Aaron Rodgers Cements MVP Candidacy in 'MNF' Win over Falcons

Aaron Rodgers is going to be The Associated Press' NFL MVP.

We can debate until the cows find their way home to dairy barns across Wisconsin, but the Green Bay Packers quarterback is making the discussion academically.

He's having the best season of any quarterback in the NFL, leading one of the NFL's best teams to a division title and may have a first-round bye and home-field advantage escorting him to the NFC Championship Game.

He's putting up eye-popping numbers as his offense rolls to victory after victory. Though his three-year apprenticeship under Brett Favre will keep him from surpassing the biggest career-total marks, he's quietly assaulting the NFL record books, per Randall Liu, NFL Director of NFC Football Communications, and ESPN Stats and Info:

So far in his career, Rodgers has played the quarterback position better than anyone ever has—and he's having one of his better seasons.

Of course, he's not the only worthy MVP candidate.

After the worst four-game stretch of his storied career, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has had an impressive nine-game run. Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray had a compelling case, before both he and the Cowboys cooled off a bit. J.J. Watt, by just about any definition, is the best player in football, but he hasn't been able to elevate his 7-6 Houston Texans into contention.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

All Rodgers has to do is keep it in cruise control against the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then extend the Packers' decades-long home winning streak over the Detroit Lions. At that point, they're probably the NFC's No. 1 seed, and Rodgers is certainly winning the MVP.

"Cruise control" is exactly the mode the Packers were in after an all-too-easy first-half stomping of the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football.

Packers tailbacks Eddie Lacy and James Starks combined for three first-half touchdowns; they finished the game with a combined 23 carries for 148 yards. Just before the break, Rodgers found receiver Jordy Nelson for a 10-yard touchdown strike. Green Bay took a seemingly insurmountable 31-7 lead into the locker room.

At that point, it was a full-team effort, a three-phase domination. The Packers had intercepted Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, had another interception overturned upon review, forced a three-and-out and even blocked a Falcons field-goal attempt.

The most remarkable part might have been how little a role the surefire MVP played in it all. The Packers were dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, Lacy and Starks were rampaging through the tissue-soft Falcons front seven and the talented, opportunistic Packers defense was, as usual, scary when defending a lead.

Instead, the Packers let off the throttle.

"Offensively," Rodgers told ESPN in his postgame sideline interview, "we hit a little lull, there."

While Falcons receiver Julio Jones shredded the Packers secondary for 259 yards and a score on 11 catches, Rodgers, Lacy and the Packers' first second-half drive featured a sack, a penalty and a punt. The Falcons scored points on every single one of their five second-half drives, per NFL.com, forcing Rodgers to slam the pedal back down to the floorboard.

"Sometimes games can be like this," Rodgers said, "where you score 43 points, [gain] 500 yards and pick up our defense a little bit."

On a night when Rodgers had been content to drive from the backseat, he quickly took control of the game. His stunning 60-yard fourth-quarter bomb to Nelson kept the Falcons at bay:

That play would prove to be the difference in the game.

The 43-37 final score hides the dramatic back-and-forth narrative, which is unfortunate; that narrative perfectly captures the reality of this season's Packers.

They have a talented backfield. They have talented receivers. Rodgers repeatedly gave credit to the offensive line for giving him "a lot of time" to pick apart the Falcons secondary. They have plenty of playmakers on defense, especially in the back seven. To top it all off, they've got some of the smartest coaching and front-office management in the NFL.

They're still lost without Rodgers.

This game perfectly reinforces just how important he is to their season, their title contention and their franchise. If an average quarterback had been forced to keep pace with Ryan and Jones' 30-point outburst, the result almost certainly would have been different.

Instead, Rodgers completed 66.7 percent of his 36 attempts for an average of 9.08 yards per attempt. His three touchdowns and zero interceptions boosted his NFL-leading TD-to-INT ratio to 35-3, and extended his streak without throwing an interception at home to a stunning 396 passes, according to Genaro C. Armas of The Associated Press, via the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

If we can say with confidence the Packers would have blown a 24-point lead over a 5-7 team at Lambeau in December without Rodgers, we can certainly say they wouldn't have been anywhere near 9-3 without him, either.

Single-handedly elevating a team from also-ran to conference-title favorite? That's the definition of MVP.