Aaron Rodgers didn’t go untouched this time.
Despite being sacked four times, the Green Bay quarterback escaped pressure from the Falcons defense to make big throws when they mattered most Sunday night. They led to 25 unanswered points. The Packers won 25-14 over the Falcons at the Georgia Dome in a rematch of last season’s divisional playoff game.
The Falcons remembered that postseason contest in January when they had nine chances to sack Rodgers and missed on every one in a 48-21 loss. The Packers went on to win the Super Bowl. The Falcons went home.
Sunday night was different – for awhile.
The Falcons stopped the Packers first drive by recovering a fumble. Up 14-0, linebacker Sean Weatherspoon and end Lawrence Sibury sacked Rodgers on back-to-back plays on the next possession and the Packers settled for a field goal.
Despite a near sack of Rodgers on the Packers’ ensuing possession – he escaped the grasp of safety Thomas DeCoud to complete a seven-yard pass to Jordy Nelson – another field goal made the score 14-6 a halftime.
“When you are holding that football team and that offense to field goals, it’s a plus because they’ve been scoring at 37 points per game, they’ve been scoring touchdowns,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “You’ve got to consider that a win compared to what they’ve done.”
Yes, the Falcons were sitting pretty. They were even playing without defensive end John Abraham, who missed the game with a hip injury first disclosed by the Falcons on Friday’s injury report.
On the first play of the second half, defensive tackle Corey Peters sacked Rodgers for a seven-yard loss. The team that had gone the last three games without a sack was seemingly holding team meetings in the Packers backfield.
Rodgers was slowed, but not to be stopped. He began dissecting the middle of the Falcons defense. He threw a 70-yard touchdown to James Jones in the third quarter that gave the Packers the lead for good. The first play of the fourth quarter resulted in a 29-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings. Rodgers drove the Packers for a game-icing field goal with less than two minutes remaining.
Rodgers finished by completing 26-of-39 passes for 396 yards with a 117 quarterback rating.
“You don’t want to give up any of those explosive plays to this team because you understand that’s what they thrive on,” cornerback Dunta Robinson said. “We did a good job in the first half, not so good in the second.”
Weatherspoon was more succinct in what went wrong defensively.
“Once they started rolling, it was hard to stop,” he said.
Major free-agent acquisition, defensive end Ray Edwards, got his first sack for the Falcons by bringing down Rodgers in the fourth quarter. The four sacks of Rodgers resulted in total losses of 27 yards.
By the time Edwards got to Rodgers, the Packers were rolling and they weren’t going to be stopped.
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