The Game Aaron Rodgers Impressed & Brett Favre Knew IT WAS OVER In Green Bay

it's never easy being a young player trying to break onto a new team with the hopes of impressing the coaching staff for the chance that you might one day be called upon time and time again we've all seen young prospects given that opportunity early in their careers and when push came to shove and they were in the spotlight many of them simply failed whether we chalk that up to nerves inexperience or just bad coaching sometimes the prudent decision is to slowly integrate a youngster onto a team case in point i think patrick mahomes recent ascension was largely attributed to the fact that he sat behind alex smith in his rookie campaign and developed his game heck this was a guy who couldn't even read nfl defenses until midway through his second season but allowing him to play second fiddle behind smith gave mahomes an opportunity to ease his transition from college to the pros and that's not to say that's the correct path for any young qb as there are some who've had no trouble at all being thrown into the lion's den straight away but for aaron rodgers with the green bay packers some critics argue this was a right decision however no one ever expected aaron to be waiting three full seasons playing back up to packers legend brett favre before finally being handed the keys to lambeau field this was surely a difficult period for aaron who probably had a huge chip on his shoulders after sliding down the nfl draft in 2005 and while he would make a few cameo appearances mostly in garbage time when the game was out of reach but in 2007 aaron finally caught a huge break as far went down early in the second quarter with an injury and this wasn't just any game but a nationally televised thursday night football game against america's team with millions travel to texas stadium riding a six-game winning streak and had a stranglehold of the nfc north after two consecutive nightmare seasons bart began playing at an mvp caliber level as he recorded 22 touchdown passes to eight interceptions and led the packers offense with the best third down conversion rate in the league this was a young packers team that had missed the playoffs two straight seasons so there was a lot of optimism surrounding them as they boasted the number fourth ranked scoring offense and the number seventh ranked scoring defense in receiving they had a talented group with the likes of donald driver greg jennings and james jones while in the backfield running back ryan grant since being inserted into the starting lineup in week 8 have been the leading rusher in the league and finally on defense they had the two toughest corners in al harris and charles woodson but the latter was forced to sit out due to injury for the 10-1 cowboys they were also flying high as they held a three-game lead over the giants in the nfc east tony romo was in his second season in dallas and had thrown for 29 touchdowns at 13 interceptions with a passer rating of 105.3 terrell owens was enjoying an all-pro season with over a thousand yards and 13 touchdowns and tight end jason witten was having the best season of his career the cowboys had the second best offense trailing only behind the historic 07 patriots team while defensively they ranked 13th in the league on defense they were led by demarcus wearing greg ellis who combined for 17 and a half sacks in the first 11 games of the season while the secondary has had some issues and struggled at times that being said this game had all the makings for an instant classic as the two quarterbacks in any other year would have made a case for league mvp honors if it weren't for one tom brady dallas were favored by an incredible seven points by game time as they edged the packers in almost every statistical category aside from past defense where they ranked 21st in the league with both teams leading the way in the nfc a loss for dallas could put them in line for a playoff game at frigid lambeau field in january so both teams took to the field knowing a win would put them on top of the nfc and possibly give them a home field advantage throughout the playoffs guys before we continue do me a favor and smash that like button and turn on all notifications as it really helps promote the video across the platform the game kicked off with the packers receiving the ball as far let his team out on the field on the very first play brett connected with ruval martin for 13 yards for the first down before throwing a perfect pass right into the hands of donald driver who wasn't able to come down with the ball the packers settled for three with a mason crosby field goal and took the early lead the home team answered back immediately with a field goal of their own after tony romo completed a short screen pass to julius jones who carried the ball for 21 yards deep into green bay territory after the packers went three note the home team took the lead after nick folk connected on a 51-yard field goal for second of the game giving dallas a 6-3 lead later in the first quarter the cowboys defense came up big on the packers very next drive as they forced bret into an interception on first and 10 from their own 24 favre attempted to go downfield but was appeared to be hit which caused his throat to be well short of his intended receiver and fell straight into the hands of ken hamlin who returned the ball for 18 yards this turnover proved to be very costly as on the cowboys next drive romo connected with terrell owens down the middle for 34 yards which set up a patrick creighton 3 yard touchdown catch giving the home team a 10 point lead at this point early in the game it appeared we were going to see a lot of fireworks favre having already tried to go deep on a few occasions seemed to be targeting dallas safeties even though the defense was giving him a lot of stuff underneath on top of that the packers offensive line appeared to be having a little trouble containing dallas d-line as far as taking a lot of late hits anyways on the packers very next drive the offense continued to struggle to get going after brett overthrew donald driver by the sidelines and a draw from james jones down the middle however on third and one from their 38 running back ryan grant came up big as after getting a lead block from john kuhn found an opening in the middle and took the ball in first score at the start of the second quarter dallas answered back with romo hitting teo down the right for 48 yards before connecting with anthony fasano for 26 yards in the end zone to extend the lead back to 10. the cowboys had now opened the game scoring on their first four possessions and were looking the most dominant of the two teams the secondary did not give anything to farve downfield and the d-line really made the qb uncomfortable in the pocket up until this point so early in the second quarter the away team really needed to come out with points on the drive and after a couple runs from ryan grant brett continued to look deep even into double coverage and almost turned the ball over again and pat watkins hung onto the football the quarterback's impatient to look for the big home run while having open receivers underneath began to hinder the offense at this point in the game he had only completed 4 of 11 attempts for 37 yards and a pick and then on a couple plays later from second and 12 brett favre's dreadful afternoon would come to a close as he threw his second interception of the game during his release the quarterback was hit in the arm by nathan jones and as he got up you can tell he was in serious pain clutching his right wrist and just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for the packers on the very next play romo looked deep for miles austin who drew a past interference call from jared bush which makes you wonder how much the packers need when missing charles woodson at safety this was a huge 40-yard penalty that put the offense at the goal line and from there tony connected with tara owens for 10 yards for his first score of the game and his 14th of the season and this is where the receiver's infamous popcorn celebration came to life as upon scoring teo ran to grab a fans of popcorn throwing it all over himself with the score now 27-10 for the home team the packers coaching staff sent out aaron rodgers onto the field up until this point rogers had only completed 17 of 33 passes for 128 yards along with zero touchdowns and one interception basically he had done nothing to accelerate succession talks in green bay he had not given management a reason to push farv out the door but here he had a chance albeit down by 17 to make an imprint on the offense on her's first drive aaron completed one of four passes and ran the ball for eight yards for a first down before eventually stalling and the offense having to put the ball back to dallas however the youngster would get the ball again right before the half and it's here on this drive where he gave the coaching staff a showcase of his talents on second down rogers hit greg jennings by the sidelines and the receiver made a nice move to shake off his defender and proceeded to run the ball down the field for a gain of 43 yards and i think it's interesting contrasting the two cubies here on one hand you had far attempting risky passes downfield and double coverage while aaron completing short passes and trusting his receivers to make plays as mentioned earlier this was a talented trio of receivers at green bay's disposal and prior to this play neither driver or jettings had a reception in the game and were targeted only a combined three times anyways back on the drive grant made a couple runs to move the chains and then from dallas 11 aaron threw a touchdown pass to greg jennings to bring the packers within 10 points rogers went 4-4 on the drive for 66 yards and the half concluded with both teams headed for the tunnel t.o also had a huge first half as he caught six passes for a buck 47 and a touchdown the third quarter kicked off with the cowboys receiving the ball and after moving the offense to field goal territory head coach wade phillips decided to gamble and go for it on fourth and two only to be stopped short by a yard losing possession on downs so aaron and company try to back out on the field and after taking a sack for an eight yard loss from greg ellis rogers proceeded to move the chains after completing a 17-yard pass to donald driver from third and long at this point in the game you can tell the youngster really felt comfortable and on the next play would display his mobility as he escaped the pocket and gained another crucial first down with his legs on the next snap from first intent this is where roger showed packers fans something they've been accustomed to seeing over the last decade aaron had about three linemen coming straight at him and after moving right to left at the very last second he threw a pass while in midair and connected with donald lee for 22 yards for his seventh straight completion of the game and it appeared the fans began to really believe they were witnessing a real special talent in aaron rodgers he was able to go through all his progressions and make all his reads but most importantly he seemed to have an uncanny ability to extend drives particularly with his legs anyways the youngster continued to push the ball and got the offense all the way to dallas's goal line which set up a 1-yard td run from ryan grant bringing the score 27-24 this was a huge turnaround for green bay who just a while ago were down by 17 but now saw themselves only three points behind the next couple drives saw both teams exchange punts and it wouldn't be until the middle of the fourth quarter where dallas extended their lead back to 10. romo completed four straight passes to jason whitton before he capped the drive off with a four yard touchdown pass to patrick clayton so in came the packers offense again and rogers continued to look sharp after completing three of four passes on the drive however from third and one at dallas's 35 grant was stopped short of a first down and green bay settled for three and with a little over five minutes left the home team had to extend their next drive for as long as possible this was going to be a stern test for the packers defense that had been getting torched by the home team after completing a 15-yard pass to win running back miriam barber ran the ball six consecutive times eating up valuable time on this clock dallas would move the offense to green bay's red zone and kicker nick folk practically iced the game with his third field goal of the day leaving rogers a little over a minute while down by 10. the game ended shortly after as dallas hung on for the win and took the lead in the nfc while holding the crucial tiebreaker in the playoffs this was a tough loss for green bay especially after losing far to entry on his throwing arm but watching aaron have significant playing time and mounting a couple strong drives had to give fans a little bit of optimism towards the future of the franchise prior to this game nobody in green bay knew what a post-far packers team would look like but i think it's safe to say that after aaron's exploits in dallas against one of the league's best teams indicated that he could be the franchise quarterback the team always envisioned aaron's final stat line showed him completing 18 of 26 passes for 201 yards and a touchdown compared to farb's 5-14 for 56 yards and two interceptions but what was interesting in this game was just how often the broadcasts were cut to farp during the packers offensive series at first glance brett seemed pretty nonchalant and unconcerned and just tended to his injury or chatted with teammates however as the game progressed and aaron began to lead the offense you could see a change in his demeanor as he stared from the sidelines probably steaming about his inability to play but probably the funniest thing from this whole game is when brian gumbel assured packers fans after roger's second touchdown drive that farf had nothing to worry about my goodness young aaron rodgers we've got a story going on right here in any other community that say this is the start of a quarterback controversy but that won't happen in greenville following the game the young quarterbacks performance were praised by many from different media outlets and it seemed as though aaron would give management something to really consider in the off season favre returned the next week against oakland and finished out the remainder of the season and led the packers to the nfc championship game against the giants this was a game where the home team were a seven half point favorite but lost at a biter as bread through the game ceiling interception in overtime and during the off-season farp infamously retired then unretired and the packers coaching staff decided to stick with aaron rodgers refuting any talks of a quarterback controversy green bay traded brett to the new york jets as some speculated one of the main reasons in doing so was the performance aaron had displayed in dallas

Channel: Clasher Sports

Views: 591,928

Keywords: Clasher Sports, NFL, NFL News, American Football, Football, NFL Rivalries, 2007 packers, green bay packers, 2007 cowboys, dallas cowboys, 2007 packers cowboys, packers cowboys, aaron rodgers, aaron rodgers brett favre, brett favre, aaron rodgers quarterback controversy, 2007 nfl season, aaron rodgers vs brett favre, tony romo, 2007 tony romo, the game aaron rodgers impress & brett favre knew it was over in green bay, packers news, 2021 packers, aaron rodgers news

Id: 8Tfejwk5V74

Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 11 2021