The Green Bay Packers are in the midst of (another) nightmare season, and for really the first time in his career, Aaron Rodgers is taking a lot of the blame.
Green Bay lost Sunday night in Minnesota against the Vikings, and now sitting at 4-6-1, its playoff chances are minuscule at best. If the Packers are going to make the playoffs, they’re going to need an insane run and a lot of help.
If that’s going to happen, the Packers need Rodgers — and everyone else around him — to be better. But in a season where a Packers vs. New England Patriots matchup ignited the latest round of Rodgers vs. Tom Brady debate, it’s becoming downright impossible to make a case for Rodgers as the greatest of all time or whatever you want to argue.
That’s in large part because for every stat about how great Brady has been for his entire career, there seem to be stats like this one uncovered by TV writer Will Presti on Sunday night.
We’re not sure what Brady’s record is in similar games, but well, there was that whole 28-3 thing in the Super Bowl a few years ago that comes to mind.
Of course, certain caveats are needed when looking at a stat like that.
For starters, this only includes comebacks against teams who had winning records at the time of the game. So a fourth-quarter comeback in Week 5 last season against Dallas doesn’t count, nor does a comeback against the Houston Texans in Week 13 in 2016 or a Week 1 comeback against the Seattle Seahawks in 2015. All three of those teams went on to have winning records. It also apparently doesn’t include the playoffs, so Rodgers’ three-touchdown performance against a 13-3 Cowboys team in the 2017 divisional round doesn’t make the list. Rodgers and the Packers also don’t get credit for their Week 1 win over the Chicago Bears, during which a hobbled Rodgers sliced and diced the vaunted Chicago defense.
And there’s also a group of football fans and media who disparage the importance or worth of win-loss as a quarterback stat. Rodgers undoubtedly has been held back by coaching or roster building or defenses or any other myriad factors out of Rodgers’ control.
Still, it seems borderline impossible that he and the Packers couldn’t win at least one of these games, something Brady has done multiple times, and this just serves as one more piece of ammunition in the one-sided Brady-Rodgers debate.
