We’ll keep my last football post
of the 2020 season short and sour—well, maybe not “short,” but certainly sour.
Aaron Rodgers is now 1-4 in NFC Championship games. Two were blow-outs in which
the Packers were not competitive, and two were hair-pulling affairs in which
the Packers failed to take advantage of the opponent’s mistakes, and made
mistakes of their own at the most inopportune of times. There was the 2014 game
when Russell Wilson threw his fourth interception of the game with five minutes
to play with the Packers leading the Seahawks 19-7. Game over, right? Well, we
know how that turned out, and it wasn’t all Brandon Bostick’s fault. Against the
Buccaneers, Tom Brady threw interceptions on three consecutive possessions and
what did the Packers do? They did score a touchdown after the first one, but
incomprehensibly went for a two-point conversion that failed. Following the next
two picks, the Packers moved forward exactly minus-5 yards on six plays.
There were other problems, of course. The Packers started slow and never at any point looked like they were moving on all cylinders. The offensive line had to take this opportunity to have one of its periodic “off” games, allowing five sacks and 8 quarterback hits. Neither team utilized the run game much, but the Packers most especially, which was surprising given the temperatures. Still, the game seemed competitive even when Rodgers threw an interception late in the first half with the Buccaneers ahead 14-10. It was even so when Brady converted on fourth down with six seconds to play at the 39-yard line, but the Packer defense failed miserably in allowing a long touchdown pass to make it 21-10 at halftime. The Packers had the ball to start the second half and Rodgers—who was under duress through much of the game—threw three straight short passes to Aaron Jones and all the Packers got out of it was a fumble and a first-and-goal for the Buccaneers and 28-10 deficit. Didn’t we see this movie before?
The Packers scored touchdowns on their next two possessions, but that was all she wrote. The Packers failed to score a potential tying touchdown with two minutes to play after Rodgers misfired on three straight passes on first-and-goal. The defense then committed three dumb penalties and squandered all three timeouts in allowing the Buccaneers to run out the clock—including on a pass interference call on third down with 1:46 to play—and “escape” with a 31-26 victory as Brady apparently proves that he was more the reason why the Patriots won all of those Super Bowls than Bill Belichick. But his 73.9 passer rating for the game with those three interceptions only contributed to the sense that he was damn lucky, and the Packers were only too generous with the lucky charms.
The next question for the Packers is will Rodgers be back next year. There are already rumors that the 49ers might be interested in a trade, and the Packers might want to save on some of the $37 million that Rodgers will be owed next season. My own feelings is that I want to see Rodgers back next year, because I don’t think he is “done” yet by a long shot, and you know, I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in the people the Packers have waiting in wings, and that includes Jordan Love. I’ve been through that dry spell with the likes of Scott Hunter, Jerry Tagge, John Hadl, David Whitehurst, Randy Wright, Don Majkowski, etcetera and ad nauseam (I give Lynn Dickey a pass, because he wasn’t bad when he was upright)--and what is Brett Hundley doing these days? Wherever he is at, he didn't play a single snap in 2020.
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