Green Bay The Aaron Rodgers who was uncharacteristically off target in the season opener and pretty mediocre in the first half Sunday against the Buffalo Bills is not the quarterback who will lead the Green Bay Packers to the Super Bowl.
The only guy who has a chance to do that is the Aaron Rodgers who lit up the Bills in the second half of a 34-7 victory at Lambeau Field.
Just compare the passer ratings.
Rodgers in the first six quarters of the season: 72.8
Rodgers in the second half Sunday: 152.7.
"There was a lot that was said at halftime," Rodgers said after the Packers improved to 2-0. "But I think it was just a matter of execution for us. Second quarter, we didn't convert third downs and didn't make any plays. Third quarter, we got the defense to give us some good field position and we executed."
Part of the jump-start came from coach Mike McCarthy's halftime speech directed mostly at the offense. Based on descriptions from a number of players, McCarthy's face was red and his words were blue.
He was tired of the offense fiddling around.
"We just needed someone to come in here and yell at us," receiver James Jones said. "Tell us to get back and get our rhythm back. As an offense, we hold each other accountable and pulled each other up."
Rodgers candidly described his Week 1 performance against Philadelphia as poor, and when he was unable to connect with his receivers on several third-down plays and finish off two of three first-quarter drives inside Buffalo territory, it looked like another untypical Rodgers day.
Things were so mediocre that at the end of the first half, McCarthy chose not to take a timeout and set up a two-minute drive, one of his pride and joys.
It wasn't so much that the Packers were bad or that the Bills don't have an exceptional secondary, it was just a half of unfulfilled expectations.
"Like I said last week, you can only go up from that performance and it was definitely a better decision-making day for me," said Rodgers, who finished 19 of 29 for 255 yards and two touchdowns.
"Throwing the football, I don't know what was going on. I couldn't throw a spiral on a few of those passes, so that was disappointing. But the second half was more the way I'm capable of playing and the rhythm I feel like I should be playing with."
The Bills came out with determination to stop the Packers' running game, which was missing starter Ryan Grant and had the makings of being a huge liability.
Facing man-to-man coverage against a talented array of receivers should have been a boon to the offense, but the offense kept misfiring.
On the first series, Rodgers had two chances to get 3 yards and a first down, but his first pass was tipped at the line by linebacker Andra Davis, and his second was a back-shoulder throw that sailed, and Jones couldn't get both feet down.
On the next series, he had three chances to score a touchdown from the 8-yard line.
After a 2-yard Brandon Jackson run, Rodgers threw into double coverage and gave safety Donte Whitner a chance to pick off the ball - Whitner might have scored if he didn't drop the ball - and on the next play, the Bills only rushed three, and he couldn't fit the ball into Jones in the end zone.
"Sometimes when there are eight guys in the field zone, it's not easy to find open players," offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said of the last play. "I thought he had pretty good command of what he was doing. I thought the deep one to James Jones down the sideline could have been maybe a hair better throw.
"But it was a competitive throw. It's not like it was in the bleachers."
Still, for a quarterback who carries Super Bowl expectations on his shoulders, it was not a great half. He completed 8 of 16 passes for 110 yards, good for a passer rating of 72.4.
"First quarter we seemed we were all in sync; second quarter we didn't convert on some third- down plays that we normally hit," receiver Donald Driver said. "That's part of the game, ups and downs.
"I think he (Rodgers) kept his composure the whole game. You get frustrated as things go on if things don't go right. It wasn't working for us in the second quarter. Once we got things going, everyone had fun."
In the second half, Rodgers benefited from good field position and began putting the ball in the end zone.
He capped a seven-play, 39-yard drive following Brandon Chillar's interception with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Driver. Rodgers went through his progressions and took a hit from linebacker Chris Kelsay, but he unloaded a perfect pass to make it 20-7.
He finished off the next series with a 9-yard touchdown scramble, completing 4 of 4 passes for 49 yards on the seven-play, 64-yard drive.
And then at the start of the fourth quarter, he finished off a five-play, 52-yard drive with a back-shoulder shot to Jones for a 30-yard touchdown.
When it was all over, he had completed 11 of 13 passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns in the second half, numbers above and beyond what are expected of even the best NFL quarterbacks.
The offense looked more like the one that has the ability to strike fear in the eyes of its opposition.
"We came out in the second half; that's the kind of offense we're supposed to be," tight end Jermichael Finley said. "We have a little bit more in store than today. We're trying to achieve greatness. We're trying to get 300, 300-yards plus. That's not what we're made of right there (Sunday's performance)."
Nevertheless, it was enough to win the home opener and the second half should stand as some kind of impetus for next week when the Packers travel to Chicago to meet the Bears on Monday night.
"We're 2-0, they're 2-0, it's going to be a big game," Rodgers said.