Green Bay Is Again Dangerous With Rodgers’ Revitalized Rhythm

Waking a sleeping giant is never a smart idea. Aaron Rodgers was criticized for filming too many commercials and for trying to throw the ball down the field too often and Green Bay got off to a 2-3 start. Then Sunday night’s game against the undefeated Texans game and Rodgers hunkered down and showed why he’s the reigning league MVP.

The Packers ran the ball well with Alex Green in the first half and Rodgers led a methodical, unstoppable attack to six TD’s and an easy win over the previously unbeaten Texans. Jordy Nelson led the league in TD catches for a wide receiver last season, and not coincidentally caught three TD tosses in the game that signified Rodgers’ return to his 2011 greatness. James Jones, who has five TD catches in his last three games, caught a pair of passes for touchdowns in a game against an undefeated team with what was viewed as the best defensive unit in the AFC.

“This is just a team that has a lot of pride in our locker room,” Rodgers said. “I said it this week, there’s not any quit in that locker room. It’s almost better when people are doubting us a little bit, I think. We kind of band together. People tried to pull us apart this week and we stuck together and found our motivation.”

That motivation could lead to a long winning streak considering Green Bay’s upcoming favorable schedule. If the running game, now led by Green and James Starks after the injury to Cedric Benson, can provide some sort of explosiveness that it lacked when Benson was the starter, then Green Bay can return to spreading the field and tearing defenses apart with quick slants, outs and timing patterns that made the Packer offense so lethal in 2011.

With games against St. Louis, Jacksonville, Arizona and Detroit in its next four, it won’t be surprising when the Packers are soon riding high atop the NFC North led by a revitalized Rodgers and an offense that finally re-found its comfort zone.