Aaron Rodgers Alone Can't Make Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Contenders

The Arizona Cardinals picked apart the Green Bay Packers, winning at home by a final score of 38-8. 

Many will be quick to point to the play of Aaron Rodgers as a weak spot in the Packers' paltry effort, but don't be too quick to place blame. 

Sure, the 32-year-old signal-caller was anything but his typical self and hit on just 15-of-28 pass attempts for only 151 yards. Rodgers' stat line also included just a single touchdown, an interception and two fumbles—both of which the Cardinals turned into defensive scores—but can you really blame him?

It felt as though every time the former All-Pro dropped back to pass, there was an Arizona Cardinals defender in his face ready to rip him apart. An onslaught of Cardinals defenders greeted Rodgers, and eventually Scott Tolzien, on a relatively routine basis, logging 12, yes 12, QB hits on the day and tallying nine sacks for minus-78 yards.

Meanwhile, when he actually got to throw the ball, Rodgers was wildly ineffective, managing just 5.4 yards per attempt.

It was the Green Bay offense's all-around showing, but what do you expect when Rodgers is expected to do it all?

Consider what the Packers were doing on the ground in their three contests prior to Sunday's losing effort.

Week	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	FMBL
13	24	67	2.8	1	3
14	44	230	5.2	2	0
15	28	103	3.7	1	1
Season Totals	384	1673	4.4	8	6

It's no coincidence that Green Bay went 3-0 in that three-game-stretch. The Packers were effective running the football (save for a Week 13 letdown in that area) and were able to take a lot of pressure off Rodgers to generate all the scoring.

That's the team the Packers need to be moving forward. They need to generate some help for Rodgers through the ground game, and they need to make opposing defenses respect the rush.

Then there's the issue of the offensive line, and its' inability to stop capable defensive units.

The Packers allowed nine sacks Sunday. Nine!

In a league where the play of your quarterback means absolutely everything, forcing him to play under that type of direst is completely unacceptable. Head coach Mike McCarthy made note of that in his postgame comments to the media:

Rodgers has been sacked at least twice in each of the Packers last six games and 19 times over that same time frame. In total, the former MVP has now been sacked a whopping 41 times, which, after stats from Sunday's games are tallied, will place him squarely in the NFL's top-five most sacked quarterbacks.

Player	Team	Times Sacked
Alex Smith	Kansas City Chiefs	44
Russell Wilson	Seattle Seahaws	44
Ryan Tannehill	Miami Dolphins	44
Blake Bortles	Jacksonville Jaguars	43
Aaron Rodgers	Green Bay Packers	41

Coincidentally, the teams that those quarterbacks play for—save maybe the San Francisco 49ers—are non-factors in the NFL playoff picture. If the Packers' O-line keeps playing the way it has been, then Rodgers and Green Bay will fall into that same non-factor/non-threatening category.

Moving forward, the Packers will cap off their regular season with a matchup against the Minnesota Vikings. To this point in the year, the Vikings have had some success in getting after the quarterback and rank seventh in the NFC in quarterback sacks.

Next week, the Packers can ill afford another slip-up, but the real problem is in the playoffs, where they could run up against the likes of Carolina, Arizona, Seattle, Minnesota and Washington.

Four of those five teams sport defensive units that rank in the NFC's top seven in terms of sacks logged, and they'll have little problem with laying waste to the Packers' offensive line if the unit plays the way it did Sunday.

If they're going to turn things around and become a legitimate Super Bowl threat, the Packers will need to improve upon their sometime-stagnant rushing attack, and, more importantly, pick up their play along the offensive line.

If they prove unable, and rely solely upon Rodgers to do all the scoring and playmaking, the Packers will surely falter.

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