GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN – OCTOBER 20: Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers looks on before the game against the Oakland Raiders at Lambeau Field on October 20, 2019 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Aaron Rodgers hasn’t needed to be great for the Packers to win this season, but on Sunday against Oakland he reminded everyone of his ability.
The Packers managed to win five of their first six games this season without putting too much pressure on Aaron Rodgers. That caused some people to forget just how good the future Hall of Fame quarterback can be. He elected to remind everyone of just how devastating he can be against the Raiders.
Oakland may not have the best defense in the NFL, but Rodgers made them look like one of the worst units in the league on Sunday. The veteran signal caller threw for five touchdowns and ran for one more in his team’s dominating 42-24 win. The win propelled Green Bay to a 6-1 start and allowed them to remain on top of the NFC North.
The big story here was Rodgers showing everyone that he still has what it takes to dominate a game. Head coach Matt LaFleur has done a terrific job of building a quality system around his quarterback. That doesn’t mean the Packers cdon’t need Rodgers to be great if they’re going to reach their full potential. The best hope Green Bay has to win another Super Bowl title is for Rodgers to get hot down the stretch and transcend what LaFleur reasonably expects his offense to do.
The organization doesn’t want Rodgers to do that during every week of the regular season, but it’s very comforting for Packers fans to realize he still has what it takes to play that way on occasion. The 35-year-old gunslinger was close to perfect against the overmatched Raiders defense. He finished the game with a QB Rating of 158.3 on the back of completing 25-of-31 passes for 429 yards. Rodgers was sacked once on the afternoon, but he benefited from great perfection during most of the game. That allowed him to pick apart the Oakland secondary even without his best receiver, Davante Adams, on the field.
The key for the Packers moving forward will be to make sure that they don’t revert back to looking for Rodgers to be a hero every week. The way forward for the franchise is still to stick to LaFleur’s plan. That means Green Bay should continue to work hard to play good defense and move the ball methodically on offense. Knowing they have Rodgers as a trump card drastically raises the ceiling of this team, but it’s not something the Packers should rely on too much until the postseason arrives.