blueleopard;216799People are gonna hate me for saying this, but I'm on the boat that believes Rodgers is not clutch.

Yet.

He's had a few minimal clutch drives but they usually involve a long pass. He doesn't seem to realize that he can Joe Montana/Tom Brady it down the field. 5 yard passes into 12 yard gains. He's not good at sustaining a well orchestrated clutch drive right now. I believe we would have eventually drove down on them if not for some of the silly deep throws. They gave us short to intermediate routes all game but we just wouldn't take it. Some of that is on McCarthy too.

Rios39;216803He's had a few minimal clutch drives but they usually involve a long pass. He doesn't seem to realize that he can Joe Montana/Tom Brady it down the field. 5 yard passes into 12 yard gains. He's not good at sustaining a well orchestrated clutch drive right now. I believe we would have eventually drove down on them if not for some of the silly deep throws. They gave us short to intermediate routes all game but we just wouldn't take it. Some of that is on McCarthy too.

That's another ridiculous thing.
When our offensive coordinator was Jeff Jagodzinski and Favre was QB, he didn't take very many shots downfield, but the slant and YAC plays were Green Bay's bread and butter.
Part of the reason was because they still ran the man coverage based defense, and our receivers could beat anybody in man coverage.

McCarthy employed that same kind of offense when Rodgers first took the reins from Favre.

It wasn't until the Super Bowl year, and Finley's explosion, where McCarthy all of a sudden became an aggressive playcaller that constantly called passing plays that would go 8+ yards.
He didn't mix it up enough, and that's also partly to blame.

That being said, I still don't think Rodgers is a clutch performer.
Yes, he has a ring.
Yes, he's the reigning NFL MVP.
But he's never been in position to bring us back from a 17+ point deficit.
While that's in credit to our team being dominant, this is still a category where Rodgers doesn't even compare to quarterbacks like the Manning bros, Brees, Brady, or even Roethlisberger.

I'm not saying I want to see him do it more often (or hell, maybe I am), but if he's going to be accustomed to starting slow he should at least be able to finish fast, and win.
Finishing well and losing is still losing.

blueleopard;216805That's another ridiculous thing.
When our offensive coordinator was Jeff Jagodzinski and Favre was QB, he didn't take very many shots downfield, but the slant and YAC plays were Green Bay's bread and butter.
Part of the reason was because they still ran the man coverage based defense, and our receivers could beat anybody in man coverage.

McCarthy employed that same kind of offense when Rodgers first took the reins from Favre.

It wasn't until the Super Bowl year, and Finley's explosion, where McCarthy all of a sudden became an aggressive playcaller that constantly called passing plays that would go 8+ yards.
He didn't mix it up enough, and that's also partly to blame.

That being said, I still don't think Rodgers is a clutch performer.
Yes, he has a ring.
Yes, he's the reigning NFL MVP.
But he's never been in position to bring us back from a 17+ point deficit.
While that's in credit to our team being dominant, this is still a category where Rodgers doesn't even compare to quarterbacks like the Manning bros, Brees, Brady, or even Roethlisberger.

I'm not saying I want to see him do it more often (or hell, maybe I am), but if he's going to be accustomed to starting slow he should at least be able to finish fast, and win.
Finishing well and losing is still losing.

Best third down percentage in league history.

nerdmann;216807Best third down percentage in league history.

Not recently.

As someone else pointed out.
This is the NFL - Not for long.

blueleopard;216799People are gonna hate me for saying this, but I'm on the boat that believes Rodgers is not clutch.

Yet.

Packers have the ball on the 25 yard line, just under 9 minutes to play and could tie the game with this drive. This is Aaron Rodgers chance to build a "i am clutch" resume.

Result: (8:59) 12-A.Rodgers pass short middle intended for 85-G.Jennings INTERCEPTED by 53-N.Bowman at GB 34. 53-N.Bowman to GB 23 for 11 yards (32-C.Benson).

Aaron RodgersI'm mad about that interception. Greg thought he was wide open. That jolted me and I made a snap decision, which I usually don't do.

This Packers team lacks the killer instinct.

If the rest of the Packers played with Matthews and Rodgers intensity, soft would not be a problem.

The problem is guys that should play with that intensity do not consistently.

Start with Raji in the middle, for a guy that played like a pro bowl player, he has faded since 2010.

Bulaga.. a guy with some fire looks like he is flat.

We could go down the list.

That said, this team will beat most of the teams on their schedule. This game just highlights where we have to go.. we have to become a more physical and intense team if we want to hang with the big boys.

This team still goes 11-5 or 12-4.

But we have to remedy the issues when stepping up to the plate with the intimidating teams of the NFL. Giants and Niners are at the top of that heap.

Packers come out and show the Bears are not one of those teams Thursday night. The Bears were, but not anymore.

You guys might think its shocking to hear from me, but I AGREE that Aaron hasn't proven to be clutch.


Even in college Aaron threw 23 completions against USC,
but they LOST that game.
The last play was a pass and Aaron missed an open receiver.
Not clutch.

The superbowl was not clutch either.
The defense saved it.

I too have yet to see Aaron come from behind ala Brady, Montana, or Bree's.

heck, even Steve Young wasn't clutch until he came back, FINALLY against the pack in that playoff game.

We will have to see what Aaron's mettle is all about now.

I agree the Giants, Ravens, and 49ers are tougher than the pack and it will take his season to figure outhow to crack one of those teams.

Cal2GreenBay;216829You guys might think its shocking to hear from me, but I AGREE that Aaron hasn't proven to be clutch.

I think it would be more shocking for you to say green grass is green, but okay.

The most memorable come from behind win that I can recall with Aaron Rodgers was against the Bears.

I mean, I think we ALL know Rodger's CAN make a comeback, and is more than capable of doing so.
For whatever reason, he just doesn't seem to do so often, when given the chance.
It's kinda like me on Madden: I have a chance to drive the field and tie the game, and throw an interception in the first 2-3 plays of the drive
. . . heh heh.
[-x [-x

This game was just depressing.

By the way...did anyone see anything out of our draft choices?

Or B J Raji?

Or anyone other than Matthews or (occasionally) Woodson?
Heck, even my man, Ryan Pickett, was AWOL.

And lets not say anything about our fantastic OL just yet, ok?
Pass pro was okay, but if there was a decent hole on any running play, I missed it.

Every season has a mulligan game, so I'll wait at least one more week before I go absolutely nuts.

I hate using the mulligan on the first hole, though.

Only good thing about this game is we don't have to deal with all that undefeated talk any more this season.

Mulligan.