Super Bowl XLV: Grading Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings and 10 Key Players
Super Bowl XLV ended when Aaron Rodgers took a knee in the victory formation to preserve an impressive 31-25 win by his Green Bay Packers over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Packers quarterback would soon be named Super Bowl MVP—an award that a former Packer who wore No. 4 never won.
Rodgers clearly deserved the award, but he wasn't the only important player who played on Sunday night.
In this game, which could possibly be the last NFL contest before fall in 2012, many players stood out above the rest.
Read on to see the grades given to 10 of the game's key players.
Aaron Rodgers
1 of 10
This was undoubtedly one of the best performances by a quarterback that we will ever witness in a Super Bowl.
Aaron Rodgers completed 24 of his 39 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns without throw inga single interception—and was named the Super Bowl MVP.
Those facts are impressive enough, but they don't tell the whole story. Rodgers was on target with every single pass.
His receivers dropped six passes that were perfectly thrown. His stats easily could have been as follows: 30-for-39 for 400 yards and four scores.
How amazing would that have been?
Grade: A+
Ben Roethlisberger
2 of 10
Big Ben Roethlisberger had some moments of brilliance, but his mistakes are what will be remembered.
Roethlisberger wasn't in-sync with his receivers on quite a few plays and even overthrew a wide-open Mike Wallace on a deep pass that surely could have been a touchdown.
He ended up completing 25 of his 40 passes for 263 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. The touchdowns were both beautiful plays, but the interceptions were pretty ugly.
Grade: B-
James Starks
3 of 10
James Starks had one run for 14 yards, but other than that, I can't really remember him making any significant impact on the game.
The rookie running back carried the ball 11 times and picked up 52 yards, but he wasn't a huge part of the win. The best thing that Starks did was not lose the game for his team.
It seemed as though the Packers realized early that they were going to win the game with passes, not runs.
It worked.
Grade: B
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Rashard Mendenhall
4 of 10
Early in the third quarter, Rashard Mendenhall plunged into the end zone for a touchdown that closed the Pittsburgh Steelers' deficit to just four points. On that drive it seemed as though only the camera man he ran into on the sideline could stop him.
Then just shortly thereafter, Mendenhall had the ball punched out and the fumble was recovered by Green Bay—effectively killing all the momentum that the Steelers had generated.
All-in-all, Mendenhall had 14 carries for 63 yards and the aforementioned fumble.
Grade: B
Jordy Nelson
5 of 10
Jordy Nelson was mere inches away from having two touchdowns, a historic day and a likely Super Bowl MVP award.
That's not even counting the passes that he dropped. Had he caught those, the day would have been even more memorable.
Nelson still made plenty of great plays and had a profound impact on the Green Bay offense. He caught nine passes for 140 yards and a touchdown.
Grade: A-
Greg Jennings
6 of 10
Greg Jennings didn't have as many catches or yards as Jordy Nelson, but the plays that he made were absolutely huge.
Jennings caught four passes from Aaron Rodgers and they went for 64 yards and two touchdowns.
He scored on a 21-yard pass in the second quarter to give Green Bay a 21-3 lead, then again in the fourth to increase the lead to an eventually-insurmountable 28-17.
His biggest play might have been a drive-extending catch for 31 yards down the left seam late in the fourth quarter.
Grade: A+
Mike Wallace
7 of 10
He may have let the game's final pass slip through his hands, but to be fair, it was an extraordinarily difficult pass to catch.
Mike Wallace did manage to haul in nine receptions for 89 yards and a touchdown. All three of those stats led the Pittsburgh Steelers' receivers.
Wallace's 25-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown in the middle stages of the fourth quarter cut the Packer's lead to five, then the two-point conversion shrunk the lead to just a field goal.
However, the drop at the end and the miscommunications with Ben Roethlisberger throughout the game drop his grade a bit.
Grade: B
Hines Ward
8 of 10
A lot of people thought that this could be Hines Ward's last game, but after the loss he said, “I’ll be back. I’m not going anywhere.”
That's a statement that will make a bunch of Pittsburgh Steelers fans breathe a sigh of relief, because the former Georgia Bulldog proved that he can still play with the best of them.
Hines Ward had a number of impressive catches throughout the 31-25 loss. When the stats were totaled, No. 86 had seven catches for 78 yards and a touchdown.
Grade: B
Nick Collins
9 of 10
In my humble opinion, there was no bigger play than the one made by Nick Collins with 3:20 remaining in the first quarter.
Collins picked off an errant pass from Ben Roethlisberger, then weaved his way through Pittsburgh Steelers offensive players—falling into the end zone for a huge score, mere seconds after Rogers' first touchdown pass.
The pick-six gave Green Bay a 14-0 lead and all the momentum in the world after the life was sucked out of the attending Pittsburgh Steelers fans.
Collins also made four tackles and defensed a pass.
Grade: A+
James Harrison
10 of 10
It's tough to pick out just one Pittsburgh Steelers defender for this list because none truly stood out. They all had trouble slowing down Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay offense.
But James Harrison was marginally better than his teammates on the final Sunday of the NFL season.
Harrison had just one tackle, but it came behind the line of scrimmage. He also brought down Aaron Rodgers in the backfield on a play that you can see pictured to the left.
Additionally, Harrison put pressure on Rodgers by hitting him three more times.
Grade: B
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