Photo by Evan Siegle, packers.com
Aaron Rodgers 9.26.21
You simply cannot leave Aaron Rodgers 37 seconds. This is now well-established. In a battle of teacher and student between 49er head coach Kyle Shanahan and the Packers’ Matt LaFleur, LaFleur managed to come out on top as Shanahan fell victim to one of his major weaknesses: clock management.
With just over two minutes left, trailing by six points, the 49ers marched down the field, converted two 3rd and longs, and punched it in on a Jimmy Garoppolo pass to fullback Kyle Juszczyk, but they made a few crucial mistakes. The first came with 1:53 left in the game when Garoppolo found Deebo Samuel for 12 yards on 3rd and 10. Samuel made an incredible catch with Jaire Alexander draped all over him, giving San Francisco a new set of downs at the 24-yard line, but at this point the 49ers failed to realize that time was no longer a factor. They still possessed all of their timeouts and had the ability to time exactly when they scored.
At that point, they needed to switch from conserving clock, to ensuring they left as little time left as possible whether they scored, or not. They snapped the ball for the next play, a 12-yard gain to tight end George Kittle, with 12 seconds on the play clock, and those twelve seconds would be absolutely crucial for the Packers.
37 Seconds on the Clock
Juszczyk would score with 37 seconds on the clock, which led to San Francisco’s second mistake. Punter Mitch Wishnowsky, who serves as their kickoff specialist, would boom the kickoff through the end zone, using no time. While doing so does eliminate the possibility of a kickoff return touchdown, it’s worth noting that Green Bay hasn’t had a kickoff return touchdown since Randall Cobb did it literally a decade ago in 2011 against the Saints. Wishnowsky has a huge leg and hitting a high-hangtime kickoff short of the goal line would have taken several seconds off the clock, and likely made it impossible for Green Bay to get into field goal range.
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Instead, the 49ers left Rodgers with exactly as much time as he needed. The Packers were out of timeouts, and generally speaking, you need at least two plays to move from your own 25 to the opposing 35. It is also immensely helpful to be able to use the middle of the field, and Rodgers was able to hit Davante Adams for big chunk plays, with plenty of time to spike the ball after each completion. His first pass of the drive was as perfect as you will ever see, and the kind of throw that reminds us why Rodgers is such a special player. On the second throw, the 49ers simply didn’t cover Davante Adams, and Rodgers took full advantage.
Mason Crosby also continues to be worth his weight in gold, drilling a 51-yard field goal as time expired to win the game. Crosby hasn’t missed a field goal since December 2019 and has only missed two over the last three seasons. While the rest of Green Bay’s special teams have been a disaster, Crosby continues to single-handedly keep them respectable.
The Reeling Steelers
Next up for the Packers is the Pittsburgh Steelers, fresh off of a 24-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. After a surprising victory over the Bills in week one, the Steelers’ offense has completely crashed due primarily to the severe decline of Ben Roethlisberger. Older quarterbacks tend to lose arm strength as their careers wind down as we saw with Drew Brees last season, and Peyton Manning during his Denver tenure, and that time has come for Ben. Roethlisberger threw two picks last week and was unable to deal with constant pressure as the Bengals sacked him four times. Roethlisberger is currently 27th in the league in Intended Air Yards (6.7) and rookie running back Najee Harris leads the Steelers in receptions, which is never a good sign for a team’s offense. Rodgers, for contrast, is fifth in Intended Air Yards with 9.4.
The Steelers are also dealing with some serious injuries in their receiving corps (Diontae Johnson, JuJu Smith-Schuster), and on the offensive line (Kendrick Green, Chukwuma Okorafor), which have not helped matters, but the injury bug hit the defense even harder with linebackers TJ Watt (groin) and Alex Highsmith (groin) missing the Bengals game. The Steelers rely heavily on their defense given their offensive limitations, and while they were the best defense in the league last year per Football Outsiders’ DVOA, they rank just 14th so far this year, and have been especially vulnerable against the pass.
The Packers are catching Pittsburgh at the perfect time. When fully healthy, Pittsburgh is more than capable of shutting down great offenses, and it’s entirely possible that they could have stymied Green Bay, just as the Saints did in week one, but without Watt and Highsmith, Green Bay’s offense should be fine. If they can build a lead and force Roethlisberger out of his comfort zone, they should win the game, and move to 3-1 on the season.
