The Green Bay Packers fell behind the Washington Redskins 11-0 in the second quarter, and some were beginning to call the abilities of Aaron Rodgers into question. Then, Rodgers and the Packers proceeded to outscore the Redskins 35-7 over the rest of the game, scoring on their next five drives to bury Kirk Cousins and Washington.
The Redskins got on the board first in the first quarter thanks to a safety, aided by an illegal block penalty on a punt return and a false start. Preston Smith then sacked Rodgers in the end zone, and Washington was on the board. Smith’s sack would be the lone sack on the day for the Redskins defense.
Cousins would follow up by leading the Redskins into the red zone, throwing what appeared to be a touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson. However, Jackson didn’t stretch the ball across the goal line (though he could have) and stepped out of bounds at the one, forcing Washington to settle for a field goal after a delay of game penalty.
Kirk Cousins finds DeSean Jackson for a 15-yard pass that was SO close to being a TD. #GBvsWAS https://t.co/0fUaAMdG51
— NFL (@NFL) January 10, 2016
After a trifecta of punts, Washington got back on the board and increased their lead to 11-0 after a Cousins touchdown pass to tight end Jordan Reed. But Dustin Hopkins missed the extra point, and it was all downhill from there for the Redskins.
Rodgers took over and led the Packers on a nine play, 80 yard drive, culminating with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Randall Cobb. Cousins fumbled at the Packers’ 46 on the following drive after a sack from Mike Neal, and Rodgers led Green Bay to a field goal on the following drive, cutting Washington’s lead to 11-10.
After another three and out by the Redskins, the Packers took their first lead of the day. Rodgers led a nine play, 60 yard drive that culminated in a ten-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams. Coming out of the half, Washington briefly took the lead again following a three-yard run by Cousins, but Rodgers and the Packers answered by engineering an 11-play, 80-yard drive ending in a James Starks touchdown run.
Following another Redskins punt, Rodgers led another long TD drive, going 76 yards over ten plays and finishing with an Eddie Lacy two-yard run and two-point conversion to Jared Abbrederis. After each team traded punts once more, Washington turned the ball over on downs and Green Bay tacked on a field goal for good measure to increase their lead to 35-18.
The Redskins twice drove into the red zone late in the fourth quarter in an attempt to cut Green Bay’s lead to just two scores, but one drive ended with a sack of Cousins on fourth down and the other ended with a checkdown to Chris Thompson that fell yards short of the sticks.
The narrative taken away from this game will be that Rodgers outplayed Cousins, and there’s an element of truth to that. But Cousins didn’t exactly play poorly – he went 29/46 for 329 yards, a touchdown, and no picks. He did fumble three times as a result of the Packers sacking him three times, but only lost one of those fumbles. Rodgers completed 21 of 36 passes for 210 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions, but the Redskins didn’t sack him after that first quarter safety.
Washington’s running game also wasn’t much of a concern for the Packers – the Redskins ran the ball just 18 times for 84 yards. They really showed no commitment to the run at all and let Cousins win or lose the game, which wouldn’t have been a bad plan had the Redskins’ defense been able to stop Rodgers and the Packers offense at all after the first four drives of the game.
Green Bay will head out to Arizona next weekend to face the NFC West champion Cardinals on Divisional Weekend. The Cardinals dusted the Packers 38-8 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Week 16, and it’ll be interesting to see what lessons both teams took away from that game.
