Captain Comeback? Can Rodgers lead us from behind?

[FrankRizzo]

Vic & Mike have a nice thing here, and the key for the Packers, Mike says, is the Packers getting ahead early. I would agree. http://www.packers.com/media-center...Thoughts/f6b01399-e47c-43f7-b80d-9dc06fdc1ee3

For all of Rodgers greatness, historic really, the one thing he obviously has not been "great" at is pulling out victories when the Packers fall behind.

This has been well-documented, and debated back & forth here and elsewhere. We all want to defend our guy, but he's not been able to pull out the dramatic escapes like Eli, Brady, Montana, Elway, etc. That's the only part missing from Rodgers all-time greatness.

And Rodgers, unlike Brady, doesn't have the clutch kicker Vinitieri to seal the deal for him with the game-winning kicks if that's all it took.

This is why I worry so much. It seems for us to win, we always have to be in the lead!
If we get behind, it's a bad thing......
Even the Arizona playoff loss where we did rally and tie it, we never could get the lead.

The Giants game, again, fell behind.

Now my dream scenario here today is, even though we might lose a few fans from heart attacks, is for Rodgers to have THE DRIVE like Elway had to beat the Browns, Big Ben to win the Super Bowl over Warner's Cardinals. Eli to beat the Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl. Montana to beat the Bengals in the 1990 Super Bowl, hitting Taylor for the win.

Packers down 27-23, get the ball with 2:34 left on the clock, at our own 3 yard line.
And he systematically carves them up on a 97-yard drive, converting 4 third downs along the way (no 4th downs, my heart couldn't take that).... and finishing it with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jermichael Finley on 3rd & goal with 6 seconds left. Crosby doesn't even have to make the PAT.

 

[FrankRizzo]

You must be logged in to see this image or video!

You must be logged in to see this image or video!

You must be logged in to see this image or video!

You must be logged in to see this image or video!

 

[weeds]

I know what you're saying...I would argue that even Rodgers can't make up for a very forgiving turnstile defense... the Arizona playoff game -- come on, Frank...I would argue that Rodgers brought them back 3 times. In the height of the criticism leveled against Rodgers ( '08? '09?? ) I remember sitting at Lambeau arguing with a Packers fan during the Carolina game... the guy was saying, "Rodgers will never bring them back..." I just turned to him and replied, "Man, he's brought them back three times already, only to have special teams and defensive cave-ins".

I don't think that anyone has ever documented such an argument ... I think that the initial argument was a definite case of confirmatory bias. Just my opinion.

 

[PackFanNChiTown]

Yes.

 

[Dan115]

I want a rout may he never have to bring us back ever.

 

[ExpatPacker]

I think he can, but the question is, how far back. There's a huge difference in being down a TD and being down more than 14 points. I have full confidence in Rodgers in the former case, but in the latter case SF's defense is too good to give us much of a chance.

 

[HyponGrey]

You must be logged in to see this image or video!

You must be logged in to see this image or video!

http://www.packerforum.com/threads/aaron-rodgers-mr-irrelevant-in-fourth-quarter.37622/

Yes yes we heard all this before, then Aaron led a few comebacks during the season, but now those aren't legit, and the fact that he doesn't usually have to lead a comeback, or that he doesn't play defense has nothing to do with anything, but do go on.

 

[FrankRizzo]

I remember sitting at Lambeau arguing with a Packers fan during the Carolina game... the guy was saying, "Rodgers will never bring them back..." I just turned to him and replied, "Man, he's brought them back three times already, only to have special teams and defensive cave-ins"

I remember that game well, that whole season well.
He was super good, but the defense and special teams were pathetic.
That's why there were mass firings, and we brought Capers in.

I argued against Andrew Luck for ROY this year as I believe RG3 & Russell Wilson were better.

But I give Luck big time props for playing his best in the 4th quarter, and pulling out wins when they looked like they were going to lose, many times. Hell, against us once too.

I can't think of any, really, signature gritty, come from behind, TD on the final drive to win, for us.

The best one I can recall, and I pointed it out then, was the regular season loss in Atlanta 2010. Rodgers was clutch city on that final drive, 4th & goal hit Jordy to tie it very late.
I said then and there, NOW we know he has ice water in his veins.

But really, in our 2010 title run, we never trailed by more than a score.
When things start bad, get off track, can he get the offense back on track and steal a game?

I don't mind Dan115, rout wins everytime.
I like those too!

But against good-great defenses/teams, sometimes it's a grind out there and you just gotta come up clutch in the 4th quarter.... 2 drives, 2 touchdowns.... again, it doesn't help having an unclutch kicker. Crosby has missed a lot more than he's made when games are on the line at the very end.

 

[SpartaChris]

Having to lead a comeback means you didn't play well enough to during the rest of the game to take and hold a lead.

Also, Rodgers led a comeback to tie the game in week 17 against Miniscrotum, same as he did against Arizona in the playoffs, and Atlanta in 2010 and a few other times I can't recall right off the top of my head. But as has been said, numerous times, he doesn't play defense. Or special teams.

Plus he's led COUNTLESS comebacks in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

This whole discussion is stupid.

 

[LZ13]

Maybe we don't notice his outstanding 4th qtr play because of his outstanding 1st, 2nd, and 3rd qtr play. We have gotten used to a QB that has an interception only once per two games on average and 2.5 TDs per game. And a comeback can not happen without the defense holding their end.

 

[FrankRizzo]

3-0 SF
3-3
10-3 SF, end of 1st quarter
10-6 SF
17-6 SF
17-13 SF, halftime, Rodgers scores TD right before halftime

24-13 SF
24-16 SF
27-16 SF, end third quarter

27-19 SF
27-27, 3 minutes to go, Packers tie it and get 2 PAT.
defenses 3 & out, Rodgers gets ball at 25 with 1:07 to go.....

30-27 GB, Crosby makes 40-yard FG as time expires after Rodgers moves it 53 yards in 1:05.
Candlestick Park is SILENCED.
Except the 6,000 cheeseheads who party like it's 1999 again.

Packers never lead, until the last play of the game.
That's the type of grind-it-out, battle win I want to see. That will silence almost any remaining Rodgers critics.

 

[Chicocheese]

Well, to say that your dream is to see Rodgers lead us back from 4 points down to win is a little silly. I would rather see us up 32 points and have a no-doubt win.

However, as far as him not leading us to comebacks...well I have to disagree. Here's why (and this is just off the top of my head.):

1) Atlanta in the 2011 regular season, week 5. I believe we were down by 14 points at half time. We ended up winning that game.

2) Giants in 2011 regular season, week...13? That was a shoot out, but we ended up driving a majority of the field on 3 AWESOME Aaron Rodgers throws that then led to a Crosby FG for the win.

3) Lions away game this season. Down by 6 with a little over 2 minutes to go. Rodgers and the O drive down the field, and Aaron tosses a TD pass to Randall Cobb in the endzone. Crosby nails the PAT. Then our D held the Lions in check for the final minute or so, forcing a 4 and out.

Those are just off the top of my head. Rodgers MORE than has the ability.

 

[HyponGrey]

3-0 SF
3-3
10-3 SF, end of 1st quarter
10-6 SF
17-6 SF
17-13 SF, halftime, Rodgers scores TD right before halftime

24-13 SF
24-16 SF
27-16 SF, end third quarter

27-19 SF
27-27, 3 minutes to go, Packers tie it and get 2 PAT.
defenses 3 & out, Rodgers gets ball at 25 with 1:07 to go.....

30-27 GB, Crosby makes 40-yard FG as time expires after Rodgers moves it 53 yards in 1:05.
Candlestick Park is SILENCED.
Except the 6,000 cheeseheads who party like it's 1999 again.

Packers never lead, until the last play of the game.
That's the type of grind-it-out, battle win I want to see. That will silence almost any remaining Rodgers critics.

No it won't, people will just say 49ers didn't get as lucky as they did against Brady. I believe we already have a win like that, just not in the playoffs against a serious team. Let the critics talk, I want a convincing win, that'll silence more critics short term

 

[HyponGrey]

2) Giants in 2011 regular season, week...13? That was a shoot out, but we ended up driving a majority of the field on 3 AWESOME Aaron Rodgers throws that then led to a Crosby FG for the win.

Oh but Aaron didn't finish it off himself, so that doesn't count. /sarcasm

 

[FrankRizzo]

Nope.
Obviously it's not all on Rodgers here since the defense played like 11 junior high girls.
But still, no signature comebacks.

 

[KayIslandDrunk]

Um.... just as a friendly FYI, you might not want to use "Captain Comeback" in day-to-day conversation. It means something completely different from what you're thinking of.

 

[HyponGrey]

Nope.
Obviously it's not all on Rodgers here since the defense played like 11 junior high girls.
But still, no signature comebacks.

I don't buy into that propaganda, but if that's what you need in order to validate...

 

[FrankRizzo]

I don't buy into that propaganda, but if that's what you need in order to validate...

I don't like propaganda, but it's true that we're great when all systems are go, but when it's a struggle, we rarely pull them out.

He was outplayed by Kaepernick last night.

 

[HyponGrey]

I don't like propaganda, but it's true that we're great when all systems are go, but when it's a struggle, we rarely pull them out.

He was outplayed by Kaepernick last night.

I disagree. That loss was strictly on our defense and their lack of discipline. We came out firing in the second half, allowing SF defense to tee off on AR without fear. That was our undoing offensively.

 

[PFanCan]

I can complain about a lot of things right now. But, one of them is not Rodger's come-back attributes. What a useless statistic.

So, if a QB never loses a game in his entire career because he leads his team to insurmountable leads early on... Would people still be pointing at his failure for any "comebacks"?

Look at the win-loss record and the rings. That's ALL that matters.

 

[HyponGrey]

I can complain about a lot of things right now. But, one of them is not Rodger's come-back attributes. What a useless statistic.

So, if a QB never loses a game in his entire career because he leads his team to insurmountable leads early on... Would people still be pointing at his failure for any "comebacks"?

Look at the win-loss record and the rings. That's ALL that matters.

Dilfer has as many rings as P.Manning

 

[PFanCan]

Dilfer has as many rings as P.Manning

DOH!

 

[weeds]

Nope.
Obviously it's not all on Rodgers here since the defense played like 11 junior high girls.
But still, no signature comebacks.

I think that somewhere there are 11 junior high girls that are pissed off at being compared to the Packers defense.

...and on the eighth day, God created a defense that Aaron Rodgers wouldn't have to out-run....and he looked upon it and saw that it was good ... and we all lived happily ever after.

The End.