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| Brandon Contes. 13th January, 2012 - 10:23 pm
 Aaron Rodgers has started five playoff games in his career and he has been great, but each game has been on the road. His first game was in Arizona, a stadium with a retractable roof in a warm weather city allowing for perfect playing conditions. Rodgers was excellent, passing for 423 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Last year in the Divisional Round, Rodgers played in a dome where he dominated the Falcons, torching their defense for 366 yards, three touchdowns, and completing 86.1% of his passes.
In the Super Bowl, he again played in ideal weather conditions and again put up great numbers; 304 passing yards with 3 touchdowns.
His other two playoff games came in Philadelphia and Chicago, two cold weather cities.
In Philadelphia during last year's Wild Card round, Rodgers threw for three touchdowns but with only 180 passing yards, it wasn't the explosive offense were used to seeing from the Packers. In the NFC Championship game in Chicago, Rodgers got the win, but he played an undoubtedly bad game with no touchdowns and two interceptions.
See the trend here?
Rodgers was great on the road when the weather conditions were good, but the Packers offense wasn't nearly as effective in the cold weather cities. I don't think this should come as a surprise since its rare for an explosive passing offense to excel in cold and windy conditions.
Fast forward to this year where Rodgers has established himself as one of the most prolific passers in the league and led the Packers to a 15-1 record. As tough as it is to win on the road in the playoffs, it might be even tougher for the Packers to win in Green Bay where snowy weather conditions and temperatures in the teens are the norm.
Good defense and an effective running game are the best recipe for success while playing in wintry conditions. The Packers have neither of them.
The Packers are built on their passing game, and they will be for as long as Aaron Rodgers is their quarterback.
Brett Favre, who was 39-6 from 1991-2004 when the temperature was below 40 degrees, is the exception to the rule. Its tough to imagine that Aaron Rodgers will be able to find that level of cold weather success.
The other option would be for the Packers to do what they did last season and get to the Super Bowl by playing road games. Even though it worked last year, there have only been four teams that won the Super Bowl by playing all of their playoff games on the road, the Packers, Giants, Steelers, and Patriots. Winning three playoff road games plus the Super Bowl for a second time will be just as difficult as winning in Green Bay.
Could the Packers add a big-time running game to help them in cold weather games? Yes, of course they could, but for now I think its unlikely. They're a pass first team and when you have a quarterback as good as Rodgers you're always going to be a pass oriented offense. Their best bet is to hope for good weather in Green Bay during the playoffs, and to face teams who are just as pass happy.
- Listen to Brandon on WGBB 1240AM Sports Radio NY and on Twitter (@brandoncontes) |
