Its Year 2 AF (after Favre) in Green Bay, and Aaron Rodgers seems to be more comfortable as the Packers starting quarterback.
In his fifth season, Rodgers has become one of the leagues top starters, and will pose a challenge for the Bengals on Sunday at Green Bay.
Hes the new Favre, basically. He runs and guns and throws the ball deep and the receivers go out and get it, linebacker Dhani Jones said. He runs that offense like theyre supposed to. [img_r]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/AaronRodgers.jpg/250px-AaronRodgers.jpg[/img_r]
Rodgers had a strong preseason, leading the Packers on scoring drives on nine of 13 possessions. But he struggled in the opener against Chicago, going 17-of-28 for 184 yards with a touchdown. He completed just one pass over 20 yards, which was the game winner to Greg Jennings (50 yards) late in the fourth quarter.
Rodgers struggled in part thanks to four sacks and several penalties which created lots of second-and-long situations. The Packers averaged just 3.2 yards per play on first down.
We put ourselves in difficult situations in third-and-longs which resulted from negative yardage plays or penalties. You cant convert if you put yourself in third-and-11s and we had a lot of those the other night, Rodgers said.
Personally I was a little bit off. I missed some throws I definitely feel like I shouldve made. We really didnt until the last drive when we had to.
We had some breakdowns, Im definitely a part of that in the protection scheme and we need to do a better job of that. We had a preseason where I wasnt getting touched too much and thats not always reality when the real games start. The speed increases, the games are more complex and we need to do a better job of adjusting.
Last year, in his first season as the starter, Rodgers completed 341 of 536 for 4,038 yards with 28 touchdowns against 13 interceptions. In most seasons, that would merit the Pro Bowl, but the Packers stumbled to a 6-10 finish.
Still, Rodgers has earned Jones respect.
It takes a little bit of time after a Hall of Fame quarterback leaves an organization for someone to establish themselves. Hes done a great job doing that, Jones said.
Besides the ability to throw deep, Rodgers also presents problems because he is mobile and a good-play action quarterback. The Packers want to run more with Ryan Grant, who is a physical, downhill runner, to open up the play action.
And with four sacks last week, expect Green Bay to use maximum coverage this week to keep him protected.
For the Bengals defense, that poses an interesting dilemma do they bring lots of pressure to try and force Rodgers into bad decisions, or do they drop back into coverage?
Besides him throwing the ball deep a bunch he can run, its like playing a mobile QB. If he gets outside the pocket a lot of bad things can happen, defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer said.
With play action, were going to have to read our keys. Theres always a key that tells you what theyre going to do.
Expect the Bengals to play plenty of nickel, of which they had a moderate amount of success last week against the Broncos. The Packers have a deep receiving corps with Jennings, Donald Driver, Jordy Nelson and James Jones. They also have a dangerous tight end in Donald Lee.
Said Rodgers of facing the Bengals defense: Theyre multiple in their schemes and coverages. I think both the corners are playing very well. Theyre a fast flow defense and making tackles all over the place. Its going to be important for us to be in more manageable situations so they cant run those extensive packages and sit back and tee off on us.
The Bengals need to keep making defensive gains. In last weeks 12-7 loss, the Broncos did not get into the red zone and were 3 of 12 on third downs. The Bengals also forced three-and-outs on five of 11 drives.
Weve got to apply pressure, stop the run and play good defense, defensive tackle Tank Johnson said.
We played hard and did the things we were coached to do. We have to make a few more plays, myself included, and thats where we have to go from here.