TOTAL PACK AGE
Rodgers showing why he is among most feared QBs A
ARON RODGERS (right calf strain) won’t have his legs in the Arctic wind chill Sunday in Chicago. But he will have his heart and his beautiful mind and that golden right arm, and one man who played against hi m a nd one man who blocks for him can tell you how dangerous he can be as he tries to carry the Packers back to the playoffs.
Charles “Peanut” Tillman, former Bears All-Pro cornerback and FOX analyst: “I think he’ll just get rid of the ball a lot quicker. Historically they’ve done a good job of getting a lot of YAC, the yards after catch. Aaron does a real good job of reading defenses, and when they blitz, he’s throwing hot routes. Or everyone else is going through their run reads, and Aaron Rodgers and the receiver are on the same page, aand he’ll j ust out of nowhere throw it down t he l i ne on a dart route or a slant to one of his receivers and catch everybody off guard. Even his own teammate. I think he is the king at doing that right there. That’s what makes him so unique ’cause he’s unpredictable, you know? You know he’s gonna do it but you still can’t stop him.”
Packers veteran right guard T.J. Lang: “It gives him an opportunity to get the ball into our playmakers’ hands a lot faster. Our three-step game, our quick- passing game, has really taken over the past couple of weeks getting the ball out to the receivers, to the guy on the perimeter, and letting them break tackles and get north and get some positive yards. We’ve got a lot of guys that can do that. He’s playing a whole lot smarter. Our whole offense has a lot more rhythm to it and playing a lot more on time.”
Lang has played eight seasons with Rodgers. He was asked about Rodgers not practicing this week.
“I don’t think it’ll affect him at all, to be honest with you,” Lang said by phone. “This is his 12th year in the same system. He knows what he’s doing as far as mental preparation. I don’t think anybody’s concerned about him not practicing.”
Lang talked about how often Rodgers, tormented on the sidelines in 2013 by a broken collarbone, would badger the doctors to let him play. The division title came down to the Bears game at the end of the season. Rodgers was 25-39 for 318 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions in a 33-28 victory at Soldier Field.
“He went in there that week and basically told everybody to kind of get out of his way, that nothing’s gonna keep him from playing that game,” Lang said.
Rodgers sustained a Week 12 hamstring injury, but his left calf strain in 2014 was more severe.
“Talking to him, I think that was a little worse than what he’s going through now,” Lang said. “Just his presence alone — whether he can throw the ball 10 yards or whether he can throw it 70 yards — gives the
rest of the team the confidence that we’ve got all hands on deck and we’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna get the job done.”
Tillman said he understands better than most how deadly Rodgers’ arm can be. He said he never faced a more accurate quarterback, and one particular throw is etched in his mind’s eye.
“He threw the ball, and the pressure was coming right up the middle. ... It had to be 2012, 2013. ... He was in the middle of the field, Jordy Nelson was on the right side of the field,” Tillman said. “He threw it in the left end zone and Jordy Nelson was running, running, coming up underneath it. But what made it such a great throw was the pressure was coming up the middle, and he stood in there, threw the ball, got hit in his face — I think Julius Peppers laid him out — he threw a nice, tight spiral bomb to Jordy Nelson, and it was bombs over Baghdad. And it didn’t count because I think one of the offensive linemen jumped offsides or they held.
“And I remember going up to him and said, ‘ Hey, that was the best throw I’ve ever seen in my life. You are insane!’”
With the Packers reeling at 4-6, Rodgers has let the world know his team, now 7-6, could run the table.
Tillman: “I think that was just him giving the rest of his team confidence. I think he plays with supreme confidence, but when he says that, I think it gave the other 52 guys, a belief like , ‘Yeah yeah, we can run the table.’ To me leadership is leading, and he’s leading out front. He’s letting his teammates know that he believes in ’em, and, ‘ We can do this thing. Watch me. Watch what I do and follow.’”
Lang: “I think our team needed to hear that. Around here we tend to play on the high side of caution when it comes to making statements like that. Our backs were against the wall. To have our leader come out and speak those words, I think gave us a huge amount of confidence as a team.
“We needed somebody to say that, and who better to say it than Aaron Rodgers? To put their full belief in the team overall, to come out there and put his heart on the table and say: ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m not backing down. Yeah this has been a tough season, but I still believe 100 percent in the guys we have in this locker room and the team that we have.’”
Tillman picks the Packers to win the NFC North and the Lions, with the tougher schedule, getting a wild-card berth.
“I know who Aaron Rodgers is, I know the forces that drive him,” Lang said. “He’s not the most vocal guy all the time, but behind closed doors, he holds himself accountable, he holds his teammates accountable. He wants to win everything, he wants to be the best at everything, and he works so hard to achieve those goals. It’s really inspiring to protect a guy like that, to get to work with a guy like that, to have a friendship with a guy like that.”
Beware Rodgers and the Packers.
“He’s playing a whole lot smarter. Our whole offense has a lot more rhythm to it and playing a lot more on time.” — Packers guard T.J. Lang