�Ben couldn�t do this without that great defense to hand him
the ball back so much.�
--Steve Young
About that �roll� Aaron Rodgers is on�
Super Bowl Special
By PalmerSucks
Febraury 5, 2011
Since I�ve now heard
about the, oh, 53rd �expert� pick Green Bay because �Aaron Rodgers
is on a roll� I decided to take a closer look at this supposedly legendary
playoff performance.
Taken as a whole, his
numbers through 3 games do look pretty impressive:
Att./Comp.
66/93.....Pct. 70.96%.....Yds. 790.....YPA 8.49 .....6
TD.....2 INT.....109.16 Rtng.
Pretty sweet huh?
Nice YPA and awesome completion percentage, I must say. Pick up the stat sheet,
and you could really go to town bragging up this one.
Let�s break down each
game, though, individually and see what we get.
Playoff Game #1: Green Bay 21, Philadelphia 16
Rodgers notches a
superior 122.5 rating, no doubt from throwing 3 TDs and scoring a 66.7
completion percentage. Still, did his 180 passing yards on 27 attempts (and
so-so 6.7 YPA) really decide the outcome? Especially when you consider his
longest pass went for 20 yards. Or was this game more about James Starks
carrying the ball for 123 yards and a whopping 5.3 YPC? A closer look shows
that this one is more about the running game and defense. Rogers is highly
efficient, to be sure, but this one has �game manager� written all over it. The
Packers, by the way, are one shoestring tackle from blowing this one � and
hearing how Rodgers can�t get it done in the playoffs.
Playoff Game #2: Green Bay 48, Atlanta 21
OK, Rogers is on fire
here, going an out-of-your-mind 31 of 36 for 366 and racking up a big, fat 10.2
YPA. That�s a dream game, and Rogers deserves all the hype he can get for it.
No further questions here.
Playoff Game #3: Green Bay 21, Chicago 14
17 of 30 for 244, no
touchdowns and two picks for a 55.4 rating � somebody call Canton! As I
mentioned in my pre-game report, Rodgers becomes a spectator after a hot first
quarter � it�s B.J. Raji who provides the crunch-time scoring. Some guy named
�Caleb Hanie� out-rates him at 65.2, as Rodgers watches the game decided by
others. Rodgers�s big contribution to this one may in fact be his Ben-like
ankle-tackle (although the turnover in question comes from his own hand).
Again, I�d give the game ball to the Packer defense, certainly not the QB.
So there you have
this great playoff run Rodgers supposedly is having: by my count, one pretty
decent outing, one all-world performance, and one stinker. Remember this the
next 10 times you hear that �Aaron Rodgers is on a roll� between now and kick
off Sunday. I want to add also that Rodgers�s longest pass has gone for all of
34 yards. He�s been the driving force in exactly one of his three playoff
outings. Seriously, do the TV hype heads ever bother to think before they shoot
off their hype holes?
Again, just looking
at stats is misleading: in both the Philly and Chicago games, Rodgers
disappears from the score sheets in the 4th quarter. It�s the opposing QBs who are throwing the TDs in
the second half. Meanwhile, Roethlisberger is doing his best work when it
counts most, late � as I�ve said before, they ought to weight statistics more
towards the end of games, when it matters most. Yet for whatever reason, Ben�s
playoff performance is underplayed � he�s, you know, lucky to have such a great
team around him -- while Rodgers gets all the love. I can understand
downgrading Ben just based on numbers � but why not Rodgers, too?
Yeah, Aaron Rodgers
is on a roll � let�s hope served with mayo, lettuce and tomato on Sunday.