Against the Patriots, Aaron Rodgers Showed Why He's Still the Best Quarterback in the NFL
As expected, the Packers offense has not come out of the gates firing on all cylinders. While their passing game will continue to be a work in progress given all of the new faces, in Week 4 it was easy to see why they’ll be just fine - they have the best quarterback in the NFL.
It’s not hyperbole to say that the Packers won this game because of Rodgers. Patriots DBs were consistently winning their matchups when playing man coverage, smothering Green Bay receivers across the board on just about every play. But Rodgers made some deadly accurate throws into tiny windows on key downs that even had Bill Belichick saying the Packers won because Rodgers was “just too good.”
A Rough Start
We’ll get to those great throws in a moment. Let’s start with the bad, though, because it wasn’t pretty early on for Green Bay’s offense. They gained just 125 yards in the first half, with only 37 coming via the passing game. And a pick-6 gave New England a 10-7 lead right before both teams went into the lockerroom.
I’ll focus on that pick-6 first, because this was the type of play that brings to mind that “trust” word we’ve been hearing about Rodgers and his receivers. He has to be able to trust his pass catchers, almost all of whom are either new or have more responsibilities than a year ago. That means they have to be able to read the field the same way Rodgers does, and they have to do so on the fly. It also means they have to win their 1-on-1 matchups when given the opportunity.
There is always a throw to beat the coverage in 1-on-1 situations. And frankly, Rodgers can always make that throw. He loves to take those 1-on-1 opportunities whenever he has them for that reason.
He’s also so quick to process information and often gets the ball out well before his receivers have gotten out of their breaks. For him to be able to make these anticipation throws and trust that he can consistently target 1-on-1’s, his receivers not only have to be where they’re supposed to, they have to run good routes that avoid providing any “tells” to the defense.
That didn’t quite happen on this play:
Pre-snap, there weren’t a lot of great options for Rodgers. To his left and in the slot to the right, both corners were in press-man position, and that was an uninviting look given how they had been able to smother Packers receivers throughout the first half. Tight end Robert Tonyan did have soft coverage inside, but there was also a safety to the back side looking like he might drop down in the middle as a “lurk” or “rat” to help out (a common Patriots coverage). That took away Tonyan’s in-breaking route as well:
This left Lazard on the outside running a deep-comeback route against soft coverage and a single-high safety look (meaning no help over the top for the cornerback). With the Packers also struggling to protect on 3rd down vs. New England’s fronts and stunts to that point, this was the safest and best option for Rodgers to be able to get rid of the ball on time without the route being disrupted at the line:
Unfortunately, Lazard did not do a good job of selling the Go-route, which is what makes the Comeback work. Instead, he stood up and started breaking down too early, allowing rookie cornerback Jack Jones to read him and jump the route:
Notice how Rodgers had already started his motion before Lazard got into his break. His timing wasn’t the issue. But Jones wasn’t reading Rodgers anyway. He was solely focused on Lazard the entire way. That allowed him to break on the throw and beat him to his spot, effectively running the route for Lazard:
Lazard is probably near the top of the list when it comes to who Rodgers trusts, but he didn’t help his quarterback out there. It also should be mentioned that this was a great play by Jones.
Winning 3rd Down
The good news for the Packers is that Rodgers didn’t shy away from attacking those 1-on-1’s when he had them in the second half. In fact, he went right back to Lazard on the first 3rd down of the third quarter, which seemed to kick-start the offense: