Humble Aaron Rodgers Has Green Bay Packers Believing

By Sean Jensen @seankjensen on November 11, 2014

Anxiety reigned in Wisconsin during the Green Bay Packers’ bye week, as quarterback Aaron Rodgers aggressively rehabbed his ailing left hamstring.

In a 44-23 loss to the New Orleans Saints, Rodgers suffered the injured and posted his only multi-pick game of the season.

So on Sunday Night Football, against the Chicago Bears, Rodgers had a clear and resounding message.

R-E-L-A-X, indeed.

Rodgers once again righted his play after a loss by dominating the Bears, this time to the tune of a six-touchdown first half. And despite strong seasons from Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, Rodgers is top among NFL quarterbacks with a passer rating of 120.1, prompting high praise from usually low-key Packers head coach Mike McCarthy.

“You can’t play quarterback without the ability to process, anticipate, recognize, the mental toughness part of it,” McCarthy said Monday. “The strength of any quarterback is his mental and emotional gifts.

“Aaron is definitely at his highest level.”

That’s saying something, considering his otherworldly performance in 2011, when he led the Packers to a Super Bowl victory and finished the regular season with a 122.5 passer rating.

Finding a weakness in Rodgers’ game is like trying to crack the shell of a turtle.

But there is one modest pattern: he starts the season slow.

The Packers started 1-2 in 2012 and 2013, and they started 1-1 this season after a forgettable 19-7 loss in Detroit. After that game, the Packers offense was ranked 28^th in the NFL.

Oh how the tide has turned…

And the Bears always seem to come along at just the right time.

Rodgers, who is 13-1 against the Bears, completed 22 of 28 passes for 302 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions in a 38-17 victory at Soldier Field on Sept. 28. Yet on Sunday night, Rodgers torched the Bears for 315 passing yards and six touchdowns, all in the first half. After playing two series in the second half, Rodgers gave way to backup Matt Flynn, who finished out the 55-14 drubbing.

His message was telling.

“I can promise you this is not easy,” Rodgers said. “It’s not easy to do this every week. We put a lot of time into it. We all do. We prepare to be successful. There’s a high expectation on our players, based on the number of checks that we do and the game plan every week, to have creative input but also make the game plan work.

“It’s tough to execute like that, but that’s what happens when everybody works together and believes in each other.”

And boy do the Packers believe.

“That’s what separates us from the Bears,” Packers defensive end Datone Jones told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, taking a shot at Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. “I feel like the Bears really don’t believe in Cutler. He’s their franchise quarterback, so they need to believe in him.

“And I know how they feel. I’ve had a few quarterbacks in college where I was like ‘Oh, man,’ but you can never turn your back on your quarterback.”

Rodgers’ numbers compare favorably with all the current and even past quarterback greats. But his teammates believe in him because he’s also clutch.

According to fivethirtyeight.com, Rodgers trails only Manning in fourth quarter touchdown drives when trailing by four to eight points.

But Rodgers, 30, can’t afford to cool off.

Down the stretch, the Packers will host the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots, both 7-2, play road games against the Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills and close out the season at Lambeau Field against the NFC North leading Detroit Lions.

But the bar has been set him, so teammates aren’t overly impressed by anything Rodgers does anymore.

“He was great,” receiver Randall Cobb said after Sunday’s game. “It’s normal.”