The Packers Showed True Grit in Their Win over the Jets

Coming out of training camp this year, the Green Bay Packers had to feel pretty good about having a very nice season and also being possible Super Bowl contenders.

Although there were a few season-ending injuries to players like B.J. Raji, Don Barclay and Jared Abbrederis, the camp went relatively smoothly overall.

Then came opening game of the season, which was a Thursday night game in Seattle. The Packers were throttled 36-16 by the defending Super Bowl-champion Seahawks that night.

To add to that disappointment, the Packers found themselves down 21-3 in the second quarter to the New York Jets in their home opener at Lambeau Field on Sunday.

All the great hopes and aspirations for the 2014 season seemed to be slipping away in a shocking manner.

But somehow the Packers were able to right the ship, and the team stormed back from that 18-point deficit to defeat the Jets 31-24 before 78,041 fans, along with some notable former Packer greats on alumni day.

The word I kept hearing from the team about the comeback was "grit".

Head coach Mike McCarthy talked to the media after the game via Packers.com, and he said this:

"I'm very proud of our football team," said McCarthy. "They have grit."

Later, quarterback Aaron Rodgers also addressed the media, and he used that same word:

"

We just didn't bring a lot of energy to the start of the game. We started out terribly with a fumbled snap. That hasn't happened around here I would dare to say in six years. It's been awhile.

It was a bad start and the defense gave up a touchdown on a short field. We didn't put anything together until the second quarter when we started to show a little bit of grit and came together.

We showed some toughness and some character and got the crowd back into it. We got things rolling.

"

Rodgers certainly did get things rolling. When it was all said and done, No. 12 had thrown three touchdown passes without and interception for 346 yards. That adds up to a 109.8 quarterback rating.

Rodgers looked to wide receiver Jordy Nelson more often than not, as No. 87 ended up with nine catches for a whopping 209 yards and one touchdown.

Randall Cobb also caught five passes for 39 yards and two touchdowns, while rookie Davante Adams had five receptions for 50 yards.

The Packers did not have a dominant rushing game, as Eddie Lacy only had 43 yards rushing. Rodgers was able to scramble quite effectively, however, as he scampered for 28 more yards.

By the end of the game, the Packers had amassed 25 first downs and 390 total yards against the top-ranked defense in the NFL coming into the game.

The defense of the Packers started slowly again, as Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted.

But in the second half of the game, the Packers held New York to just three points and stopped the Jets seven times in eight possessions. The Packers also held the Jets to just 100 total yards in the last half of the game.

Mason Crosby proved that he is still the same terrific kicker that he showed last season, as he was 3-of-3 in field-goal attempts, including a 55-yard boot. That field goal was the longest ever by a kicker for the Packers at Lambeau Field.

The bottom line is that the Packers did show some true grit in making the the fourth-greatest comeback in team history, as Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote about in his report about the game.

I don't know if you ever saw the original movie True Grit from 1969 or the remake from 2010, but both John Wayne and Jeff Bridges would have been proud of the effort by the Packers on Sunday.