Aaron Rodgers: Playing Great, but Beating Pushovers

Let's be honest: The Green Bay Packers have been blessed by their schedule.

Aaron Rodgers, their picture-perfect quarterback, is playing superbly, but “The Pack” is leading a charmed NFL life.

In compiling the Packers' 2011 docket, the NFL league executives were kind to the “Cheeseheads.” Nowhere on their playing agenda was listed the Steelers, the Jets, the Patriots or the Texans. And while Aaron Rodgers' crew has beaten two legitimate division leaders (a third, the weak Broncos, don't really count), those two triumphs were by the scantiest of margins.

Green Bay defeated the New Orleans Saints when the Saints could not score from the one-yard line at game's end. And, just two weeks ago, Green Bay won out over the New York Giants by kicking a field goal in the last fifty seconds (luckily for Green Bay, by rule the Giants weren't allowed the ball back).

In other words, when the Wisconsin green and gold play the NFL's toughest warriors, they barely escape with their football lives.

One can not only say that the Packers hold on perfection (they are 13-0 now) is tenuous, their hold on being nominally the best team is equally suspect.

Here are two ominous statistics: Green Bay ranks 31^st in team defense, and they are 27^th in team rushing. That is a lot of pressure on your quarterback, even if he is a former Super Bowl MVP named Aaron Rodgers.

Vince Lombardi built the modern-day Packers on defense and rushing the football. These traits bespeak the Packers legacy. They are absent now. Coach Lombardi is surely turning over—somewhere.

If august Aaron Rodgers has a bad game—or even an average one—against a good team, the Packers have little chance. Fortunately for Green Bay, this has yet to happen in 2011.

The raves for Aaron Rodgers don't cease, whether it's Joe Theisman of the NFL Network saying “he's the best pure passer the game has ever seen,” or whether it's New York Daily News reporter Mike Lupica opining that “I have been writing and saying for the past couple of months that Rodgers isn’t just playing as well as any quarterback in the league right now, he is playing the position as well as it has ever been played.” (Dec. 4, 2011)

Hyperbole for the holiday season.

In truth, Rodgers is the NFL's all-time career leader in passer rating, during both the regular season (103.8) and in the post-season (112.6). He also owns the league's lowest career pass interception percentage for quarterbacks during the regular season (1.83 percent). That's quintessential. But all of his records have to be tempered by the fact that he's only four years a professional starter.

"The journey has been special," Rodgers said. "I'm not vindictive [for having to wait his turn], but I'm blessed with a very good memory. You wait, you keep quiet and you take advantage of an opportunity when it comes" (Feb. 14, 2011 Sports Illustrated).

Perhaps this is what Aaron Rodgers does best. He takes advantage of opportunity.

On any Sunday, he sees the field with the kind of vision Superman would envy. No open wide-out is out of his eyesight. He places nearly every throw exactly where the receiver needs it to extract further yardage. He is a sensational manager of the game clock, to the Packers' positive advantage.

Yes, Aaron Rodgers is great at mastering situations, on and off the field. However, can he master the art of having to stay virtually perfect when the Packers face much more difficult obstacles in the playoffs? It's an open question for sure.