Coming off of their embarrassing 27-10 loss to the Jets on Sunday, Aaron Rodgers stood in front of reporters trying to provide some explanation behind the reason they just fell to 3-3 on the season and two games behind 5-1 Division rival, Minnesota.
During the press conference, Rodgers was asked if the situation was getting close to being “on the brink” for his football team and if things were potentially becoming “wobbly.”
Rodgers paused for a moment, and then said he didn’t feel that was the case. From there, he said the most important thing for them to get through this rough patch was for everyone to stick together and not “break rank” by making things worse with things they said to the media.
“I don’t know,” said Rodgers, who completed 26-of-41 (63%) for 246-yards and 1 TD in the loss. “We’ve got to be realistic about where we’re at. We’ve played a couple of subpar games in the last two. So we’ve got to play better.”
“But wobbly? Only if people are breaking rank,” he continued. “I think it’ll be interesting to look at the comments from all of our guys and coaches and hopefully, we stick together, that’s the important thing. But until I see us breaking ranks, I’m not going to say there’s any wobbliness going on.”
Rodgers was literally then asked in the next sentence about what they needed offensively and what changes they needed to make. For a player who had just preached seconds earlier that things needed to be kept in-house, Rodgers wasted no time with an answer that essentially took a veiled shot at head coach Matt LaFleur when it came to the offense.
Rather than just give a generic response, Rodgers couldn’t help himself.
“Simpler,” he said. “Simpler. Simplify some things.”
When asked if he could elaborate further, Rodgers pushed things even more.
“All of it, yeah,” he said. “I don’t want to get too specific, and I’m not attacking anything. I just think that based on how we’ve played the last two weeks, I think it’s going to be in our best interest to simplify things for everybody. For the line, for the backs, the receivers, especially with Cobby’s [wide receiver Randall Cobb’s] injury, just simplify some things and maybe that will help us get back on track.”
LaFleur was later asked about that comment and reportedly said, “I don’t know what that means.”
So much for not “breaking ranks.”
Rodgers isn’t really in a position to say much, especially since he hasn’t played well these last few weeks and that started with the Packers’ meeting against New England three weeks ago.
Rodgers completed just 60% of his throws against Bill Belichick’s defense, including a pick-six against rookie Jack Jones. That game had been his worst performance to date, with Green Bay ultimately pulling off the win despite rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe helping the Patriots force overtime.
After that match-up, they were sitting at 3-1 and things seemed like they were heading in the right direction.
But things have since gone downhill. Green Bay has lost two straight, losing last week to the Giants at home followed by Sunday’s loss to the Jets.
Even worse, Rodgers and his football team just finished three straight home games by going 1-2 and will now head on the road for the next three weeks with games against Washington, Buffalo and Detroit up next, and they won’t play again at Lambeau Field until November 13th.
As for what message he’s sending to his football team, Rodgers says they just need to get back to work.
“This is the NFL. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for you,” said Rodgers. “Just get back to business. If it’s good enough when we’re 3-1, it’s got to be good enough when were 3-3,” said Rogers. “You can’t ride the rollercoaster wave of emotions. Like I said, I mean, it’s going to be interesting to see how we all respond to this tomorrow and this week.”
“I felt like we had a great week of practice so this performance today was surprising. But we’ve got to watch our language and the kind of energy that we’re manifesting. But I’m going to be steady with the guys and I expect our leadership to do the same.”
For now, it looks like the QB and coach aren’t on the same page, so it appears the drama is likely far from over.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
