CONFIDENCE AT CORE OF RODGERS’ GAME
Packers QB’s special talent backs up bravado
Years before he implored Green Bay Packers fans to “R-E-L-A-X” or predicted they’d win out after a 4-6 start, Aaron Rodgers was the coolest guy in the room the day of the University of California’s road game in 2004 against rival and No. 1 Southern California.
“I’m nervous as hell and I’m all wound up,” former Cal coach Jeff Tedford recalled recently to USA TODAY Sports. “He’s walking through the locker room with a smile on his face, patting guys on the butt, ‘Here we go’ — just totally put everyone at ease. And then he goes out there and completes 23 passes in a row at the Coliseum against a Pete Carroll defense.
“The way he got his teammates around him to have confidence — he’s a true leader that way. When he says the things that he says (in 2014) and this year, ‘relax’ and ‘run the table,’ those aren’t just words. He truly feels that stuff. And everybody will follow him, because he can do it.”
Cal lost that game 23-17, but the message was clear before Rodgers entered the NFL as the 24th overall draft pick the following spring, launching a career that has garnered two league MVP awards, a Super Bowl ring and a shot at another if the Packers upset the Atlanta Falcons in Sunday’s NFC title game.
Yeah, the rookie carried the football up by his ear like a waiter carries a tray, could be a little awkward around older teammates and was — as former Packers coach Mike Sherman put it — “respectfully quiet” while beginning a three-year wait behind Hall of Famer Brett Favre. But Rodgers’ physical gifts and, perhaps just as telling, his self-belief would never be in doubt.
“I can’t remember one time I stepped on the field with him and did not see 100% confidence in his eyes that whatever we called was going to work,” former Packers center Scott Wells said. “When you don’t know him, you might think it’s borderline arrogant. But it’s confidence that he has and he exudes and there’s a leadership quality that he had, even then.”
Former Packers quarterback Craig Nall remembers Rodgers “had this little shimmy” he would do after good passes for the first week or two of training camp in 2005 before then-quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell told him to knock it off. Rodgers’ title-belt celebration started on the scout team, where team-
mates and coaches recall him taking pride in giving the starting defense fits. “He’s so competitive,” Nall said.
Lionel Washington, a Packers assistant coach in those days, remembers young Rodgers throwing a couple interceptions in one practice, bringing on an onslaught of smack talk from a veteran secondary featuring Charles Woodson and Al Harris.
“Aaron, he was so pissed that he said, ‘(Tomorrow), none of you guys will touch any of the balls I throw,’ ” Washington said. “I promise you, nobody touched a ball he threw that day. Then I knew that this guy was going to be special, and I think everybody else around him saw it, too.”
Said Sherman: “Obviously, the rest is history with him. He’s unbelievable.”
Now, plenty of quarterbacks are talented and competitive and confident coming into the league. Only a few get to the level of Rodgers or the other three quarterbacks starting Sunday’s title games: the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger and the Atlanta Falcons’ Matt Ryan, who’s having his best season. A lot of other factors play into whether someone succeeds or fails.
In Rodgers’ case, he always had mobility and a big arm. He benefited from the arrival in 2006 of Packers coach Mike McCarthy, whose QB school provided a foundation in the offense he has made his own. Rodgers lowered the ball on his drop-backs, giving more pop to his quick release. He got to watch how Favre interacted and communicated with teammates. Like Brady, Rodgers takes excellent care of his body, using yoga and an efficient diet to be in tiptop shape at 33, and he only gets smarter about attacking defenses each year.
Former Packers offensive tackle Mark Tauscher points to the sequence at the end of Sunday’s playoff win at the Dallas Cowboys — Rodgers getting sacked with 18 seconds to go, calling a timeout, then hitting Jared Cook on a drawn-in-dirt strike two plays later for 35 yards to set up the winning field goal — as evidence of the intellect and game management that help set Rodgers apart.
“If you were picking at what his weaknesses are,” Tauscher said, “I don’t know where you would start.”
Perhaps that Rodgers can rely too much sometimes on his ability to manipulate the pocket and extend plays, rather than getting the ball out in rhythm.
Striking a better balance is partly responsible for how the Packers offense got in sync down the stretch, coinciding with their depleted defense getting healthy. They have won eight in a row, with two to go for a championship.
That Rodgers publicly predicted this turnaround after the Packers’ fourth consecutive loss (a 42-24 defeat at the Washington Redskins on Nov. 20) doesn’t really surprise anyone.
When he says something that makes headlines, Rodgers has thought it through.
“And I think that’s 100% genuine,” Wells said. “It’s not a false confidence. I think people know that because he follows it up with his performance.”
Rodgers’ numbers since he called the Packers’ run: 68.9% passing for 2,384 yards, 21 touchdowns and one interception.
“It looks like it’s in slow motion to him,” Tedford said. “I just think the way he approaches the game with the right mind-set — obviously, there’s great preparation that goes into it, but the way he’s out there and he’s smiling and he’s got just such great command and control of what he’s doing, it’s something to watch, for sure.”