The Packers have been mighty impressive in the NFL playoffs so far. Derailing Michael Vick and the Eagles with a Wild Card Weekend win and dethroning the Falcons with a throttling at the Georgia Dome makes the Packers the hottest playoff team, and the most dangerous team in the NFC. But these Packers don’t actually look like many past Super Bowl winners.
NFL Playoffs: Do The Packers Look Like Super Bowl Winners?
First and foremost, the Packers don’t have a history of high-scoring playoff games. The 48 points from last night’s game were a new Packers postseason record ... breaking a record set against the Cardinals last year. The Packers have never scored more than 40 points in a postseason and won either a Super Bowl or an NFL championship; in fact, of the four games to break that plateau in team history, three came in the past four years.
But, on the bright side, the Packers have never before won two road games in one postseason. The three Super Bowl champion Packers teams — from 1966, 1967, and 1996 — all won no more than one road game, though the 1966 Packers had to win the NFL Championship Game in Dallas despite having a better record than the Cowboys.
And then there’s Green Bay’s new gunslinger. Aaron Rodgers has quarterbacked two of the Packers’ three best offensive performances in the postseason, and his 10 passing touchdowns in three playoff games is a new NFL record.
We all thought the shadow Rodgers was reputedly escaping from was Brett Favre’s, and that made sense: Rodgers was replacing the future Hall of Famer in Green Bay. But Rodgers, if he can approach this level of play throughout his career, may end up eclipsing another Packers legend.
Bart Starr holds the NFL record for postseason quarterback rating, with a 104.8 mark compiled over 10 games.
Rodgers’ rating, through the admittedly small sample size of three games? Try an astonishing 129.4.
Starr won two Super Bowls. If Rodgers can play at or near his current level, the Packers might win more with him at the helm.
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