AMERICAN FOOTBALL:SOMETIMES IT is most obvious in body language. Aaron Rodgers' shoulders drooped. He put his hands on his hips and kicked at the dirt. His head turned from side to side, as if he were looking for something – because something was missing. His stride shortened, and his walk back to the sideline took longer with each trip to the bench.
This is what the Giants’ defence – at least the Giants’ post-season defence in 2012 and 2008 – can do to elite quarterbacks in big games. It’s all too easy to try to compare the Giants’ run to their Super Bowl championship post-season four years ago. But one unmistakable comparison rings true. As it did four years ago, the Giants’ defence has gone through a startling metamorphosis as the games have grown more important, and what it does best is make opposing quarterbacks look confused, frustrated and dejected.
As it once did to Tom Brady and his 18-0 New England Patriots, the Giants’ defence on Sunday disrupted and flummoxed Rodgers and his 15 to 1 Green Bay Packers until the game was a rout. The 37-20 Giants victory did the unthinkable: it made Rodgers, a most valuable player contender, look bad. And sent the Giants to the NFC championship game next Sunday in San Francisco.
The Packers, renowned for their big-play passing attack, had one completion longer than 20 yards, and that was for 21 yards. Rodgers nearly averaged more yards in seven rushing attempts (9.4) than he did when passing (10.2 yards per completion). “He looked a little out of sorts,” Giants defensive end Justin Tuck. “I wouldn’t say rattled, but frustrated.”
The easy analysis is that Rodgers was not as sharp as usual. But the unease and inaccuracy he demonstrated late in the game developed over time. He seemed to grow more and more unsure of where the defensive linemen were and, more important, as he gazed downfield he rarely saw a receiver running open. As the game went on, the Giants threw off Rodgers’ timing and perhaps made him doubt his decision-making. “They have a way of closing the pocket on you,” Rodgers said. “You’re forced to do something else.”
Like run for your life. Which is how Rodgers kept the Packers afloat through a see-saw first quarter. But the Packers’ offensive line was beginning to lose the battle up front as the first half ended. Eli Manning’s desperation touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks to end the second quarter gave the Giants a 10-point lead. The momentum was turning.
Then the game spiralled out of control for the Packers. Defensive tackle Chris Canty said: “We get energised by the challenge when the talk all week is about the other guy. We want to do something about that, and our performance today showed it.”
No single unit on the Giants’ defence has improved as quickly as the secondary. Its goal was to keep the Packers receivers in front of them – to allow the eight or even the 14-yard pass but not the long strike. “Even though they were completing some of those passes, you know they want more,” said safety Antrel Rolle, who twice batted Rodgers passes away in the end zone. “And that forced Rodgers into some bad throws and got him out of his rhythm.”
The Giants’ pressure seemed to unnerve Rodgers. Midway through the third quarter, in one of the few times a Packers wide receiver had an advantage, Jordy Nelson was sprinting several steps behind cornerback Aaron Ross. But when Rodgers wound up to loft a pass 60 yards downfield, the ball fluttered and sailed ever so slightly; Ross easily batted the underthrown pass away.
Early in the fourth quarter, Rodgers, hurried by the pass rush, missed a wide-open Jermichael Finley at the Giants’ 25-yard line. That set up a fourth-and-five. Statistically, that situation has favoured the Packers this season. Not this time. As Rodgers tried stepping up in the pocket to buy time, Osi Umenyiora grabbed at his feet, and linebacker Michael Boley finished him off for a sack.
New York TimesService
