate a game. I would think both teams feel the same way.
Now awakened, Green Bay followed with a field goal and touchdown for a 17-11 halftime lead.
Ironically, Packers coach Mike McCarthy said he noticed Rodgers “was playing a little fast at the beginning” of the game before “settling in”.
There is no doubt that the Redskins view Cousins as their future at the quarterback position after having Robert Griffin III active for just one game this season however Cousins will not go easy on the team in regards to a new contract. McCarthy plugged in athletic lineman JC Tretter as Green Bay’s fourth starting left tackle in the last four games in the wild-card road victory over Washington on Sunday. “I said this week, it just takes one – one performance to get us going back in the right direction and believing we can make a run”. “It happens in every game, but if we handle it the way we did [against the Redskins], we’re going to feel pretty confident”.
“That first quarter, we had some confidence”, linebacker Ryan Kerrigan said. At the moment, the Packers have had offensive success in one consecutive game. However, even with all the Redskins had going for them, there was one thing that the Packers had in abundance that the Redskins simply couldn’t match and that’s playoff experience.
“That was going to be a big, big key for us today”, McCarthy said. 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. Las Vegas has listed three of four home teams (Panthers -3, Patriots -5.5, Cardinals -7) as favorites already while the Steelers-Broncos game is now off the board due to the uncertainty surrounding Ben Roethlisberger’s injury. The third-year Florida product became the fifth member of the Redskins to record 12 combined receiving touchdowns across and single regular season and postseason, joining Gary Clark in 1991, Ricky Sanders in 1988, Jerry Smith in 1967, Charley Taylor in 1966 and Hugh Taylor in 1952 – each of whom had 12.
Did the Packers find themselves in time to make a deep playoff run, or did they play a good game against an opponent that won a weak division (NFC East) and just wasn’t up to par?
Capers knows. He offered this with a wry wink/nod: “I like our guys and everything we’ve got on defense”. Will that mojo get the Packers over the hump this Saturday in Phoenix?
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The Packers will head to head with the Cardinals, in the NFC divisional round.
