GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Aaron Rodgers is back -- or at least, that’s what he told T.J. Lang as they celebrated the quarterback’s fourth touchdown pass of the first half on Sunday.
Can you say the same thing about the Packers’ offense?
“You tell me,” receiver Randall Cobb said.
It looked that way during the early stages of the Green Bay Packers' 34-27 victory over the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field, but with an unusually early bye next on the schedule, it will be another couple weeks before anyone knows for sure.
No one in the Packers’ locker room seemed concerned about whether Rodgers & Co. can carry this momentum to their next outing, on Oct. 9 game against the New York Giants. The feeling of relief after two shaky performances to start the season was much easier to detect.
“It feels good to see some of the potential,” Rodgers said. "I care about winning and then also what it feels like. We need to harness that feeling we had in the first half and keep doing that kind of stuff."
One of the best first halves of Rodgers’ career included a pair of touchdown passes to Jordy Nelson and a much-needed quick rhythm to an offense that couldn’t get rolling in a season-opening win at Jacksonville or a Week 2 loss at Minnesota.
A first-half drive chart that read “touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, end of half” did plenty to change that.
“It proves what we already know: that we have a good team, that we have a great team and we have the opportunity to do something special,” Cobb said, despite catching just one pass for 33 yards. “It’s just continuing to build off wins like [Sunday]. We have the ability to play like this every week. It’s just coming out and proving it.”
It came after a week in which Rodgers faced repeated questions about what was wrong with him and his offense. He didn’t just break his string of 14 straight games without a 100 passer rating. He obliterated it with a 129.3 mark that ranks among the 25 highest ratings of his career.
The first half especially looked like vintage Rodgers. Three of his four touchdown passes came against Detroit blitzes. He shredded the Lions’ pressures in completing eight of 14 passes against the blitz. In the first two games this season combined, he was just 11-of-24 with one touchdown and one interception against the blitz, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
He connected with Nelson, who now has four touchdown catches in three games since his return from an ACL tear. Rodgers completed all but one of the seven passes he threw Nelson's way, and Nelson gained 49 of his 101 yards after the catch. In Weeks 1 and 2, Nelson had just 34 yards after catch, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
“Everyone’s been around long enough, that’s why we weren’t worried about anything this week,” said Nelson, who caught six passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns. “We just knew we needed to execute. Sometimes we can make it look very easy. Sometimes we make it look very hard.”
Rodgers didn’t throw another touchdown pass after he feathered a 17-yarder to Nelson with 1:10 left in the first half. By then, he had made his point.
“He looked at me after [Nelson’s second touchdown] and just kind of smiled, head butted me and said, ‘I’m back,’” said Lang, the Packers right guard. “So it’s definitely good to see him go out there and get back to his dominant fashion.”
Rodgers downplayed that after the game and said Lang “might’ve misunderstood what I was saying and gave the edited version there,” but no one soft-pedaled how important this performance was to the Packers’ season.
“We felt like we finally played up to our abilities there,” Lang said. “I mean, it was an awesome first half.”
It's too bad the Packers won’t get to show it again for two more weeks.