Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers gets a lot of praise for his great accuracy and decision-making. But the star quarterback has better athleticism and running ability than many fans realize.
Rodgers, in fact, ranked second among all NFL quarterbacks in nfl throwback jerseys
rushing yards last season with 316. He showed his mobility on Green Bay's touchdown drive. On third and 10 from the Buffalo 20, Rodgers saw no one open but sprinted upfield for a 12-yard gain. Bills safety Jairus Byrd was deep in coverage at the goal line and slipped when he saw Rodgers run. Byrd might have had a chance to stop him short of the first-down line.
The conversion was the key play in a 72-yard TD march that gave Green Bay a 13-0 lead. The drive was capped with a 1-yard run by Brandon Jackson.
Fast starts: Green Bay is used to getting ahead early. The Pack outscored opponents, 115-52, in the first quarter last year.
Truth or dare: When officials ruled Packers receiver Greg Jennings out of bounds on a pass to the Buffalo 5, Bills cornerback Drayton Florence urged the Packers to throw the challenge flag. They did. The call was upheld.
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SECOND QUARTER / Scoring march
Green Bay opponents won't get much encouragement from watching the film of Sunday's game. The Bills did not expose any weaknesses of note in the Packers team.
The one slight tip teams with more competent offenses might glean from the Bills' attack was to run the ball at Packers linebacker Clay Matthews. It didn't work a lot for the Bills, but it was better than running away from him, because he's so good in pursuit of the ball.
The Bills mounted an eight-play, 80-yard march to their lone score with 10:49 left in the second quarter. The Bills succeeded in breaking off some power runs off tackle. Fred Jackson got a 10-yard gain around right end to the Packers' 3 on a play in which Bills tight end Jonathan Stupar sealed off Matthews with a good block.
The Bills' TD came on the next play via a 3-yard Jackson run around left end. Stupar blocked down on the left edge, and fullback Corey McIntyre took out cornerback Charles Woodson with a good block.
"We wanted to run weak [side] and we were hoping that we could get Corey up on Woodson," Jackson said. "I was able to walk in untouched."
Big cheer: The loudest roar of the first half came during the highlights of 49ers jersey
other NFL games. The scoreboard showed ex-Packer and current Vikings QB Brett Favre throwing an interception against Miami, to the delight of the fans.
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THIRD QUARTER / Driver's seat
Packers receiver Donald Driver is one of those diamond-in-the-rough draft picks who turned into a grand-slam home run.
Driver was a seventh-round pick out of Alcorn State in 1999 but he came out of the small-college ranks with a ton of athletic ability. Driver was an Olympic hopeful as a collegian in the high jump. His best mark in the event was 7 feet, 6 1/2 inches.
Twelve years later, Driver is Green Bay's all-time receptions leader. The 35-year-old receiver had four catches Sunday to bring his career total to 656. He caught a 7-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to give Green Bay a 20-7 lead. It was the 51st of his career, moving him into the fourth spot in Packers history.
Driver, a three-time Pro Bowler, is one of only two NFL receivers to have 1,000 yards in receptions each of the previous six seasons. The other is Indianapolis' Reggie Wayne.
Key plays: Green Bay had to march only 39 yards to the Driver TD after an interception by Brandon Chillar. ... Rodgers scored on a 9-yard run to give the Pack a 27-7 lead.
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FOURTH QUARTER / Climbing the walls
Time for some Green Bay Packers trivia: Which player invented the Lambeau Leap?
Any self-respecting Cheesehead knows the answer is LeRoy Butler, who did it for the first time in 1993. It was a spontaneous celebration -- a leap over the roughly 6-foot-high wall around the field -- after Butler ran 25 yards with a lateral for a touchdown in a December game against the Raiders. That game clinched the playoffs for the Pack and ended a 10-year non-playoff drought for the franchise. Ever since, every Packer who scores a touchdown vaults into the stands. James Jones did it in the fourth quarter after a 30-yard TD catch.
Aaron Rodgers had a tough time getting up the wall after his third-quarter TD.
Said Rodgers: "The guys were giving me a hard time on the Saints jersey
sideline but I said, 'Look, I was tired. That was a long way to run, my calves are cramping and that wall's pretty high.'"
Full house: The game was the 286th straight sellout at Lambeau Field, dating to the first game of the 1960 season. That streak withstood a stretch of 17 non-winning seasons over a 22-year span from 1970 to '91.
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