Payments might have damaged Aaron Rodgers in the absolute best method
In a 27-17 win, the Buffalo Payments might have damaged by Aaron Rodgers’ critiques of his teammates to deliver out real management.
It’s a long-running joke all through the NFL that for all his athletic and strategic prowess, Aaron Rodgers isn’t precisely often known as a people-person.
“In a possible signal that growing older is catching up with the Inexperienced Bay quarterback, Aaron Rodgers has regarded wildly inaccurate whereas throwing teammates below the bus,” wrote The Onion earlier than Week 8.
Funnily sufficient, Rodgers didn’t throw his teammates below the bus this week. Rodgers did smirk about being underdogs earlier than the matchup, a prediction he appeared to seek out amusing.
Maybe it was extra amusing at 3-4, however not a lot at 3-5. Rodgers is firmly in Tom Brady territory because the Bucs climate a transparent breakdown that infects each section of the sport. For Green Bay, there’s the Davante Adams commerce that also haunts the crew, even with that stunning landing connection to Romeo Doubs on Sunday. Some other 12 months, and Rodgers would have had the dependable starpower to overpower the Payments, even with Josh Allen.
However with out Adams, the Packers will stroll into matchups in opposition to the NFL’s strongest groups as underdogs. As painful because the expertise has been for Packers followers, seeing Rodgers nurse a chip on the shoulder could possibly be the exact shift the crew wants to tug all of it collectively within the weeks to come back.
Loss to Payments may push Aaron Rodgers, Packers in a brand new path
With out getting misplaced within the numerous variables which might be shaping the Packers’ offense success, Rodgers’ pregame and postgame feedback appeared to vary significantly with the Sunday Night time Soccer loss.
Week 8 was a get-right recreation for the Packers, at the very least for Rodgers.
“I’m not apprehensive about this squad,” Rodgers said after a 21-23 loss to the Washington Commanders. “In actual fact, this may be the perfect factor for us this week. No one’s gonna give us an opportunity, we’re going to Buffalo, it’s Sunday Night time Soccer, an opportunity to get uncovered. Shoot, it may be the perfect factor for us.”
Rodgers has been speaking about “psychological errors” over all the season, however a lot of these psychological critiques have been directed at his teammates relatively than himself. On the Pat McAfee Present final Tuesday, Rodgers prompt slicing the reps of those that have been making errors. Clearly, Rodgers wasn’t speaking about himself.
After dropping to the Payments, in a recreation the place he teased the Packers’ underdog standing all week, Rodgers appeared to lean into rallying the locker room relatively than noting their psychological errors.
“No one really feel sorry for us,” Rodgers said after the Week 8 loss, overtly providing the locker room motivation the crew wants on this second. “I really feel like if we are able to simply get one, then the entire momentum modifications. I believed we had a fantastic week of observe. The vitality pregame within the locker room was completely different. It felt like Packers once more. It felt like, for no matter motive, we didn’t have the boldness for a couple of weeks. We weren’t taking part in with a variety of vitality. We weren’t amped up earlier than the sport. So I appreciated the best way we felt earlier than the sport. Perhaps it was Sunday Night time Soccer, perhaps it was being counted out, perhaps it was this setting…that was encouraging, however the play within the first half wasn’t encouraging.”
Even when each single mistake for the Packers lands on another person’s shoulders, it’s on the quarterback to carry all the crew accountable whereas pushing them to be higher. From Rodgers’ perspective, it sounds just like the crew was doing that this week, even together with his feedback to McAfee.
“It comes right down to having the ability to execute within the second, and I believe that’s a few of the rising pains with younger gamers,” Rodgers said of his receivers earlier than the Payments recreation. “However I believe we must always all be capable to deal with criticism, that’s the character of our job. All the pieces we do is scrutinized, from myself on right down to the younger gamers, and getting used to coping with that in a optimistic method is essential, whether or not it’s coming from one in every of you or from me or from Matt [LaFleur].”
At 38 years outdated with a younger large receiver room, it appears Rodgers has his personal rising pains in relation to sprucing a clean message to the media with reference to his teammates. Ideally, the Packers can forge a stronger crew by adversity and are available out higher for it.
