I had this speculation by
half-time of the Green Bay-Chicago game last night: that it was no longer a
question of whether the Packers would be Super Bowl contenders this season, but
how many games they would win above, say, zero. After Aaron Rodgers went down
with an apparent knee injury and carted off the field, in came DeShone Kizer
and his record nothing-and-fifteen as a starting NFL quarterback. It didn’t
take Kizer long to suggest that the Packers traded the wrong bad quarterback to Seattle: a strip fumble in the red zone, and throwing the worst interception I
have ever seen—only made worse by being returned for a touchdown. Packer fans
have seen this before--like say, last season. But it didn't have to be this way. In 2010, Rodgers looked horrible before going down with a
concussion against the Lions. But they had Matt Flynn as the back-up and
although he didn’t engineer a comeback victory, he shocked a lot of “experts”
by nearly leading the Packers to a victory on the road against the Patriots the
following week after only one practice week with the starters, and helped
provide the confidence the team needed to go on to win the Super Bowl that year.
In 2011, Flynn threw for 480 yards and six touchdowns in one game against the Lions—both still Packer records (each subsequently
tied by Rodgers in separate games).
Flynn may have had too weak a
throwing shoulder to be more than a short-term option as a starter, but he knew
the Packer “system” and performed well in it. In 2013, Flynn was literally
brought in off the street after two incompetent backups were unable to do the
job after another Rodgers injury, and again showed a competency running the
Packer offense (especially in a team record 23-point comeback win over the
Cowboys) and insuring a playoff appearance. Why Flynn’s services were not
retained only Mike McCarthy can answer, but then again McCarthy obviously
doesn’t have an answer as to why he thought Brett Hundley and now Kizer were
better options. I thought that Joe Callahan was potentially another Flynn, but
I don’t believe there was any fair competition for the job; McCarthy was
(perhaps for political reasons) intent on either Hundley and now Kizer.
So for a few moments I had this
vision of the Packers reduced to playing for the top draft pick next year, like
the Colts did the year Peyton Manning sat out after neck surgery. If nothing
else, it was going to be a “fun” year to watch. But out came Rodgers in the
second half, admitting afterwards that he had learned something from Brett
Favre after all: it’s not just the threat of losing one’s starting job because
of a “little” owie, but pride and embarrassment from sitting on the bench after
having just signed the richest contract in NFL history (at least for now), and
fans were not going to forgive him for long if they didn’t get their money’s
worth.
And fans did get their money’s
worth last night, as Rodgers threw for 212 yards and three touchdowns in the
fourth quarter, overcoming a 20-0 deficit for the second time in four seasons
in a 24-23 victory over the Bears. Of course there was some good fortune
involved, just like that thumb grazing the facemask penalty prior to Rodgers’
Hail Mary miracle pass against the Lions. In this game, prior to Randall Cobb’s
75-yard catch-and-run, Rodgers threw a ball right on the numbers of a Bears’
defender, who apparently dropped the ball out of shock. But so it goes; you
make a mistake, and Rodgers will make you pay for it. The Packers are 1-0; the
question is if Rodgers can stay upright, now that that opposing players will be
gunning for that knee—just like the Saints’ bounty hunters deliberately did on
Favre’s ailing ankle during the 2009 NFC Championship Game.
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