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As usual, Aaron Rodgers turned chaos into calm for Packers
Admit it, Packers fans: You were starting to P-A-N-I-C.
But Aaron Rodgers, the calmest quarterback in the NFL, does not P-A-N-I-C.
P-A-N-I-C are five letters that are not in the intensely chill DNA of this West Coast kid and Berkeley grad.
He did not panic this week when, in the midst of his first three-game losing streak since his first season as an NFL starter, headlines -- real, actual headlines -- said things like this: “Packers in disarray; problems start with quarterback Aaron Rodgers.”
And the calmest quarterback in the NFL did not panic at the end of the third quarter at a chilly TCF Bank Stadium on Sunday, when the pocket began to collapse around him during a crucial third-down play. Rodgers’ Packers were only up a touchdown on the team that led the NFC North, the Minnesota Vikings. If he panicked here -- if he made a game-changing mistake -- the momentum of the game, perhaps the entire season, would swing in the opposite direction.
If there was a time for calm, this was it. The reeling Packers were going up against the NFL’s second-ranked scoring defense. The Vikings were in the midst of their longest winning streak since 2009. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was watching in the stands, bestowing official “big game status” on the NFC North matchup.
So, calmly but urgently, Rodgers found a bit of breathing room in the pocket, then scooted out to his left, where he saw wide receiver James Jones streaking down the sideline. Rodgers heaved the perfect pass. Jones bobbled it a bit and then, ever so calmly, hauled it in for a 37-yard completion and a first down.
Three plays later came another out-of-the-pocket pass play, where Rodgers again remained unruffled. He connected with Jones again, a 27-yard touchdown strike that all but put the game out of reach and was a message to everyone who wanted to P-A-N-I-C:
Time to R-E-L-A-X.
“Maybe we’ll get you guys off our back for a couple days,” Rodgers said after throwing for 212 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-13 win that puts the Packers back in charge of the NFC North with the tiebreaker against the Vikings as both teams moved to 7-3. “We’ve been taking it on the chin, and rightly so, the past three weeks. (But) sometimes we play a little better when we start to get questioned by you guys. We responded really well.”
The walls seemed to be collapsing around the Packers the past three weeks, especially after a home loss to the miserable Detroit Lions last week had Green Bay playing catch-up to the Vikings in a division Rodgers has won four straight years.
Everyone was a culprit in the midseason swoon: Rodgers, who’d been sacked 11 times in the three losses. Kicker Mason Crosby, who missed a game-winning field goal attempt against the Lions. Jones, who’d been virtually invisible over the past month. Running back Eddie Lacy, who has been banged up and ineffective all season. The Green Bay pass rush, which didn’t have a single sack during the three-game losing streak.
Even the hometown boys didn’t have high hopes going into Sunday’s game. I read a preview in a Milwaukee newspaper where all four Packers beat writers picked the Vikings to win.
But the team reflected its quarterback’s calm in a collapsing pocket, staying focused when the outside noise could have collapsed the walls at Lambeau Field.
It worked: Rodgers was by no means great -- he missed a few open receivers, he had more incompletions than completions -- but the entire game, you felt like he was in control, and he was sacked only twice. Crosby nailed all five of his field-goal attempts, including a 52-yarder. Jones had 109 yards on six receptions, including the two most important ones of the game. Lacy had his first 100-yard game of the season. And the Packers’ defense recorded six sacks.
“We’re always loose,” Jones said afterward in the locker room. “People wanted to throw us in the garbage after the last three weeks, but everyone knows what we have in the locker room. And that’s the beauty of this game, man. We love hearing the doubters.”
“That locker room never panicked,” Jones continued. “The coaching staff never panicked. We were 6-3, you know what I mean? Teams around the league are 5-5 and getting praised like they’re the best team in the league. We’re 6-3 and we’re the worst team in the league?”
If there is one man who can calm a team and a fan base, it is Rodgers. Just look at the most pressure-packed games to see the 11th-year pro at his most calm. His playoff passer rating is the third-highest in NFL history, with 23 touchdown passes and only seven interceptions.
To be calm in the face of stress may be the most important intangible trait for an NFL quarterback. It is the reason so many passers who excel in the less-stressful spread offenses of college struggle in the quicker, more complicated NFL. The definition of a calm quarterback is one who sees every play in slow motion, then files every play away. It’s a position that values brains over arm strength.
It’s why you could only shake your head on Sunday night when a reporter asked Rodgers about the two-point conversion he completed to James Jones on a shovel pass off a scramble.
Rodgers’ calm mind works so quickly that, in that instance, his memory wound back 12 years before, to his first game when he got serious snaps as a college sophomore at Cal. When he lined up for the conversion Sunday, he saw a similar formation to one from that college game a dozen years ago against Utah. In that game, he stepped up to avoid the rush, just like on Sunday. In that game, he stepped to the right and feigned a scramble, while on Sunday he stepped to the left and feigned a scramble. In that game, the defender came off the receiver, and Rodgers shoveled a pass to Vinnie Strang for a two-point conversion; Sunday, the defender came off the receiver, and Rodgers shoveled a pass to Jones for two more points.
That is the type of calm, slow-motion thinking that will avoid P-A-N-I-C at all costs.
And so the talk will stop this week. There will be no references to the Packers in disarray. There will be no doubt about who is in the driver’s seat of the NFC North.
And standing tall will be the calmest quarterback in the NFL, once again skirting all the pressure around him.
Follow Reid Forgrave on Twitter @reidforgrave or email him at ReidForgrave@gmail.com.
