It was Aaron Rodgers in all his glory, leading the Green Bay Packers on a 10-play, 69-yard drive for a touchdown the first time he touched the ball.
He kept finding Davante Adams for first downs, and when A.J. Dillon barrelled into the end zone on a 6-yard run, the 49ers defense wasn’t even able to get Green Bay to third down.
Middle linebacker Fred Warner was angry. Warner is the 49ers defensive leader and has turned into the kind of spiritual voice that Ronnie Lott used to be when the 49ers were winning Super Bowls under Bill Walsh and George Seifert.
“I’m not going to lie. I was pretty upset,” Warner said after the 49ers beat the Packers 13-10 Saturday night at Lambeau Field to advance to the NFC Championship Game. “Everyone was going around saying, ‘We’re good, we’re good,’ and I had to just try to light a fire under everybody. I had to let them know, they’re not better than us. We need to buckle down and dial in. They are a great offense but I know we’re a great defense too.’ That was unacceptable for sure.’ ”
What followed was a defensive masterpiece that ranks with anything in the history of a storied franchise. Rodgers, a first-team All-Pro and likely Most Valuable Player, got the ball nine more times with the following results: fumble, punt, punt, punt, end of half, punt, field goal, blocked punt, punt.
The temperature was in the low teens, which is just the way Rodgers says he likes it. Slows everybody else down. But the 49ers stayed after Rodgers throughout and did what seemed to be the impossible. Rodgers himself wasn’t entirely sure what to make of what happened in what he conceded might be his last game in a Green Bay uniform.
“A little numb for sure,” Rodgers told reporters following the game. “Didn’t think it was going to end like this. Disappointed in the offense. Ten points is not enough. The defense was outstanding, special teams hurt us.”
Rodgers was talking about the Green Bay defense, but it was the one on the opposite sideline that came up big when it mattered most.
Of all the pathways to victory for the 49ers, bottling up Rodgers was the most unlikely. He is coming off what might be his best season, with 37 touchdown passes against four interceptions after leading Green Bay to a 13-4 record and the top seed in the NFC. Rodgers finished 20 of 29 for 225 yards, but much of the damage came on the opening drive and a 75-yard pass to Aaron Jones late in the half that set up a 39-yard Mason Crosby field goal attempt that was blocked by Jimmie Ward.
🐻 on the move. @nbsmallerbear SACK #SFvsGB on FOX/49ers App pic.twitter.com/pdgOYvx03z
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) January 23, 2022
Green Bay had made it to the 14-yard line, an area where Rodgers is particularly lethal squeezing off passes into tight windows, but Nick Bosa got to him for a strip-sack. That preceded the blocked field goal.
The Packers were moving on their second possession after the opening touchdown as well, reaching the 49ers’ 42. It was then that Warner chopped the ball free from tight end Marcedes Lewis. It was recovered by teammate Dre Greenlaw.
The 49ers, meanwhile, were flailing on offense, and the defense had to come up huge to have a chance for the win. At the end of the half, Green Bay had a 205-to-58 advantage in total offense but led only 7-0.
“That first drive, the way it started out, didn’t seem like it was too hard on them with the elements,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “But after that, the defense was unbelievable.”
In the second half, the Packers ran 22 plays and gained 55 yards. Rodgers was sacked five times in all, twice by defensive tackle Arik Armstread, twice by Bosa and once by end Samson Ekuban. The Packers averaged 3.7 yards per carry on the ground and gained 106 yards.
While Warner said “there was some yelling going on” after the opening drive, Ward explained it as being completely rational rather than manic.
“Fred being the defensive leader, he calmed everybody down and told them, ‘All right, that’s the best drive they’re going to have this whole game,’ ” Ward said. “And I feel like it was.”
Rodgers, a quarterback who has seen every coverage and pressure, has seldom looked as confused and ineffective as he did in the second half. Ward credited defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, who is building himself a nice resume for potential head coaching opportunities.
“DeMeco called some great calls and we were disguising pretty well, and we confused him,” Ward said.
For much of the season, it didn’t appear the 49ers would approach a 2019 unit on an NFC championship season that made it to the Super Bowl. Turns out they might be better. Armstead, since moving inside, has played at the level of DeForest Buckner, traded to Baltimore following the season.
When Green Bay reached the 49ers’ 8-yard line early in the fourth quarter, it was Armstead who sacked Rodgers and forced Crosby’s 33-yard field goal when a touchdown would have put the Packers up 14-3.
“We were playing the hottest team in the league,” Armstead said. “It took a lot of grit and relentlessness to get the ‘W.’ They got a good drive on us and we didn’t blink. We knew we were going to have to go out there and get stops to win this game and it was going to be on us defensively. We just kept playing, then settled in and started playing good defense.”
While Rodgers was on the losing side addressing another potential offseason drama — he had his contract renegotiated with an exit clause following the season — it was beginning to sink in to Warner that the 49ers had accomplished something extraordinary.
“We come into Lambeau against the No. 1 seed in the NFC, it’s snowing, MVP quarterback, one of the best receivers playing the game, high powered offense,” Warner said. “We hold them to 10 points. That’s incredible, especially the way it’s started. I don’t know if everyone knows the gravity of it now, but it’s something we’ll look back on for sure.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com