GREEN BAY, Delete. Despite everything Aaron Rodgers has accomplished in his Hall of Fame career, there’s one thing he’s never done: play in an NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field.
Come back next Sunday to see him check that off his list. Rodgers and the top-seeded Green Bay Packers (14-3) will play for a berth in the Super Bowl against the New Orleans Saints or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And the peloton will do so on their home turf thanks to Saturday’s 32-18 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Lambeau, where fans – 8,456 of them – were allowed in for the first time all season.
“It felt like 50,000 when we ran out of the tunnel, really,” said Rodgers. “It was such a special moment. Forgot how much you really, really miss to have an audience there … it felt like, 50,000, 60,000.”
This Sunday marks Rodgers’ fifth appearance in the conference’s title game. His previous four all hit the road. He won his first – during the 2010 season, at Soldier Field – on his way to his only Super Bowl. He has since lost three, including last season with the San Francisco 49ers in a blowout.
It was after last season’s defeat when Rodgers repeated a familiar chorus, saying, “We’ve got to get one of these home.”
Rodgers took care of that early and often against the Rams (11-7), who had the NFL’s highest-scoring defense in the regular season (18.1 points per game). The Packers improved that in the first half, leading 19-10 at half time. They became the first team this season to score against the Rams on each of their first three drives. It was also the fourth game in a row to score the Packers’ top-scoring attack on each of the first three drives.
Rodgers threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams, ending Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey in a heated post-play exchange with Nick Scott. Rodgers also ran for a touchdown in the first half, giving him a touchdown pass and a touchdown run for the third time in his career in the same playoff game. But it was his first hasty post-season score since that 2010 NFC title game in Chicago.
That was just the beginning.
When Aaron Jones knocked off a 60-yard run in the opening game of the third quarter to set up his own 1-yard touchdown run, it meant the Packers scored for the first time since Week on each of their first five drives in a game . 3 of the 2016 season.
Saturday marked the 22nd time in NFL playoff history that the No. 1 scoring foul and No. 1 scoring defense faced each other. The Packers’ 32 points were the fourth highest in those matchups, according to research from ESPN Stats & Information.
Rodgers knelt the game off late to the audience’s “MVP” chants.
He completed 23 of the 36 passes for 296 yards and two touchdown passes. His 58-yard touchdown pass to Allen Lazard in the fourth quarter was his longest-scoring pass in his postseason career.
Rodgers took advantage of the best rush performance – 189 meters – his team has ever given him in a playoff game. The previous highlight was 147 yards in the 2011 divisional playoff against the New York Giants. But that was a loss in the only other time the Packers were ever the No. 1 seed under Rodgers.
That match denied him an NFC title game at home.
Ten years later, Rodgers would not be denied.