As a Chicago Bears fan, I've been witness to the magic that is Aaron Rodgers on far too many occasions. So when folks started to question the Green Bay Packers quarterback midway through the regular season, I knew better than to count him out. In late November, with his team sitting at 4-6, mired in a four-game losing skid, Rodgers said the Pack could "run the table." Sure enough, they did. In leading his team to six straight wins to close out the regular season, Rodgers went 142-for-200 for 1,667 yards, boasting a league-best 146.5 passer rating. Rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated.
Irish football wunderkind Cian Fahey (dubbed "Connor McFootball" by the guys on "The Dan Le Batard Show"), joined my podcast this week to talk all things NFL playoffs. I asked him what the Dallas Cowboys could do to prepare for Rodgers, who has thrown for 19 touchdowns and no picks in his last seven games.
"A lot of prayer?" Fahey joked. "There are churches in Dallas, right?"
Fahey said Rodgers is so hard to beat because of his ability to keep defenses guessing.
"The main challenge with him is when he's in the pocket it's so difficult to get near him. Because he's a great athlete, obviously, but he's also so incredibly aware of what's happening around him," Fahey said. "If you are a defensive lineman and you're coming off the ball, you're being really aggressive trying to get to him, he will make a very small adjustment where he moves two yards, maybe one yard and just steps forward and steps back. And suddenly you have to change directions completely and the offensive lineman can now just hit you and knock you over.
"And you see this happen all the time and it looks like it's great protection. And it's good protection, it's fine protection, but largely it's because Rodgers keeps changing the point of attack."
Fahey also praised Rodgers' ability to elevate the play of his receivers, arguing that he often hits targets that aren't even open.
"If you go back and watch Davante Adams' touchdown on Sunday against the Giants, he's literally never open on the whole play," Fahey said. "Rodgers stays in the pocket, keeps the play alive and then throws the ball in such a way that it's perfectly in position for the receiver to catch it, even though the defender is in perfect coverage. ... Like, Adams gets a touchdown but he's done absolutely nothing to get that touchdown. It's been all Rodgers."
On Sunday Rodgers and Co. put up 38 points on the New York Giants, who entered the game with one of the best defenses in the league. Since Rodgers' "run the table" decree, Green Bay has averaged nearly 32 points per game. The question is, can they be as effective without Jordy Nelson, who left Sunday's game with a rib injury and could be out against Dallas?
Fahey likely would tell you Rodgers doesn't need Nelson to win, that he'll find a way to make a backup receiver look like Jerry Rice. This Chicago girl, still scarred from all those times Rodgers burned the Bears, can't help but agree.
