McGinn's Game Tape

[Gunakor]

not shitting on Rodgers. He played well, but didn't make the big play to win the game. It is what it is.

When a QB throws for 400+ and 4 TD's and loses the game, that's not on the QB. Both Rodgers and Warner did enough to win. Had the Packers won, the blame for Arizona would have been on their defense for allowing Rodgers to do what he did in that game. Being the other way around, the blame should go to the Packers defense for allowing Warner to do what Warner did in that game.

Had our defense bothered to step off the plane and onto the tarmac in Arizona, we wouldn't need Rodgers to connect with Jennings for an 80 yard TD to win the game. We'd have been kneeling on the ball to kill the 4th quarter from the victory formation and buying up travel packages to New Orleans this weekend.

When you lose a football game 51-45 you don't blame the offense. You don't say the offense choked. You don't say the QB choked when he throws for 400+ yards and 4 TD's. Not when the stellar play of your QB is the ONLY reason you're even in the game in the first place. You say the defense forgot to show up and place blame on them. Completely. I mean, how many times are you going to see a football team score 45 points in one football game and lose? Rodgers played a better game than anyone else in a Packers jersey on Sunday. You can't put this one on him.

Nobody cuts Lefty (Phil) any slack when he chokes on the back nine on sunday of a major. They don't talk about all the great shots he made to be in that position thurs-sat, only that he choked sunday

Golf is to football as apples are to oranges. When a golfer slides down the leaderboard on the back nine he has nobody to blame but himself. He didn't have all those top flight performances thursday through saturday only to have someone else let him down on sunday. Rodgers was let down by his defense. A defense that couldn't make a key stop all afternoon, even during Rodgers furious effort to bring the team back from certain elimination. There is no defense to let Phil down on the back nine, the only one who can let Phil down is Phil. Apples to oranges.

[Patler]

There are really two different sets of questions being asked, and I think many people are confusing the answers and analysis for one with the questions of the other:

First set of questions
Did Rodgers produce well enough to win? - Yes
Was the loss primarily due to the lack of performance on defense? - Yes
Should they have needed the completion to Jennings in overtime to win? - No.

Second set of questions
Should Rodgers have been able to connect with Jennings in OT? - Yes
Would a completion have required an extraordinary throw? - No.
Was Rodgers presented with a one play opportunity to win the game? - Yes
By not completing the pass, did Rodgers leave the job undone? - Yes

The incompletion to Jennings was an individual play open to examination apart from Rodgers' overall game performance, and expectations regarding the play do not change as a result of Rodgers earlier performance.

[Bretsky]

There are really two different sets of questions being asked, and I think many people are confusing the answers and analysis for one with the questions of the other:

First set of questions
Did Rodgers produce well enough to win? - Yes
Was the loss primarily due to the lack of performance on defense? - Yes
Should they have needed the completion to Jennings in overtime to win? - No.

Second set of questions
Should Rodgers have been able to connect with Jennings in OT? - Yes
Would a completion have required an extraordinary throw? - No.
Was Rodgers presented with a one play opportunity to win the game? - Yes
By not completing the pass, did Rodgers leave the job undone? - Yes

The incompletion to Jennings was an individual play open to examination apart from Rodgers' overall game performance, and expectations regarding the play do not change as a result of Rodgers earlier performance.

[get louder at lambeau]

Not many people watching that game could fault Aaron Rodgers play overall. He was outstanding. Trouble is... ' outstanding ' was trumped by Curt Warners ' perfect '.

That's it in a nutshell.

Judged by the most commonly used standard of objective measure for QB play- passer rating, Rodgers had the 3rd best game of his career. He ended with a 121.3 rating, plus a rushing TD and a fumble lost. 5 total TDs. That's a lot for any QB in any game, much less a young QB in his first playoff game.

Unfortunately Packer fans don't really get to celebrate Rodgers's great game, because the other QB was about as close to perfect as any QB in history has ever been in the playoffs.

[denverYooper]

The incompletion to Jennings was an individual play open to examination apart from Rodgers' overall game performance, and expectations regarding the play do not change as a result of Rodgers earlier performance.

Even Rodgers admitted that this is the play that kept him awake at night after the game.

I have a good feeling that we'll get to see him hit some of those in his career to win games.

[Harlan Huckleby]

People are giving Rodgers too much blame for taking that final sack. It was third down. What chance do the PAckers have if they have to punt from deep in their own territory? The defense had hardly stopped Arizona all day, they would start nearly in field goal range. Rodgers had to take a chance in that situation.

[Smidgeon]

Not many people watching that game could fault Aaron Rodgers play overall. He was outstanding. Trouble is... ' outstanding ' was trumped by Curt Warners ' perfect '.

That's it in a nutshell.

Judged by the most commonly used standard of objective measure for QB play- passer rating, Rodgers had the 3rd best game of his career. He ended with a 121.3 rating, plus a rushing TD and a fumble lost. 5 total TDs. That's a lot for any QB in any game, much less a young QB in his first playoff game.

Unfortunately Packer fans don't really get to celebrate Rodgers's great game, because the other QB was about as close to perfect as any QB in history has ever been in the playoffs.

Not to undermine your point becasue it's a good point, but the QB rating was never intended to measure a QB's play over the course of a game. It was designed by the Elias Sports Bureau (the stat place) to measure a QB's play over a season. So while it is a measure that can be used to categorize his play (or Warner's play) in this game or any other game, it's not the best measure. I don't know what the best would be. Maybe who won and who didn't. Maybe turnovers. Maybe third down conversions. Maybe fourth down conversions. Maybe crucial first downs. Maybe TDs. I don't know. But the QB rating's value is better in the long term than it is in the short term.

[get louder at lambeau]

Not many people watching that game could fault Aaron Rodgers play overall. He was outstanding. Trouble is... ' outstanding ' was trumped by Curt Warners ' perfect '.

That's it in a nutshell.

Judged by the most commonly used standard of objective measure for QB play- passer rating, Rodgers had the 3rd best game of his career. He ended with a 121.3 rating, plus a rushing TD and a fumble lost. 5 total TDs. That's a lot for any QB in any game, much less a young QB in his first playoff game.

Unfortunately Packer fans don't really get to celebrate Rodgers's great game, because the other QB was about as close to perfect as any QB in history has ever been in the playoffs.

Not to undermine your point becasue it's a good point, but the QB rating was never intended to measure a QB's play over the course of a game. It was designed by the Elias Sports Bureau (the stat place) to measure a QB's play over a season. So while it is a measure that can be used to categorize his play (or Warner's play) in this game or any other game, it's not the best measure. I don't know what the best would be. Maybe who won and who didn't. Maybe turnovers. Maybe third down conversions. Maybe fourth down conversions. Maybe crucial first downs. Maybe TDs. I don't know. But the QB rating's value is better in the long term than it is in the short term.

Never said "best", I said "most commonly used".

It's clearly a better measure when averaged over time, but until someone comes up with a better per game composite rating system, it probably is the "best" as well, since it takes more aspects of play into account than any other measure currently available. The others that you mention are only tiny individual parts of a QB's performance, not a composite measure of overall performance, so they would be more likely to show skewed results than passer rating. I'd love to see someone come up with a more comprehensive stat, but there currently isn't one that I know of so passer rating is the best and most widely accepted statistical measure of QB performance that we have.

[Smidgeon]

Not many people watching that game could fault Aaron Rodgers play overall. He was outstanding. Trouble is... ' outstanding ' was trumped by Curt Warners ' perfect '.

That's it in a nutshell.

Judged by the most commonly used standard of objective measure for QB play- passer rating, Rodgers had the 3rd best game of his career. He ended with a 121.3 rating, plus a rushing TD and a fumble lost. 5 total TDs. That's a lot for any QB in any game, much less a young QB in his first playoff game.

Unfortunately Packer fans don't really get to celebrate Rodgers's great game, because the other QB was about as close to perfect as any QB in history has ever been in the playoffs.

Not to undermine your point becasue it's a good point, but the QB rating was never intended to measure a QB's play over the course of a game. It was designed by the Elias Sports Bureau (the stat place) to measure a QB's play over a season. So while it is a measure that can be used to categorize his play (or Warner's play) in this game or any other game, it's not the best measure. I don't know what the best would be. Maybe who won and who didn't. Maybe turnovers. Maybe third down conversions. Maybe fourth down conversions. Maybe crucial first downs. Maybe TDs. I don't know. But the QB rating's value is better in the long term than it is in the short term.

Never said "best", I said "most commonly used".

It's clearly a better measure when averaged over time, but until someone comes up with a better per game composite rating system, it probably is the "best" as well, since it takes more aspects of play into account than any other measure currently available. The others that you mention are only tiny individual parts of a QB's performance, not a composite measure of overall performance, so they would be more likely to show skewed results than passer rating. I'd love to see someone come up with a more comprehensive stat, but there currently isn't one that I know of so passer rating is the best and most widely accepted statistical measure of QB performance that we have.

I agree. I think they should come up with something that measures in game effectiveness.

Even if it was his third best game using that common standard, I would personally have a hard time putting a loss in his "best games" column. I would agree that from the statistic it was his third most effective game (or something like that), but it was still a loss, and in the end that's the only important statistic...except when we are all collectively prognosticating into the future...

<this is where I'd insert a smiley with a wizard's cap if I had such a smiley>

[Sparkey]

Thats what I didn't get. Once they got the score tied and into ot, why not run the ball down their throats. It seemed they could run the ball at will. I can't complain too much though as a perfect play was called, Jennings was wide open deep and Arod choked! The guy played an awsome game, but came up short, when it mattered most. Did the situation get too big for him? It seemed when Greenbay was chasing them all day and the pressure was off, he played great. As soon as the pressure was ratcheted up again, choke job!

The first play in OT was a great call. It was there for the taking, but the throw was a bit long and it also looks like on the play that Jennings sort of turned straight up the field and Rodgers threw a bit at an angle towards the corner. Don't think that mattered, though.

Second play, run that gains a big chunk, but called back on the hold by Colledge. Re-do on 2nd down goes to Jones for 15 of the 20. Third down, the defenders all came up at the snap and pressed the receivers. That caused AR to double clutch, which gave Adams the time to get to him.

For AZ, a perfect call at the perfect time. The hold by Colledge was a killer as it changed from 3rd and 1 to second and 20, which almost forces the throw on 3rd and 5.

The players gained a ton of experience in that game. Lets hope the lessons are learned for next season. lets also hope we don't have so many injuries on the secondary that the 7th db ends up starting...