Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is happy that his team got a win on Saturday, but he definitely didn’t sound happy about how they got it. After jumping out to a 21-3 lead against Carolina, it looked like the Packers were going to blow the Panthers out. However, that didn’t happen, because the Packers’ offense disappeared for nearly the entire second half of Green Bay’s 24-16 win.
After piling up 242 yards in the first half, the Packers were only able to muster 49 total yards over the game’s final two quarters and that second half performance is why the win left a “sour taste” in Rodgers’ mouth.
“This is one of those disappointing wins the way that we played in the second half. So I have a sour taste in my mouth how we played in the second half,” Rodgers said after the game, via NFL.com. “We’ve got to get back to the drawing board. That kind of football is not going to beat a lot of teams.”
With the playoffs just three weeks away, Rodgers admitted that if Green Bay’s offense plays in the postseason like it played on Saturday, then the Packers probably aren’t going to make it anywhere near the Super Bowl.
“We won the game, we’re 11-3,” Rodgers said. “It’s been a successful season so far, but we’ve got plans about making a run and the way we played on offense we’re not going to beat anybody in the playoffs.”
The Packers lone bright spot on offense was Aaron Jones, who rushed for 145 yards. However, 114 of that game in the first half, which means he ran for only 31 yards in the second half. As for Rodgers, his second half was even uglier as he completed just seven passes for 44 yards. Rodgers was also sacked three times in the second half for a loss of 31 combined yards in case you’re wondering how the Packers ended up with under 50 total yards in the half even though Rodgers and Jones combined for 75 alone.
“I think we just haven’t put together a four-quarter game,” Rodgers said. “We’ve had some really good stretches, I think, in that stretch, just not four quarters of football way too many times. We had a couple good quarters [against the Panthers] and a couple stinkers. That’s just not consistent winning football, so we’ve got to figure out offensively what happened there in the second half and get ready for a good football team coming in.”
The good news for the Packers is that they’re going to get an extra day to figure things out. Since they played on Saturday, they’ll have one more day of rest than their Week 16 opponent (the Titans), who will be playing on Sunday against the Lions.
