If Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a little sore, it shouldn’t be from the abuse he has taken on game days. He has been sacked only four times in his last three games.
His “after hours” activities might have something to do with it, however.
Rodgers spent a couple of hours the other night shoveling the 13 inches of snow the north wind dumped on his driveway. Seems the snow removal company didn’t show up.
Rodgers is the type of guy who is going to try to get the job done with or without the appropriate support. He hasn’t always had the help he has needed on game day this year, as the Packers’ protection problems resulted in 41 sacks in their first nine games.
But the Packers’ offense has started to click in the last month. It has had the same five starting offensive linemen for three games, they are communicating better and the clock in Rodgers’ head is keeping better time when he’s in the pocket.
Rodgers had been criticized earlier in the year for holding the ball too long and contributing to the sack total. There has not been much to criticize lately. There is no question Rodgers will come to Soldier Field on Sunday playing the best football of his career.
His passer rating of 103.3 is fourth in the NFL. His third-down passer rating of 132.0 is best in the league. And he has thrown for more yards than all but four quarterbacks.
“He has been very consistent,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “He doesn’t swing too high and doesn’t swing too low. His good games are closer to his not too good games. He has been a good decision-maker.”
What Rodgers has done best is avoid interceptions. He has thrown only seven this year. In fact, he and Vikings quarterback Brett Favre became only the fifth and sixth players in NFL history to throw 25 or more touchdowns and seven or fewer interceptions in their first 12 games, according to the NFC North Blog at ESPN.com.
“There are a lot worse things than a throw-away and a punt,” Rodgers said of his avoiding interceptions. “Coach [Jeff] Tedford at Cal used to say it, and coach McCarthy has said it. Not turning the ball over is always going to keep you in the game.”
It has helped, Rodgers said, that McCarthy gives him the freedom to change the play when he sees a defensive look he doesn’t like at the line of scrimmage. And Rodgers has chosen his plays wisely.
“There is a lot of responsibility in making the right check,” Rodgers said. “I realize I have to put us in good situations or that freedom is going to be taken away.”
Rodgers has used his feet as well as his head to avoid bad throws. He has run for 277 yards, more than any quarterback in the league.
“It’s a part of our offense that has to be accounted for, my ability to move around the pocket and get yards with my feet,” he said. “It’s a part of my game I always felt has been a little underrated.”
It’s a part of Rodgers’ game he focused on in the offseason, working in California with personal trainer Todd Dirkin and joining Saints quarterback Drew Brees, Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson, Bucs tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. and Bears cornerback Charles Tillman for speed and strength sessions. As a result, Rodgers came to camp feeling as quick and fast as he did when he came out of Cal five years ago.
Rodgers might need that speed Sunday if the weather makes passing difficult. But this California boy knows how to play in the winter. In eight career games in which the temperature has been below 40, Rodgers has a 96.6 passer rating.
“God blessed me with some pretty big hands, so for the most part I’ve done a pretty good job throwing in cold weather,” Rodgers said.
At the 2005 NFL scouting combine, Rodgers’ hands measured 10 1/8 inches. That’s big compared with the hands of 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, the first pick in the 2005 draft whose hands measured 9 1/8 inches.
Big hands or not, Rodgers isn’t crazy about the cold.
But playing a cold-weather game in Chicago might help him get to a warm-weather game in Miami — where the Pro Bowl will be played in January.
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dpompei@tribune.com
