When the Packers lost to the Giants in the NFC playoffs last season, linebacker Clay Matthews said that he felt the Packers beat themselves.
The Cardinals were on the wrong side of a 31-17 score in Sunday’s game against those same Packers, but they were a bit more willing to admit that the winning team was the one that did the beating on Sunday. Members of the Cardinals defense were particularly happy to credit Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers for getting the job done in the victory.
The Packers came into the game with a slew of injuries, including one that kept wide receiver Greg Jennings. Once the game got underway, they lost wide receiver Jordy Nelson, tackle Bryan Bulaga and Matthews to more injuries. According to Cardinals defensive end Darnell Dockett, none of that mattered because Rodgers was healthy.
“At the end of the day, as long as you got No. 12, you don’t have to give a (expletive) who else you got out there,” Dockett said, via Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “They didn’t do nothing dramatic that we didn’t know he was going to do. He’s been doing it all year.”
Rodgers only completed 14-of-30 passes on Sunday, part of the reason he was less complimentary about his performance than the opposition. Four of those 14 completions went for touchdowns, the biggest of those coming on a 72-yard play to tight end Tom Crabtree in the third quarter after the Cardinals had scored 10 straight points to pull within a touchdown. That makes 22 touchdowns for Rodgers over the last six games, five of which were Packers wins that have put their shaky 1-2 start well into the rearview mirror.