Should a-rod have played?

[red]

i just can't get the idea out of my head that it was a mistake to not play a-rod in that final regular season game

sure you never want to risk your most valuable player in a meaningless game, but fact is, our QB went 2 full weeks without taking a game time snap.

rodgers looked "off" or "rusty" or something after 2 weeks off.it wasn't the same MVP we saw play in every other game this year

the last two superbowl champs were teams that got hot at the end of the year, and didn't rest or get a week off. they had to keep the pedal too the floor

so should he have played even if it was just a quarter or a half? let him prepare for a game and warmup and stay sharp knowing that they would already have the next week off?

or was it the right move and it was just a fluke or the giants d that caused a-rod to have his worst game by far of the year? obviously it wasn't rodgers fault that 40 of his passes were dropped and the defense looked like shit. but he still missed a lot of passes that he usually puts on a dime



thoughts?

[channtheman]

I agree he should have played, but I disagree that Rodgers looked way off in the playoff game. Rodgers was 26/46 264 yards. Add in the 8 drops and Rodgers is all of a sudden 34/46 easily over 300 yards (probably close to 350) and he has at least one more TD. I know it's not completely accurate to say this, but the point I am making is, the drops were much more a cause of the loss than Rodgers being "off." I would only say Rodgers was off on 2 throws. The Finley throw on 3rd down was bad, and then the Jennings throw for a TD early in the game (though Jennings appeared to turn the wrong way, so this one might not even be on Rodgers that much).

Despite the drops, I actually think the 2 fumbles by Kuhn and Grant are what really cost us this game. Take those away, and we probably win.

[sharpe1027]

Rodgers gets injured and everyone is screaming for MM's head. Damned if you do damned if you don't. And, I agree with channtheman, Rodgers didn't have his best game, but he played well enough. Especially when you consider all the first downs he picked up with his feet.

[pbmax]

Jennings, Clifton and Bulaga missing time and having relatively few snaps with the rest of the offense hurt more than Rodgers taking one game off. Not sure rotating Clifton and Newhouse was helping either. Starks missing time did not help his pass blocking. Finley's head being in an alternate dimension did not help at all in the second half of the season. You could see the effect of some of these departures in the games preceding the playoffs.

Rodgers took an entire offseason off, played next to nothing in preseason and blew the doors off the Saints. One week did not change his game that much. The Giants also had a very good D.

[Smeefers]

If rodgers gets hurt in the season finale with nothing on the line, it would have been horrible. Given the same circumstances, I sit him every time. It wasn't worth the risk.

[Upnorth]

I would have played him for the first quarter. Give him a bit of work, but mostly rest. Also hindsight is 20-20.

[Old School]

Here's a case where even hindsight isn't 20/20. It's impossible to make a real case without evidence to the contrary.

One thing we know is that if Rodgers had started the Lion game, the Lions would have been headhunting. They would have loved to hang their hats on knocking AR out of the playoffs. I say it was too big a risk.

Even allowing that AR "might" have been a little off, there are 10 other guys on offense. And the 11 on defense didn't exactly distinguish themselves either.

[mmmdk]

AR playing or not playing simply screams to the sky that too much emphasis was placed on our QB to win it all; last season Green Bay Packers won the SB as a team playing offense, defense, ST & good coaching as well.

Wether AR played or not versus Lions in week 17 is not the real Q here!

[channtheman]

I actually don't think it would have been such a problem if Rodgers had been knocked out of the Lions game. After all, we have a record setting QB right behind him.

And mmmdk nailed it. Last year, we were a team, this year we were Rodgers. I just hope we don't suffer through 7 more years of being great because of Rodgers, but never winning another Super Bowl.

[sharpe1027]

I disagree that this year's team relied more upon Rodgers than last year's team. Sure, Rodgers played even better than last year, but they went 15-1 because of it. They played better on ST and on Offense this year as a whole, not just because of Rodgers. This team is not the Colts, it is closer to the Patriots. If Rodgers didn't play a down last year, I think that they'd still have had a great shot at making the playoffs with about 10 wins. Rodgers playing, however, means 5 more wins.

Just my opinion, and no way to really prove it. The best evidence is probably the Detroit game where Rodger's didn't even play a snap.

[Jimx29]

there's absolutely no doubt in my mind had he played at least the first half, he wouldn't of been off a couple degrees which is what was in my opinion why there were drops.

[sharpe1027]

My vague recollection was that the drops hit the receiver square in the hands for an otherwise easy catch. There's no use in blaming Rodgers for that.

Even if he played against Detroit, he still would have had an entire week off. Where's the cut-off? After all, he went 21-26 with 4TDs coming off the bye week. Is 7 days OK, but 8 days too much? 9? 10? When is it such sure thing that you can have no doubt? Maybe the time off was part of the problem, but maybe he has a bad game against Detroit and it makes him even worse than the time off. One thing is relatively certain, getting hurt doesn't help his play.

[PA Pack Fan]

I would only say Rodgers was off on 2 throws.

You need to watch the game again.

[sharpe1027]

You need to watch the game again.

I agree that he missed several more than 2. He has had much better games.

[Pugger]

But his passes got worse the more our WRs dropped them. I'm sure he began to press and try to do too much. I don't think his average performance - he wasn't great, we are just accustomed to brilliant play by our fabulous QB - was because he didn't play against Detroit. I don't blame any one player or group of players/coaches for that disappointment. There is plenty of blame to go around for everybody.