Boiled down to its simplest, the Falcons’ game plan for keeping Aaron Rodgers in check came down to this: Man, I’ve got my eyes on you.
“It was always having a guy on him, having somebody spy him because his passer rating goes up when he’s out of the pocket so we wanted to try to have a guy on him at all times, spying him,” said rookie linebacker De’Vondre Campbell.
Green Bay’s quarterback made some plays Sunday, but didn’t slice through the Falcons the way he had other teams as the Packers entered Sunday’s NFC Championship Game on an eight-game winning streak.
Sure, he completed 27-of-45 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns, good numbers that when combined with one interception left him with a very respectable 91.6 passer rating.
Only rarely, though, did the two-time NFL MVP do significant damage from outside the pocket.
The Falcons sacked Rodgers twice, and were credited with seven quarterback hurries. More than anything, they kept him from running around like mad, patrolling the flanks vigilantly.
“We didn’t get to him all the time, but we corralled him,” said linebacker Philip Wheeler.
Rodgers rushed four times for a team-high 46 yards, his long of 28 coming on a scramble up the middle when several Atlanta defensive backs had their backs turned to him while in man-to-man coverage.
Defensive tackle Ra’Shede Hageman banked the Falcons’ first sack, in the second quarter, when he busted up the middle, went down and thrust his right hand out while nearly prone to hook Rodgers’ foot and send him tumbling.
“Good pressure up in the middle, a nice little bull rush,” Hageman said. “They were holding me a little bit, but that last step I was able to get a little heel click.”
Tyson Jackson had a coverage sack in the third quarter.
The Falcons mixed zone and man defenses, and Rodgers struggled at times to read Atlanta’s defense.
“It’s a good defense,” he said. “They play a simple seed and they run it really well. They rely on the pass rush and they drop lanes.”
Ricardo Allen’s second-quarter interception – when Rodgers heaved the ball more than 55 yards on third-and-long from the Packers’ 13 – was just the second pick he threw in Green Bay’s final nine games.
Cornerback Jalen Collins nearly came up with another in the third quarter, diving to snag a ball that Rodgers threw over the middle after scrambling. Officials ruled that he trapped the ball.
Atlanta also deflected seven of Rodgers’ 45 throws, or 15.6 percent.
Cornerback Robert Alford led the way with three pass breakups. Collins, Allen, and linebackers Vic Beasley Jr. and Deion Jones added one each.
Jones joined Campbell and strong safety Keanu Neal as the primary spies assigned to shadow Rodgers, not that the Falcons did it on every Green Bay snap.
“Not every snap, but in critical situations we wanted to have a guy on him,” Campbell said. “I know for a fact I spied him a lot. Keanu might have spied him a couple times. Deion. We took turns.”
It paid off.
The Falcons are going to the Super Bowl for the second time in franchise history, to face the Patriots.
“A lot of hard work we put in, and at the end of the day it turned in our favor and we won,” Hageman said. “We tried to keep him in the pocket because he extends a lot of plays. We just tried to put pressure on him. What quarterback wants to get hit? You feel me?”
Rodgers felt the Falcons all afternoon.
“I’m still speechless,” Hageman said. “It hasn’t hit me yet. We’ve got one more game.”