This is a slump? When you're Aaron Rodgers and you're used to putting up world-class numbers year after year, apparently it is.
Rodgers' numbers are down a bit from his career numbers – he is the highest-rated quarterback in NFL history – but he still brings 25 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 96.0 passer rating into the Linc for Monday night's game against the Eagles.
It's been a rough year for the Packers, who have lost four straight games, allowing 30 or more points in each one. But don't count out Rodgers just yet.
The Packers' defense has been awful, their offense has no running game, and injuries have decimated both sides of the football. But Rodgers, a future Hall of Famer, is doing all he can.
In his last five games, Rodgers has 15 touchdowns and three interceptions, is throwing for 318 yards per game and has completed 66 percent of his passes.
Overall, this has been a rough season for the Packers, but Rodgers is as dangerous as ever.
Rodgers in a so-called slump is still better than almost every other NFL quarterback.
NFL
The Packers don’t have a running game, so there’s been more pressure than ever on Rodgers to throw, and that's left him on pace for 656 pass attempts, which would be the 11th-most in NFL history, and 4,417 yards, which would be a Packers record.
“I think just necessity, really,” Rodgers said. “We’ve had to be creative with a lot of things without a real running back for a number of weeks, so we really had to be creative with some of our concepts and putting guys in spots and obviously throwing a little bit more than we have in the past.
"And then the emergence of Davonte (Adams). Devonte I think has played really well for us and really come into his own and obviously last week we got (tight end) Jared (Cook) back, and Jared had a really nice game, so I think getting guys back and getting guys comfortable has been the main thing.”
The Eagles and Packers meet at 8:30 p.m. Monday night at the Linc in a nationally televised game between two teams who are scuffling to remain in playoff contention.
The Packers have lost four straight games for the first time since a five-game losing streak in 2008. The Eagles have lost five of their last seven.
The problem with the Packers hasn’t been Rodgers or the offense. It’s been a defense that’s allowed 30 points in four straight games for the first time in 63 years and 40 or more in consecutive games for the first time in 64 years.
“He’s still playing at a high level,” Malcolm Jenkins said of Rodgers.
“They’re not necessarily getting the results they want in wins, but if you take the scoreboard off of the tape and you just watch the game, their offense is still moving the ball, still putting up points, still doing some things. So I don’t think their record necessarily reflects what they’re doing offensively.”
The Eagles are 4-0 at home, allowing only 9½ points per game, so this should be a tremendous matchup between the NFL’s stingiest home defense and an elite quarterback who’s gotten hot over the last month.
“I don’t know about a shootout, but we need to start a little quicker on offense,” Rodgers said. “We haven’t helped our defense out the last two weeks. We’ve gotten into rhythms into the second and third quarters and we’ve been finishing games off, but we’ve got to do a better job to help our defense starting out the game.
“Couple weeks ago, we were down a bunch in Tennessee (21-0) and then obviously our three 3-and-outs to start the game against Washington didn’t help.
“So we need to do a better job starting fast, and playing on the road, the crowd environment obviously becomes a factor. Philly has some of the best sports fans in the country and great football fans so you’ve got to try to take them out of it early if you can and that’s going to be our focus this week.”
Even though his stats have rebounded, it’s been a very tough year for Rodgers, who led the Packers to a Super Bowl championship in 2010, the conference semifinals five of the last six years and the playoffs seven straight years.
The Packers haven’t had a losing record since 2008, Rodgers’ first year after replacing Brett Favre, and they’ve had just two since 1992.
“You can practice mental toughness, but a lot of it just comes from within and dealing with adversity, and through that adversity your character is revealed,” Rodgers said in a conference call Wednesday with Philly writers.
“There’s going to be highs and lows in this business and you have to hold on to that confidence, that’s most important as a player. You have to remember that the highs are not going to last forever and you have to be strong enough to make it through the down points in a career and in a season.
“It’s a long season, there’s a lot of ups and downs, and if you’re fortunate to play as long as myself you’re going to go through a lot of adversity and you learn in the process what it takes to keep on pushing through and stay confident in your abilities.”
Rodgers is 3-0 in his career against the Eagles, including the 21-16 wild-card win at the Linc in 2010 on the Packers' road to the Super Bowl title.
“It was a great game,” Rodgers said. “I remember the play with D-Jax (DeSean Jackson). He was in the middle of the field on one of their last drives and luckily we got him tripped up. Desmond Bishop tripped him up there. And obviously with Tramon (Williams) finishing it off with the pick.”
That Jackson 28-yard catch and run got the Eagles inside the Packers’ 40-yard-line with 1:45 left but could have been a game-winning TD if Bishop didn’t get to Jackson.
Then Williams picked off a Michael Vick pass intended for Riley Cooper in the end zone on the final play of the game.
“It was a great football game and we knew they were a tough opponent after playing them the first game of the season there,” Rodgers said.
“Just great fans in Philly. We’ve had a lot of games over there, prime-time games over the course of my 12 years, and it’s always a fun place to play. It’s a tough environment. They have great fans, but it’ll be a good time down there. Looking forward to it.”
And the Eagles are expecting nothing less than vintage Aaron Rodgers.
“I feel like obviously the context of the games put a litle more pressure on him to do some stuff, but you still see a guy that’s very, very accurate, whether he’s standing still in the pocket or whether he’s mobile,” Jenkins said.
“We just watched a clip today of him throwing the ball 70 yards in the air, so he’s still got the arm strength, he’s got the mobility, he’s got the accuracy.
“Obviously, they’re banged up at the running back position but they’re still finding ways to put up points and get yards and make plays. Pretty much the same that we’ve seen over the last few years.”