Aaron Rodgers was salty about the play calling in the final minutes of the NFC Championship game in January and he’s still salty about it in June.
Rodgers — and a lot of other buffoons — like to point the finger at coach Mike McCarthy’s play calling as the reason for that debacle. The thinking goes, the Packers were too conservative on their final two possessions before losing the lead.
They ran five times in six plays and didn’t pick up a first down on either possession.
Rodgers maintains that this is the reason why the Packers lost.
“We didn’t do anything those two series. Negative run, negative run and then slightly positive run and a punt. And then run, run, pass incomplete [and a punt]. It just would have been nice to stay in spread and see if we could get a couple of first downs to close it out.”
And remind us whose fault that was. Oh, right. The guy calling the plays.
“Our defense was playing so well. I think we were relying on them to stop them, but we sure would have helped them out if we could’ve just moved the ball. Even one first down would’ve taken off a couple more minutes.”
We understand that Rodgers wanted the ball in his hands. However, we maintain that the play calling was appropriate.
Rodgers was garbage in that game (19-of-34, 178 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs). The Packers were up by 12 points and Seattle didn’t pull within five until just over two minutes remained. The Packers defense had been dominant up until that point.
When you add all of that up, logic dictates you do exactly what McCarthy did. Run the clock and don’t take a chance against a great defense while your quarterback is playing his worst game of the season.
So, as we did then, we’re going to point the finger back at Rodgers now.
If you wanted to throw the ball so damn badly, you should have played better prior to those series in question. It’s not the play calling that lost the Packers that game.
It’s lack of execution and you, Aaron Rodgers, are at the top of that list.