The Packers will enter their Week 8 game very much focused on their own issues, whether it is in coverage on the defense, on the offensive line or in the passing game on offense, or–as was the case last week–whether the team’s charter plane has mechanical issues that keep the bunch grounded until hours before kickoff.
At 4-1-1, the Packers are the best team in the NFC, record-wise, but they’ve had difficult playing with the kind of dominance they showed in the first two weeks of the season, and there’s a feeling that they just haven’t hit their stride. But with a matchup in Pittsburgh against the Steelers and former Packers legend Aaron Rodgers in Week 8, they’re hoping to clean that up quickly.
That’s because Rodgers, despite being 42 years old, has the Steelers at 4-2 and has thrown for 1,270 yards, 14 touchdowns and five interceptions in six games. Matt LaFleur, who worked with Rodgers as head coach for four seasons before his departure, said his team will need to be ready.
Said LaFleur on Wednesday before practice: “He looks like he can still do anything. It’s surprising for such an old man he is still moving around pretty good, too.”
Packers Have No Secrets With Aaron Rodgers
LaFleur lamented that it will be tough to defend Rodgers because he knows the team and its tendencies so well. The Packers have cycled through defensive coordinators since Rodgers was in town, but LaFleur said there will be a challenge in making sure Rodgers is not one step ahead of them.
“It’s really, really, really difficult,” LaFleur said. “The best way to beat a quarterback is to get him on his back. I tell our guys all the time, it’s hard to throw when you’re on your back. So, our pass rush is going to have to be on point, we are going to have to do some things in our coverages and sometimes, you’ve got to hit in terms of what you’re calling vs. what they’re calling.”
Packers Must Be Wary of Running Ability
Rodgers mobility is a problem. He has been sacked just nine times in six games, a sack rate of 4.97%, second-lowest of his career. The Packers benefited from Rodgers’ elusiveness when he was in Green Bay, but he is coupling that with more smarts now.
“If you give him some room, he is going to take advantage of all the run alerts that they’re gonna have,” LaFleur said. “Shoot, we saw that for years. His ability to get the ball out of his hands is so quick and so accurate and it allows those guys to run after the catch.”
GettyGreen Bay Packers head coach, Matt LaFleur, reacting to a fourth quarter play in the game against the Arizona Cardinals.
Aaron Rodgers-Matt LaFleur ‘A Really Good Collaboration’
Still, LaFleur said he will be happy to see Rodgers, even in another team’s uniform. Rodgers will be well focused on getting the win, because the Packers are the one team in the league has never beaten–in fact, he has not played against Green Bay.
But LaFleur said he will remember working with Rodgers fondly.
“It was a really good collaboration. Obviously, you come in with some ideas of how you want to do things and then you get with a guy like him and you learn some other things,” he said.
“One of the things he does as well as anyone in the game is just how important the use of cadence is. There is has been nobody like him in the history of the game, just his ability to get free plays. I know that’s just a small example. But I am not going to come in here and say, ‘Hey this is how we are going to do this,’ when he already does it at a really high level.
“So there was a lot of give and take in regards to what we were going to do offensively. And just working through that process. And the only way you can do that is just spend a lot of time with one another and eventually we got to a really good spot.”
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