My five favorite takeaways from the DVD:
1. Seeing how great Aaron Rodgers played in the postseason, especially in his 31-of-36 masterpiece against Atlanta in the playoffs, and some of his gems against Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. NFL Films did such an exquisite job capturing Rodgers throwing on the run in the second half against Atlanta. In super slo-mo, it's amazing to see how coolly Rodgers moved, and how on-target his on-the-run throws were. And the spirals. Perfect.
In the Super Bowl, on third-and-10 with six minutes to go and the Pack nursing a 28-25 lead, Rodgers ducked into the huddle and said, "We're gonna be champions tonight.'' He got the playcall on this third-down play from McCarthy, and zipped it about 30 yards in the air -- amazingly, barely touched by an outstretched fingertip of cornerback Ike Taylor. It landed right in Greg Jennings chest, and Green Bay drove to an insurance field goal. Beautiful throw. Quite literally, had it been one inch closer to Taylor, the ball would have been knocked away, and the Packers would have punted from their 25 with plenty of time for the Steelers to drive.
And let's say Pittsburgh would have taken over at their 35 with 5:45 left ... needing only a field goal to tie and send it to overtime. Instead of having to go 87 yards in two minutes for the win, Pittsburgh would have had to go 35 yards in five-plus minutes to force OT. Big difference there. Rodgers, over and over again, showed what a great difference-maker he was in the four postseason games.
2. Greg Jennings the leader, the playcaller, and the player. Early in the Super Bowl, Jennings and Jordy Nelson sat together on the bench, and Nelson told him in an exercised way how upset he was that Troy Polamalu blindsided him on a pass play with no interference called. (The replay showed he wasn't blindsided exactly, but he was hit beyond the five-yard bump zone for sure.) On the next series, Jennings found Polamalu on the field and yelled, "Don't you be hitting my boy cheap on that wheel route! He told me about it!''
That wasn't the best of it for Jennings. In the second half, with the Packers nursing a 21-17 lead, Jennings went to coach and play-caller Mike McCarthy and begged him to call the corner route in the end zone, because the Steelers weren't being consistent with their coverages in the corner. McCarthy, with 12 minutes left in the game and the ball at the Steelers 8, called it. And just like Jennings said, he was wide open, and it was an easy touchdown for Rodgers. When Jennings got back to the sideline, he found receivers coach Jimmy Robinson, who said to him: "God bless you, my friend! That's what a champion does -- he makes a play we gotta have.''
3. B.J. Raji's voice. The wonder of a child. On the bench in Texas, just before the Super Bowl started, he turned to defensive end Jarius Wynn and said: "Look around real quick. Think back to when you were a little kid, man. This is what dreams are made of.''
4. Clay Matthews is really good. Halfway through the video, I said to myself, "I may have thought too hard on defensive player of the year. Maybe I should have gone Matthews, not Julius Peppers.'' But postseason play doesn't count in the awards, so it's a bit unfair to be wowed by what a rusher does in the playoffs. Matthews is the genuine item, and will be for years.
5. The Steelers were just a little off in the Super Bowl. Troy Polamalu was ineffective, as he was throughout the playoffs. Ben Roethlisberger made a few terrific throws, but he might regret the Jarrett Bush interception in the second quarter for a long time. On the play, you can see Heath Miller free, with his hand in the air as if to say, "I'm open!'' But Roethlisberger forced it to Mike Wallace inside, and Bush read it right, and instead of Miller maybe rambling downfield for a score or a big gain, the ball was picked, and soon Rodgers threw another touchdown pass, and Green Bay was off and running, 21-3.
"Peter King" wrote: