Green Bay Packers

Green Bay Packers: First quarter mistakes crushed Super Bowl dreams in Atlanta blowout

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:36 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Freddie Boston/FanSided via Lombardi Ave

Aaron Rodgers needed to be perfect, but not even Superman himself could lift the Green Bay Packers from the dead in a crushing NFC Championship Game defeat to the Atlanta Falcons.

Keeping pace with Atlanta’s red-hot offense require a flawless performance, especially when your defense can’t slow down a parked car. Early on, Rodgers moved the ball with the same ease his opposite number was doing.

Then the mistakes began. A free blitzer forced Rodgers to throw the football away on third-and-4. Mason Crosby—last week’s hero in Dallas—missed a 41-yard field goal, snapping a streak of 23 consecutive conversions in the postseason. Ironically, his last playoff miss before Sunday came in the Georgia Dome six years earlier.

A Falcons field goal later, the Packers needed to respond with a touchdown. Again, Rodgers marched his offense down the field, but an Aaron Ripkowski first down became a fumble and game-changing turnover. A second Packers possession slipped away without any points, and Green Bay was firmly behind the eight ball. Atlanta was ruthless, not allowing Mike McCarthy’s team a sniff.

Relying on Dom Capers’ defense to slow down the league’s No. 1 offense is a useless exercise. The only hope the Packers had was for their own glowing offense to keep pace, but when they entered halftime with a bagel on the scoreboard, the ballgame was over.

Any remaining hope quickly evaporated, a Packers three-and-out started the third quarter before Julio Jones broke free on a 73-yard touchdown, a 31-0 Atlanta lead and a home crowd in a frenzy, a perfect sendoff during the final game ever played inside the Georgia Dome.

Rodgers fought on, but each consolation score was quickly wiped out by Kyle Shanahan’s relentless offense. Dom Capers could do nothing to throw Matt Ryan off rhythm.

Yet in reality, we all knew the defense wasn’t going to win the day. The Packers needed another magic performance from their Hall-of-Fame quarterback. His supporting cast let him down, and not even Mary could bail out the Pack this time.

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