The 49ers ran away with their Week 12 matchup against the Green Bay Packers. They never trailed in a 38-7 romp on Sunday Night Football, and established themselves as one of the best teams in the league.
Typically blowing a team out by 29 points gives a lot of optimism that another victory is on the horizon in a second meeting. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers singlehandedly eliminates that idea according to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Shanahan told reporters that even when the 49ers went into halftime with a 23-0 lead over Green Bay in Week 12, it didn’t feel like they’d really put the game away because of the quarterback on the other side of the field.
“He’s never out of the game,” Shanahan said. “I think we were up 23-0 at halftime versus him and he made it 23-8 after his first drive. It’s 23-8 halfway through the third quarter, and I think it’s a tight game because of who is over there at quarterback. We were fortunate enough, I think, the next drive to get the big play to Kittle which made it 30-8 and then it kind of got away, but Aaron is as good of a player who has played this game, he can make every single throw. He’s got a lot of players around him and there’s a reason he seems to be in this game a lot.”
Rodgers had arguably the worst game of his career against San Francisco in their Week 12 showdown. He got sacked five times and finished just 104 yards on 33 attempts. Still, Shanahan knows a repeat performance of that sorts isn’t easy against a future Hall of Famer.
“There’s probably not anyone on the planet who throws better than him,” Shanahan said. “There might be a couple guys that you can compare with him, but his arm talent is just unbelievable, his athletic ability is unbelievable. He’s always been able to run around, extend plays, make throws from any angle and he’s a very intelligent guy who can get them in the right play and it’s hard to throw stuff at him that he’s not prepared for.”
Rodgers, in his first year in a new offense and without his top wide receiver Davante Adams for four games, still managed to throw for 4,002 yards with 26 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He was as good as he’s been all year in Green Bay’s divisional round win over the Seahawks. In that game he threw for 243 yards and two touchdowns, but he looked as in sync with his receivers as he’s been all year, and he tossed a couple of third-down dimes on Green Bay’s final drive that substantiated Shanahan’s claim that Rodgers is the best football thrower on the planet.
While Green Bay doesn’t have the offensive weapons they’ve had in the past, they still have an exceptionally dangerous offense thanks in large part to their quarterback. All the talk of slowing down running back Aaron Jones and stopping wide receiver Davante Adams is valid, but slowing the Packers has everything to do with slowing Rodgers.
The 49ers will win if they bother him again and get him out of the comfort zone that allows him to make the kinds of throws Shanahan was talking about.