Rodgers solves Rams’ tough defense
Packers QB advancves to 1st home NFC championship game
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Aaron Rodgers made sure he’d play an NFC championship game at home for the first time in his Hall of Fame-caliber career.
Rodgers threw two touchdown passes and also ran for a score as the top-seeded Packers defeated the Rams 32-18 in an NFC divisional playoff game Saturday.
The Packers’ potent offense overpowered the Rams’ vaunted defense for much of the day. The Packers didn’t allow any sacks despite playing without injured All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, while the Packers sacked Jared Goff four times.
The Packers reached the NFC championship game for the fourth time in the last seven seasons as they chase their first Super Bowl berth in a decade. It will be their first at Lambeau Field since hosting for the 2007 season, when they fell to the Giants 23-20 in overtime.
The Packers won the Super Bowl for the 2010 season as the NFC’s No. 6 seed, and has lost in Seattle, Atlanta and San Francisco in their last three conference championship game appearances.
Saturday’s game showed what a homefield advantage can mean, even with far less than capacity on hand due to the pandemic. The Packers played in front of 8,456 fans — a crowd that included paying spectators for the first time all season — but that small crowd made plenty of noise as the Packers built an early lead with snow flurries falling for much of the first half.
“It’s special. There’s absolutely nothing like it,” Rodgers said. “We have really missed that part of this experience. To run out of the tunnel tonight with fans was unbelievable. It’s hard to explain how much the presence means on the field and just having that energy from the crowd.”
That crowd changed “M! V! P!” during the closing minutes to salute All-Pro quarterback Rodgers.
Buoyed by that crowd, the Packers (14-3) often seemed on the verge of putting the game away. But the Rams (11-7) continued to hang around. The Packers finally sealed the victory with a 58-yard completion from Rodgers to Allen Lazard with 6:52 left.
Rodgers went 23 of 36 for 296 yards, while Aaron Jones ran for 99 yards and a touchdown on just 14 carries. Goff was 21 of 27 for 174 yards and a touchdown less than three weeks after undergoing thumb surgery, and Cam Akers rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown.
The Packers scored on each of their first five series and led 25-10 early in the third quarter. Even when the Packers began a drive at their 25 with 29 seconds and two timeouts left until halftime, Rodgers threw long completions to Davante Adams and Robert Tonyan to set up Mason Crosby’s 39-yard field goal as time expired.
“It was all about execution,” Rodgers said. “Frankly it could have been a few more. I had a couple rough throws, we had a couple of drops. But I’m just so proud of our guys, the way we battled.”
The Packers also settled for Crosby’s
24-yard field goal after having first-and-goal at the 4 on its opening series. The other three drives resulted in a 1-yard touchdown catch by Adams and 1-yard scoring runs by Rodgers and Jones.
Rodgers’ touchdown run was the first by a Packers QB in a playoff game at Lambeau Field since Bart Starr’s winning sneak in the Ice Bowl against Dallas on Dec. 31, 1967.
Jones’ touchdown came after he opened the second half with a 60-yard burst up the middle against a defense that hadn’t allowed a run from scrimmage of longer than 27 yards all season.
After the Rams finally forced a punt midway through the third quarter, they capitalized with Akers’ 7-yard touchdown run on a direct snap. They cut it to 25-18 with a nifty 2-point conversion: Van Jefferson caught a pass from Goff and lateraled to Akers, who strolled into the left corner of the end zone.