Monday Night was an interesting night for the Green Bay Packers. The defense got absolutely smacked for the first quarter and a half. Geronimo Allison left the game with an injury and the Detroit Lions went up 13-0. But, the Packers possess one thing the Lions don’t have: an elite quarterback. Matt Stafford does not have one signature win in his 11 years in the league. He’s got a big arm, good receivers, and makes good plays. But he can never make THE play. This is why Detroit has never outdone Green Bay.
Aaron Rodgers: A Case Study in What Makes A Great Player
Aaron Rodgers was handed what normally would be seen as an insurmountable task on Monday night. He was trailing 13-0, his top two receivers were out of the game with injuries and he lost two fumbles and threw an interception on what should have been a touchdown had the receiver not bobbled it off his own head. The NFL is about overcoming things. It’s what separates great players from average players. At the quarterback position, it’s about not letting situational roadblocks keep you from winning.
Great quarterbacks don’t make excuses, they just go out and think “I trust myself. I trust my guys. Let’s grind this out and win this football game.” To me, there are 4 quarterbacks who demonstrate this; Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Carson Wentz, and Aaron Rodgers. And on Monday night, Aaron demonstrated why he is one of the best quarterbacks of all-time.
The Game
It was late in the third quarter and Rodgers went to the sideline. He saw they had very little wide receiver help and he looked at his coaches and said “Put number 13 in.” Number 13 on the Green Bay Packers is Allen Lazard. Aaron didn’t even know his name! All he knew was the guy had a locker and had been playing well in practice recently. He asked for a receiver he didn’t know the name of. Why? Because Rodgers trusts himself and his guys to make plays.
Rodgers doesn’t care who he is throwing the ball to. Because as long as he has someone to throw it to, Rodgers knows he can win a football game. And Aaron Rodgers proved to everybody else why he is so great. He went out on that field in the second half and just picked apart the Detroit defense.
Aaron Rodgers Postgame Press Conference
Rodgers even was quoted after the game saying “In the 4th quarter, [Lazard] came up to me in the huddle and asked me to call this certain play and give him the ball. He’s a rookie coming up to me asking for the ball. How can you not have confidence in that?” As a quarterback, you must have confidence in your weapons and they must have confidence in you. Rodgers commands that locker room and his offense. Because of this, the receivers and running backs and tight ends respond the way Lazard responded Monday night.
Quarterback Is Everything
An average quarterback needs everything to go right. He needs the perfect weapons. Needs the perfect conditions. Needs a lead given to him by the help of his defense. If your weapons are making your quarterback, you are destined to come up short in big games. But, if your quarterback is making your weapons, then you will succeed.
Quarterbacks such as Kirk Cousins, Jared Goff, and Mitchell Trubisky, they can win on Sundays and win divisions, but in order to win big in this league and win Super Bowls, you need to be able to overcome anything. Tom Brady has six of them, Rodgers got himself one, Russell Wilson went and won one, and you could make the argument that without Carson Wentz for the 2017-2018 season, the Philadelphia Eagles aren’t put in a position to make the playoffs and ultimately win a Super Bowl with Nick Foles.
This game will be forgotten about by the end of the year. But it should be seen as the game where Aaron Rodgers solidified himself as an all-time great quarterback and in my opinion, showed the rest of the NFL that he and his team are for real and are in a prime position to win the Super Bowl.
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