With a total of 60 points and more than 70 combined pass attempts, Aaron Rodgers’ return to Lambeau Field certainly proved to be as advertised. The future NFL Hall of Famer also managed to complete two-thirds of his pass attempts. While that would be enough to produce 219 passing yards and two touchdowns, it wasn’t enough to outshine his replacement, Jordan Love.
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The third-year starter was able to complete 78.4% of his 37 pass attempts for a total of 360 passing yards and three touchdowns. His 134.2 passer rating has managed to steal the headlines, as well as the fandom of Pittsburgh legend Ben Roethlisberger, who was forced to sit there and watch in awe as the Utah State product outdueled one of the greatest quarterbacks in history.
“I was rooting for Aaron to beat all 32 teams. That would have been really cool,” Roethlisberger admitted during the latest episode of his self-titled podcast. Unfortunately, it seems as if he was ultimately forced to reconcile with the fact that Green Bay is better than his beloved Steelers.
“I think Jordan Love is a really good football player. When you give him time, he can make things happen,” Big Ben said. “He had 20 straight completions. Now part of that is on the defense. But I think you saw the potential of that team. You saw a team that could get after it, and I’m afraid to say that I think the Packers may be who we thought they were,” he added.
Before the start of the season, when Green Bay decided to make the blockbuster trade for Micah Parsons, the Packers were being given some of the more favorable Super Bowl odds of any team in the league. Now, thanks to their convincing 35-25 victory over the Steelers on prime-time television, they are being booked as the third most-likely team to claim the Lombardi Trophy.
In that same vein, Pittsburgh’s odds of winning it all have dropped significantly. Heading into Week 9, they are seeing +6500 Super Bowl odds, which effectively means that they have about as good a chance at the Lombardi Trophy as the Chicago Bears and the Dallas Cowboys do.
Suffice to say, after Sunday night, these two teams appear to be trending in opposite directions. And much to the chagrin of Rodgers, this also looks like a turning point match-up that will impact his legacy for the worse.
Thankfully, there are still 10 more games that can help them to reverse this trend, so there’s no need to panic, at least not yet anyway.
