Looking downfield at a locked-up receiving corps and, perhaps sick and tired of a stat line he didn’t recognize, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers put his head on the line Sunday.
He took off running like a man out of options. Rodgers zagged around for a 17-yard scramble in the third quarter. A keen play, picking up a first down on third-and-10.
But that was about the only way Rodgers could get his struggling offense going. Unable to find holes in Denver’s secondary he resorted to running like Forrest Gump for a first down.
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But the Packers couldn’t — despite an undefeated record behind one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks — solve Denver’s defense, which held Rodgers to 77 yards passing, the lowest total of his NFL career.
“I haven’t had my (backside) kicked like that in a long time,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said of his team’s 29-10 blowout defeat to Denver. “They did a heck of a job covering us. They were clearly a better team.”
Rodgers’ 17-yard scramble was, at that point, the Packers’ longest play of the game, by any player, rushing or receiving. His crash-and-burn against the Broncos’ defense was startling.
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Rodgers said Denver’s defense blanketed the Packers’ receivers. “They were covering well. That’s what you can point to. We didn’t get open enough. We tried some different things but we didn’t execute what we wanted to do. We were just inefficient on offense.”
Entering Sunday’s game, Rodgers ranked third in the NFL in passer rating (108.2). But the Broncos took him totally out of rhythm, smothering his top options and forcing him to buy extra time to find anyone open. Rodgers completed 8-of-12 passes in the first half but for just 37 yards, his lowest output in a half this season, by far. He was able to add just 40 more yards in the second half.
“They played a lot of base defense to our seven,” Rodgers said of Denver’s straight-ahead scheme. “They have a seven-man box most of the time, which we practiced against and had a plan for. But we just didn’t execute.”
In the fourth quarter, trailing 27-10, Rodgers went under center on first down from his own 13. DeMarcus Ware jammed through the right side and forced a fumble that led to a safety, all but putting the game away.
Rodgers this season had been playing very much like his counterpart, Peyton Manning, had in years past. The Packers’ offense is an efficient bunch — before Sunday, they ran the second-fewest plays in the NFL while scoring the eighth-most points. And only six of their 28 scoring drives lasted longer than five minutes.
Against the Broncos, though, Rodgers never could get on track. Green Bay scored on a 2-yard Eddie Lacy run in the second quarter, only after a Broncos’ roughing penalty extended the drive and Mason Crosby kicked a 56-yard field goal in the third quarter, after Rodgers’ long run.
“For us, it was a very humbling loss,” McCarthy said. “Gary Kubiak had his team playing a lot faster than us. We didn’t get a rhythm going.”
Nick Groke: ngroke@denverpost.com or @nickgroke
