Don't call Thursday's win by the Green Bay Packers revenge for the NFC Championship Game -- or even the regular-season blowout loss -- because these weren't last year's San Francisco 49ers.
They weren't even last week's 49ers.
Just call it another stellar showing for wide receiver Davante Adams and quarterback Aaron Rodgers, plus an important return from injury by running back Aaron Jones.
The noteworthy numbers from Thursday night's 34-17 win that sent the Packers to 6-2 at the midway point of the season:
Adams, with 10 catches for 173 yards and his league-leading eighth touchdown catch of the season, became the first player in NFL history with three games of 10 receptions for at least 150 yards in his team's first eight games of a season. And he played in only six of them.
Rodgers threw four touchdowns in a game for the fourth time this season after posting just three such games in 2017, 2018 and 2019 combined. Rodgers moved within one four-touchdown game of his most such games in a season -- five in 2011, when he won the first of his two career MVPs. He completed 25 of 31 passes for 305 yards without an interception.
Rodgers completed three passes that traveled at least 30 yards in the air (two to Adams and one for a 52-yard touchdown to Marquez Valdes-Scantling). It was his second such game this season, making him the only quarterback with multiple such games. He added a fourth deep ball to Adams that went 25 yards in the air.
Two touchdown catches for Valdes-Scantling, who despite another dropped pass (his fifth of the season) perhaps took another step toward giving the Packers another viable offensive weapon after general manager Brian Gutekunst didn't trade for one before this week's deadline passed
The 49ers didn't have a single offensive player who touched the ball in last year's 37-20 win over Green Bay that sent them to the Super Bowl after their recent wave of injuries and COVID-19 took out most of their offense (Jimmy Garoppolo, George Kittle, Raheem Mostert, Tevin Coleman, Deebo Samuel and then some). So anything the Packers' defense did against backup quarterback Nick Mullens & Co. was hardly noteworthy.
In the two losses to the 49ers last season, the Packers failed to score in either first half. They were outscored a combined 50-0 by San Francisco in the first half of those two games.
The Packers reversed that trend early, scoring on their opening drive for the eighth time in eight games this season. They are the only team in the league to score on their first drive in every game -- and now have 40 points on those drives.
Promising trend: Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur rolled the dice on activating Jones, who was questionable after missing the previous two games with a calf injury. But with Jamaal Williams and AJ Dillon on the reserve/COVID list, the Packers not only played Jones but he finished with 20 touches (15 carries for 58 yards, five catches for 21 yards) and more importantly finished the game. Jones and Tyler Ervin (and H-back John Lovett) were the only backs available at game's end after Dexter Williams dropped out with a knee injury.
Troubling trend: Already without starting left tackle David Bakhtiari, who missed his third straight game with a chest/rib injury, the Packers lost right tackle Rick Wagner to a knee injury in the first half. Billy Turner, who started at left tackle, moved back to his usual right tackle spot after Wagner's injury. Elgton Jenkins moved out to left tackle from left guard, where rookie Jon Runyan filled in. Cornerback Jaire Alexander (concussion) and linebacker Krys Barnes (calf) also left the game early.