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Not another 1-catch wonder: Davante Adams looks to back up big game

GREEN BAY, Wis. – If the old Davante Adams shows up Sunday in Atlanta, he’ll catch one pass. That’s it. One pass for 6, maybe 7 yards.

How do we know?

That’s how he followed the first two 100-yard games of his career – one catch for 6 yards against the Falcons in 2014, a week after a six-catch, 121-game performance against the Patriots; and one catch for 7 yards in the January 2015 NFC Championship Game against the Seahawks following a seven-catch, 117-yard day the previous week against the Cowboys.

The Packers think – or at least they hope – they have a new Davante Adams, one who will back up his 13-catch, 132-yard, two-touchdown game last Thursday against the Chicago Bears.

“Not just with Davante but our entire offense, the goal is to always be consistent,” Packers offensive coordinator Edgar Bennett said this week. “He’s making strides to being that type of player where you continue to be consistent on a week-to-week basis, and that’s what we’re looking for from our offense, not just Davante but our entire offense.”

Consistency has not been Adams’ middle name in his first two-plus seasons in the NFL. Just when the Packers thought he was going to take off in his second year – remember the “MVP of the offseason” talk last summer? – he regressed, in part because of an ankle injury that nagged him all of last season. He never had a 100-yard game, on his way to a 50-catch season that was deemed a disappointment. And even when he showed signs of breaking out again in the wild-card playoff game at Washington, he sustained a knee injury that prevented him from playing in the divisional playoff loss at Arizona.

If things seem different this season, it’s because Adams is healthy and more in sync with his quarterback. Aaron Rodgers has completed 68.3 percent of his passes to Adams this season, with five touchdowns, compared to 57.2 percent and four touchdowns in 2014 and 2015 combined.

Still, Adams’ career game last Thursday night may have been a product of the pass-happy game plan that saw Rodgers throw 56 times. Randall Cobb and Ty Montgomery also went over the double-digit mark for receptions that night. How much of that can carry over remains in question.

“I feel good about the things we did with Ty, Randall and Davante having big games,” Rodgers said. “But you’ve got to create your own momentum once the game starts.”

No one knows that better than Adams, who had only two catches for 34 yards four days earlier against the Cowboys before he was knocked out of the game with a concussion, and went over the 50-yard mark just once in the first five games this season.

“These games are great; obviously, you’d love to have these, but you have to stack them,” Adams said. “Aaron is going to be out there and obviously he’s going to be looking for me and I have to just continue doing what I’m doing. I feel like I can continue to stack success.”

Don’t tell Adams another double-digit catch, 100-yard game isn’t realistic this week.

“Not realistic?” he said. “You don’t know how they’re going to play us, so if I’m getting played a certain way and I’m taking two [defenders] away, I’m opening up an opportunity for Randall or Jordy [Nelson] or whoever else is out there. I’m trying to get open every time and make sure I’m catching the ball and scoring whenever I can.”

Perhaps Adams will get more attention from the Falcons’ defense this week. That kind of coverage could explain, in part, why he failed to back up his previous 100-yard outings with strong performances.

“That’s kind of the way the league goes,” Rodgers said. “They’re going to react to what we’re doing. We saw it actually in games that he’s had big production. Think about the New England game, they moved corners around on him after he started getting going. You think about last week, [Chicago] started moving Tracy [Porter] over on him.

“But that’s a good thing. If they’re worried about him, then we’re going to go to Jordy. If they’re worried about Jordy, we’ll find somebody. If they’re worried about Randall, we’ll find somebody. That’s the beauty of having guys who can play different spots and are unselfish.”