Aaron Rodgers Describes What He Saw From The Bucs On Sunday
Aaron Rodgers may have just had the best season of his Hall of Fame career. He is the favorite to win his third career MVP award, and just led the Green Bay Packers to the NFC Championship Game for the second straight year, where they fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the second time this year.
The Buccaneers are the one team that gave Rodgers and the Packers offense all kinds of issues this year. Todd Bowles’ defense lit Rodgers up during the middle of the season, in a 38-10 win. He was just 16-for-35 for 160 yards, with two interceptions. He was also sacked four times, the second-highest mark of the season allowed by the Packers’ stalwart offensive line.
Rodgers was much, much better last Sunday, throwing for 346 yards and three touchdowns in the two teams’ rematch. He failed to capitalize on three Tom Brady interceptions in the second half, and after a year of serious success inside the opponents’ 10-yard line, Rodgers and the Packers offense struggled to punch it in on a few occasions, most notably on the team’s final drive, when it settled for a field goal on 4th-and-goal from the seven, rather than go for a score and a game-tying two-point conversion.
As he’s done every week this season, Rodgers gave a lengthy interview to The Pat McAfee Show, where he opened up about Sunday’s game, as well as his surprising postgame comments. He also complemented Bowles’ Tampa Bay defense, describing some of the adjustments they went to in order to limit Davante Adams and the passing game, and get after Rodgers in the backfield once again.
Aaron Rodgers on @PatMcAfeeShow says the Bucs and Todd Bowles going to a lot of 2-man coverage was a "really good adjustment"
He also says he was surprised there was less zero blitz pressure. Says Bucs opted for more of an edge pressure approach with blitzing nickel, etc
— Jon Ledyard (@LedyardNFLDraft) January 26, 2021
With one of the NFL’s best left tackles, David Bakhtiari, out, the Buccaneers got after Rodgers once again. He was sacked five times on Sunday, more than the blowout win earlier this year.
The Packers were also held to just 67 rushing yards on 16 carries. Star back Aaron Jones was knocked out of the game with a chest injury, which couldn’t have helped matters, though head coach Matt LaFleur has been criticized for his lack of use of rookie AJ Dillon, and for abandoning the running game overall in the fourth quarter.
Despite his postgame comments, it does sound like Aaron Rodgers fully expects to be back with the Packers, though he acknowledged that he doesn’t have a ton of control over what the future holds. There are also reports that he wants a new contract from the Green Bay Packers, which could work out for both sides. With how crazy the quarterback carousel is expected to be this offseason, all eyes will be on the situation with Rodgers once again.
With the win, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense will try and do the same thing to Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.
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