Aaron Rodgers guides Green Bay Packers to Washington Redskins win

“It’s huge for us”, Rodgers said.

Green Bay added a field goal and the spirited defense, which registered six sacks, stopped Washington on fourth-down conversion attempts three times to clinch victory.

The Green Bay Packers benefited from quarterback Aaron Rodgers super game to advance to the divisional round in the NFC, where they’re going to face the daunting task of beating the nearly unbeatable Arizona Cardinals this Saturday at the University of Phoenix Stadium. For all of their struggles in the regular season, the Packers still know what it takes to win. “I expect them, especially if Bakhtiari’s back, to have their full complement”. Green Bay travels next to Arizona to play the Cardinals.

His first priority was to give his players two days off from practice following last Sunday’s wild-card win over the Washington Redskins.

For Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the Green Bay Packers’ offense, the first quarter of their playoff game Sunday looked similar to the stagnant way their regular season wound down. They played playoff teams and beat them. Defensively, they could not play much better with two touchdowns in the third quarter, the same number quarterback Carson Palmer threw in the second. 16 interceptions as a team with 12 forced fumbles (six recovered) means that the Cardinals need to focus on ball protection.

Takeaway: It might be too early to say that the Green Bay Packers offense is back to performing at a peak level. The Over/Under (O/U) line is now at 50 points for this match up.

Rodgers connected with Randall Cobb and Davante Adams in the end zone en route to a 17-11 halftime lead. Rodgers was helped by a revived rushing attack that totaled 141 yards, with Eddie Lacy and James Starks combining to run for 116 yards in the game. Washington couldn’t recover, and so Green Bay beat them 35-18. We had the one sack on the safety; certainly, the communication could have been better in that situation. He came out here and he played ball like he always does. The 35 points were the most scored by Green Bay since a 38-28 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3.

That was when Rodgers, the MVP of the 2011 Super Bowl, turned things around. It starts with the quarterback.

Rodgers’ involvement isn’t entirely new, since he’s usually around on off days when coaches are putting together the game plan, though it appears that he might be a little more involved. The temperature got down to -6 degrees, and the wind chill brought it down to -24, making the only colder games the Ice Bowl in 1967 at -13 degrees and the Freezer Bowl in 1982 at -9 degrees. Seattle, probably still giving thanks for Walsh’s wayward kick, knows that scoring in only one quarter – and only 10 points – won’t be enough against Carolina.