If Packers are to save season after four-game skid, it must start with Aaron Rodgers revival
ORCHARD PARK, New York — The kid who learned this game watching Aaron Rodgers, who crunched film and gleaned tricks of the quarterback trade from the four-time MVP, who has outplayed one of the game’s greats at the season’s midway point, stared down an impossible situation in Sunday’s first quarter.
Third-and-14 from just outside the red zone. Josh Allen felt the Green Bay Packers pass rush close the pocket around him. So he exited left, pointed for a block downfield, and made cornerback Eric Stokes tackle air. Allen’s first time making the Packers defense look foolish Sunday night, his first time putting the Buffalo Bills’ 27-17 win on his back, wasn’t with his right arm.
The 2022 MVP frontrunner kept the chains moving on his own, finding 20 yards with his legs down the left sideline. Two plays later, Allen rolled left again, escaping an unblocked Preston Smith. Only this time he stopped before the line of scrimmage, throwing a 1-yard touchdown to Bills tight end Dawson Knox, who was wide open in the back, left corner of the end zone.
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“Josh Allen is such a problem,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “I mean, shoot, you saw some free runners at him, and I thought there were other times where we had opportunities where we were going to be in position to not allow him to escape the pocket, and he just outruns everybody. He’s a dynamic player, man.
“I haven’t seen too many guys that are that size, who have that speed, and who can throw the ball, hang in there and do everything.”
Aaron Rodgers used to be that guy.
Even as his speed waned over the past couple of seasons, Father Time staying undefeated, Rodgers retained an ability to break down defenses in a way few quarterbacks can. The same way Allen does now as he morphs into a legitimate superstar.
There are many reasons Rodgers found himself as a double-digit underdog for the first time in his career, but most notable was the quarterback matchup. Rodgers is the gold standard, once possessing every piece of talent needed for a prototypical quarterback. The arm. The speed. The Houdini escapes when plays break down. Rodgers had it all. Any argument for him being one of the greatest to ever play the position starts not with Super Bowl rings, but his talent.
As Allen ran circles around the Packers defense for six carries and 49 yards, making a play no matter his protection seemingly whenever he wanted – or whenever he didn’t throw interceptions late over the middle of the field – Rodgers was a sitting duck. The Bills sacked him twice, hit him three times, and mostly held him inside the pocket on a week Rodgers specifically acknowledged he wanted to break out more extended plays.
“I’d like to do it a little bit more,” Rodgers said Sunday night, “but it’s kind of play dependent. When we’re kind of more in that 2-minute situation, there’s more opportunities for that.”
What Sunday night showed was potentially an indictment of how much talent the 38-year-old quarterback has left. He can’t move like he once did. This season, he’s become more dependent on the talent around him, especially at receiver.
With his run game getting whatever it wanted against the Bills' top-ranked defense, enticing Buffalo’s defenders closer and closer to the line of scrimmage, Rodgers got almost no production until the game’s final 10 minutes. Before then, he was 11-for-16 with 74 yards, no touchdowns and an interception on a throw batted at the line of scrimmage. The pick came one play after Packers cornerback Rasul Douglas cracked the door open for a potential comeback, intercepting Allen to give the Packers a short field.
Rodgers finished 19-for-30 with 203 yards and two touchdowns, taking advantage of the Bills’ prevent defense. The Bills led by double digits the entire second half. Whenever they needed a play early, when the game was still competitive, Allen seemed to deliver. Through eight games this season, the Packers still are waiting for Rodgers to do the same.
“I thought Aaron, especially when we went 2-minute,” LaFleur said, “made some unbelievable plays with his legs. He was able to extend plays and threw some really good balls. I think early on, we were having a hard time holding up. It seemed like the pass rush, just like the whole pocket, engulfed on him. I don’t know any quarterback that can throw on their back.”
It’s true the age-old method to rattle even a great quarterback is constant pressure, but great quarterbacks make their offensive lines — no matter their blockers — look better. Rodgers used to be the guy who could keep defenses from putting him on his back. Allen was that guy Sunday night.
LaFleur offered some ideas to make things easier for his quarterback. He mentioned changing the launch point. Maybe implementing different protections. Whatever the Packers offense rolls out next week, it’s apparent relying solely on their run game isn’t a recipe for a long season.
Nobody could say the Packers failed to ride their running backs Sunday night. Aaron Jones had his best game this fall, rushing 20 times for a season-high 143 yards. AJ Dillon added plenty of support in a complementary role, finishing with 10 carries for 54 yards. Their combined 6.5-yard average on 30 carries wasn’t enough to give the Packers a chance. In this league, the best defenses are rarely beat by the run game alone.
“I thought we ran the ball well,” Rodgers said. “I thought Jonesy had a great game. I thought AJ ran the ball hard. But we’re going to have to push the ball down the field in order to win games in this league.”
The Packers tried that earlier this season. In the past two weeks, they finally resorted to run-oriented game plans because their vertical passing game was empty. For weeks, Rodgers has pointed to all the flaws around him, and there are many. The quarterback signed a contract extension this offseason paying $50 million annually, the richest in NFL history, to fix many of those issues with his play.
It’s what Allen did against the Packers, why he’s positioned himself as the MVP frontrunner entering the season’s second half. With a run game that had nowhere near the production Jones and Dillon delivered, Allen made play after play to put the Packers away early. After their fourth straight loss, their first four-game losing streak in six years, Rodgers was asked how much of this skid rests on his shoulders.
And how much he’ll need to improve his own game to save the Packers’ season.
“It just depends on how we’re going to play,” Rodgers said. “Tonight, limited attempts. For most of the game, we run the football. So it just depends on how we want to play it. If there’s more opportunities, then I’ve got to raise my game. If it’s like tonight, just got to manage the game.”