Rodgers leads Packers into NFC title game with victory

Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers are making a return trip to the NFC title game and this time they get to play it at home.

Rodgers threw for two touchdown passes to tie an NFL record and became the first Packers quarterback to run for a score in the playoffs since Bart Starr in the Ice Bowl in the Packers’ 32-18 win Saturday over the Los Angeles Rams in the first game this season with fans in Green Bay.

“It’s special,” Rodgers said. “There’s absolutely nothing like it. 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.”

THE SCORE

PACKERS 32, RAMS 18

Now Rodgers will get to play in front of the home crowd in the NFC title game for the first time in his career, having gone on the road the previous four times he reached the game, including last season at San Francisco.

The previous time the Packers hosted the conference championship game came in Brett Favre’s final start for Green Bay at the end of the 2007 season in a 23-20 overtime loss to the Giants.

Rodgers and the Packers will host the winner of Sunday’s game between Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints in the NFC title game Jan. 24.

Rodgers and the Packers

started fast by scoring on their first five drives of the game and then he put it away with a 58-yard TD pass to Allen Lazard in the fourth quarter.

Rodgers had earlier thrown a 1-yard TD pass to Davante Adams and joined Joe Flacco as the only players to throw at least two TD passes in eight straight playoff games.

Rodgers also ran for a score when he eluded Leonard Floyd with a pump fake before running it in from 1 yard. No Packers QB had run for a TD in the playoffs since Starr’s iconic sneak that beat the Cowboys in 1967 and sent Green Bay to a second straight Super Bowl.

The Packers gained 484 yards against the stout Rams defense that wasn’t at its best with Aaron Donald limited by injured ribs.