|
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Six quarterbacks in NFL history had thrown 400 touchdown passes before Aaron Rodgers reached that milestone Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles. None of them did it as quickly as Rodgers. Not Drew Brees, Peyton Manning nor Tom Brady. Not Dan Marino, Brett Favre nor Philip Rivers. The Green Bay Packers quarterback reached 400 touchdown passes for his career in his 193rd regular-season game. That's 12 fewer games than Brees, who was previously the fastest to 400. On his milestone day, Rodgers finished 25-of-34 passing for 295 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in Green Bay's 30-16 victory that pushed the Packers to 9-3, one game behind the New Orleans Saints in the race for the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. Rodgers, who turned 37 on Wednesday, began the day needing three touchdown passes to reach 400. With those three scores Sunday, he also reached 36 for the year, giving him his fifth season with at least 35 touchdowns -- the most such seasons in NFL history. He had been tied with Brady, Brees and Manning at four each. "Those are fun milestones for sure," Rodgers said. "I'm not sure how long I'll be able to hold on to the second one. There's some really good young quarterbacks I'm guessing are amassing some numbers in that vicinity. But it does speak to the consistency over a long period of time that I'm very proud of." After a four-touchdown game the previous week against the Chicago Bears, Rodgers threw two more in the first half against the Eagles. No. 398 came on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, a fade to Davante Adams, who tied a Packers record with touchdown catches in seven consecutive games (Don Hutson did it twice in the 1940s). Career touchdown No. 399 came in the final minute of the second quarter, when Rodgers narrowly avoided a sack in time to find Robert Tonyan wide open down the field for a 25-yarder. No. 400 came in the third quarter and went to who else but Adams. It capped a 99-yard drive Rodgers started with a 42-yard bomb to Adams from the back of his own end zone. "[My teammates] didn't say a whole lot during the week, but it's always interesting to see who gets the milestone throw," Rodgers said. "Pretty cool that Davante got it. I didn't do a whole lot on that play. It was a really good schemed play. He did the whole thing, stiff-armed his way into the end zone. But yeah, it was fun to have those milestones back-to-back weeks. Like I said last week, a lot of it is longevity, but there also is some consistent play tied to it." Adams presented the ball to Rodgers after the play, which prompted former Packers wide receiver James Jones to compliment Adams for his awareness. Jones tweeted that he threw Rodgers' 100th career touchdown pass into the stands. "Like four hours before the game, I saw somebody tweeted me -- I was on Twitter and somebody tweeted out that he needed three more, he was at 397, he needed three more," Adams said. "So I made everybody on the team aware who's a pass-catcher. I said, 'Whoever catches the third touchdown today, don't throw the ball, keep the ball,' because I don't think Aaron has any of his century-mark touchdown passes. "It's something special to be a part of that, because I caught I believe his 200th -- that was my first touchdown -- so I got to keep that ball, he let me keep that one. And then 300 I think Ty [Montgomery] kept or gave to the ref. To be able to get 400, man, it's awesome. It's a lot of touchdowns to throw. It's cool for me, but I think he wins in the coolness department on that." Rodgers is the only quarterback who had fewer than 100 interceptions (he has 88) at the time he reached 400 touchdowns. "Now, I'm going to see if I can get to 500 before I throw 100 picks," Rodgers said.
|
