Packers Beat Top QB, Clear Final Super Bowl Hurdle

Week in and week out, the Green Bay Packers typically enjoy the decisive advantage at the quarterback position uniquely granted by Aaron Rodgers.

When that gap was shrunk considerably by future Hall of Famer Tom Brady and the New England Patriots Sunday afternoon, the Packers proved that this Super Bowl-quality club can still win a game without such a substantial gap at the game's most important position. 

In beating New England, the Packers emphatically squashed the last question mark on their championship resume. 

Scour the recent game logs in Green Bay, and trends emerge. The Packers predictably beat up on any poor franchise lacking the requisite answer to Rodgers at quarterback, but also surprisingly struggle to find wins when the signal-caller on the opposite sideline closes the gap and reduces Green Bay's sizable and most obvious advantage. 

Coming into Sunday, the Packers had beaten teams quarterbacked by Geno Smith, Jay Cutler (twice), Christian Ponder, Ryan Tannehill, Cam Newton, Mark Sanchez and Teddy Bridgewater in 2014.

Smith has been benched multiple times in New York, Cutler is a turnover machine, Ponder came into the season as a third-stringer, Tannehill has been brilliant at times but also frustratingly inconsistent, Newton has been hurt all season, Sanchez is a castoff-turned-backup and Bridgewater is a rookie with just a handful of starts under his belt. Wins are wins in the NFL, but the Packers' first eight this season did not come against a murder's row of top quarterbacks. 

In fact, the opposing quarterbacks in those first eight wins combined to throw 13 interceptions with a passer rating of just 70.5.

Contrast those wins with Green Bay's three losses, and the lightbulb comes on.

Russell Wilson has a Super Bowl ring and a 98.9 career passer rating. His Seattle Seahawks beat the Packers in Week 1. Matthew Stafford is the fastest quarterback in league history to 20,000 passing yards. His Detroit Lions tamed the Packers in Week 3. Drew Brees is a Super Bowl winner and future Hall of Famer. His New Orleans Saints ran away from the Packers in Week 8. 

The Seahawks, Lions and Saints minimized the gap at quarterback and won. Colin Kaepernick, Andrew Luck and Eli Manning have done the same to Green Bay in the years since the Packers won Super Bowl XLV. 

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Brady couldn't on Sunday, marking one of the few times since Green Bay overcame Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers to win a title in January of 2011 that the Packers have faced a slim gap at quarterback and still emerged victorious. It was a hurdle this club needed to jump over. 

The Packers were impressive on both sides of the football against the Patriots. Opportunities were missed left and right, but Green Bay's dominance over 60 minutes still allowed a five-point win over a team that came into the contest winning seven straight games by an average margin of almost three touchdowns. 

The Packers defense did not lock down Brady, who threw two touchdowns and finished with a passer rating of 102.7. But few defenses can. Green Bay did manage to force four punts and hold Brady to 7.0 yards per attempt before delivering the final, all-important stop—forcing the Patriots to attempt a field goal (that was missed) down five points late in the fourth quarter.

At times, Dom Capers' defense rattled Brady with relentless pressure. On the game's biggest play, outside linebacker Mike Neal and defensive end Mike Daniels combined to sack Brady and force the missed field goal. It was a stop reminiscent of Green Bay's Super Bowl run in 2010, when the defense provided big play after big play to seal games late in the contest. 

	Points	Yards
7-Game Win Streak (Avg)	39.6	435.9
Sunday at Green Bay	21	320

The offense wasn't deadly sharp, especially inside the 20. The Packers finished 0-of-4 scoring touchdowns in the red zone, and rookie receiver Davante Adams dropped a surefire touchdown that would have put the game away late. Everything else about the operation was of the highest quality.

Head coach Mike McCarthy had a counter for almost everything the Patriots threw his way. Double-team Jordy Nelson? The Packers threw a touchdown to tight end Richard Rodgers and 11 total passes to Adams, who caught six for a career-high 121 yards. Match up Darrelle Revis with Randall Cobb? McCarthy called play after play with Cobb in the backfield next to Rodgers, eliminating Revis from the equation and dictating matchups on Green Bay's terms. 

One of the few times New England blitzed Rodgers, Nelson shook free of Revis on a skinny post against a single-high safety look and burned the Patriots for a 45-yard touchdown right before the half. 

Meanwhile, the Packers ran 24 designed runs for 108 yards, chewing up clock and keeping Brady safely on the sidelines for almost 37 of the 60 minutes. 

Bill Belichick, who has won his share of games by taking away a team's primary strength, just tipped his cap to the Packers afterward. 

"Said all week they have very good skill players,” Belichick told reporters. “They have good everything. There isn’t anybody on the offensive team that isn’t good, starting with the coach, quarterback, all the skill players at all the positions. Same thing I said all week. I don’t see it any differently now.”

Rodgers was just Rodgers. He threw for 368 yards, ran for another 22, tossed two touchdowns and didn't have a turnover. His passer rating of 112.6 (actually below his 2014 average) would have been higher had Adams latched on to an easy touchdown in the fourth quarter. 

On the game's final meaningful play, Rodgers bought time in the pocket and fired a bullet into traffic and through an impossible window to Cobb, who stuck the catch and converted the first down. The Packers knelt out the rest of the clock. 

Through 12 games, Rodgers is on pace to throw for just under 4,500 yards with 43 touchdowns and just four interceptions. His current passer rating of 118.6 would be the fourth-best of all time. He is both the top quarterback in the game and the front-runner for MVP, a magisterial talent playing at a level only he and a select few others have ever reached in the long history of the game. 

Now 9-3, the Packers are clearly leading candidates to represent the NFC as either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the postseason. 

The final four games of Green Bay's season include a visit from the NFC South-leading Atlanta Falcons next Monday night, road trips to Buffalo and Tampa Bay and a season-finale showdown with the Detroit Lions at home. The Packers will be favorites in all four games. A perfect 4-0 finish and just one loss from the suddenly free-falling Arizona Cardinals, and the road to the Super Bowl will travel through Lambeau Field. 

Tom Lynn/Associated Press

The Packers look unbeatable in Green Bay. The 9-3 Philadelphia Eagles weren't even competitive at Lambeau Field in Week 11, losing 53-20. The Patriots had won seven straight games, including wins over the Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts and Lions in back-to-back-to-back weeks, but still couldn't take advantage of all the openings given by the dominant but hardly efficient Packers on Sunday. 

If a red-hot Patriots team led by Brady and Belichick can't come into Lambeau Field and knock off a Packers team that didn't score a touchdown in the red zone, which club can? 

The Seattle Seahawks look capable. Detroit can't be discounted. The discussion probably ends there.

Beating teams like the Patriots can galvanize a roster. These types of statement wins build confidence and strengthen belief. The Packers now know—without any shadow of doubt—that they can beat anyone in Green Bay, including any team capable of bringing a quarterback to Lambeau Field that can minimize the Packers' obvious advantage at the position.

Green Bay hasn't been able to express such an unshakable confidence since the last time the Packers hoisted a Lombardi Trophy. 

Zach Kruse covers the NFC North for Bleacher Report. 

Follow @zachkruse2