Written by Erin B. Underwood at Acme Packing Company.com
When the Green Bay Packers met the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome in week eight, Green Bay’s performance was drastically different from the performances fans have become accustomed to seeing in recent weeks. The loss to Atlanta was the first for the Packers as they skidded through a four-game losing streak. Comments like ‘McCarthy has to go’ and ‘Aaron Rodgers is on a downward spiral’ began spreading like wildfire.
Then, just like a flick of magic right out of a box-office thriller, Rodgers declared that the Packers would win their next six games and “run the table”. So what exactly are the key difference makers that have taken the Packers from a losing record to the NFC title game?
When Atlanta hosted Green Bay midway through the regular season, the Packers were dealing with several big injuries. The inactive list entirely consisted of key playmakers: Randall Cobb,Damarious Randall, Quinten Rollins, James Starks, Clay Matthews, Ty Montgomery, and Jared Cook.
For a secondary that was already struggling after the loss of CB Sam Shields, being withoutRandall and Rollins was damaging. The Packers tasked second-year CB LaDarius Gunter with matching up against Julio Jones in the game against Atlanta. Jones was targeted just five times and held to a season-low three catches for 29 yards, although he was dealing with ongoing toe and ankle injuries.
Another big injury zone to note was that of James Starks and Ty Montgomery. The Packers’ run game was already hurting without Eddie Lacy who was placed on IR two weeks prior. Green Bay resorted to using former Chief Knile Davis who had just 3 carries for 4 yards, Don Jackson with 4 carries for 10 yards and Aaron Ripkowski who had 6 carries for 34 yards. In fact, Aaron Rodgers was the leading rusher against Atlanta with 6 carries for 60 yards.
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