San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Fans and Rodgers big winners at Lambeau
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Aaron Rodgers made sure he’d play an NFC Championship Game at home for the first time in his Hall of Famecaliber career.
Rodgers threw two touchdown passes and also ran for a score as the Packers defeated the Rams 3218 in an NFC divisional playoff game Saturday.
Green Bay’s offense overpowered the Rams’ vaunted defense much of the day. The Packers didn’t allow a sack despite playing without injured AllPro left tackle David Bakhtiari (Serra High School) but Green Bay sacked Jared Goff (Marin
CatholicKentfield) four times.
The Packers reached the NFC title game for the fourth time in seven seasons as they chase their first Super Bowl berth in a decade. It will be their first NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field since after the 2007 season, when they fell to the Giants in overtime.
Green Bay won the Super Bowl for the 2010 season as the NFC’s No. 6 seed but has lost at Seattle, Atlanta and the 49ers in its past three conference championship games.
Saturday’s game showed what a homefield advantage can mean, even with far less than capacity due to the pandemic. The Packers seated 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.”
Buoyed by the crowd, the Packers often seemed on the verge of putting the game away. But the Rams continued to hang around. Green Bay finally sealed it with a 58yard TD completion from Rodgers to Allen Lazard with 6:52 left.
Rodgers was 23for36 passing for 296 yards and Aaron Jones ran for 99 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. Goff was 21for27 for 174 yards and a touchdown less than three weeks after undergoing thumb surgery of his throwing hand, and Cam Akers rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown.
The Packers scored on each of their first five series and led 2510 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 (Palo Alto High) and Robert Tonyan to set up Mason Crosby’s 39yard field goal as time expired.
Green Bay settled for Crosby’s 24yard field goal after having firstandgoal at the 4 on its first series. The other drives resulted in a 1yard TD catch by Adams and 1yard scoring runs by Rodgers and Jones.
Rodgers’ touchdown run was the first by a Packers quarterback in a playoff game at Lambeau Field since Bart Starr’s winning sneak in the Ice Bowl against Dallas on Dec. 31, 1967.
The Packers gained 484 yards against a defense that wasn’t at its best with defensive lineman Aaron Donald limited by injured ribs. Green Bay allowed no sacks and committed no turnovers.
“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.”
Jones’ TD came after he opened the second half with a 60yard burst up the middle against a defense that hadn’t allowed a run from scrimmage longer than 27 yards all season.