StaTuesday: Packers’ Rodgers sets playoff record, passes Favre for multi-TD games

The season didn’t end as expected for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.

But what we saw from Rodgers in Sunday’s loss to Tampa Bay was typical playoff Rodgers: 33-of-48 passing for 346 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, a quarterback rating of 100.5.

In his career, Rodgers has appeared in 21 playoff games (including in 2008 as a backup in a 42-20 win over Seattle when all he did was hand the ball off to Brandon Jackson three times). He’s completed 64.6% of his passes for 5,669 yards with 45 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Sunday’s contest marked the ninth consecutive playoff game in which Rodgers threw multiple TD passes — setting an NFL record for the longest such streak. Joe Flacco owned the record, having done it in eight straight games, from Jan. 15, 2012-Jan. 10, 2015.

He’s just one of 10 quarterbacks to have a streak of 5+ games. Terry Bradshaw, Drew Brees and Joe Montana each did it in seven straight; Tom Brady had a six-game streak from Jan. 14, 2017-Feb. 4, 2018; and Troy Aikman, Bernie Kosar, Matt Ryan and Kurt Warner all had five-game multi-TD streaks. The longest active streak after Rodgers is three by Brady.

It was Rodgers’ 16th playoff game with 2+ passing TDs – yes, he’s done it in all but four of his postseason starts – which put him past Brett Favre for second most in NFL history, behind just Brady, who has 26. Favre had 15 with the Packers and Minnesota.

Just nine QBs have at least 10 playoff games with multiple passing touchdowns. After Brady, Rodgers and Favre is Montana, who had 14 with San Francisco and Kansas City. Brees had 13 with San Diego and New Orleans. No one else has more than 10, a group which includes Bradshaw, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino and Ben Roethlisberger.

With his 346 yards through the air against the Buccaneers, Rodgers now holds the top-five passing yards games in Packers playoff history. Lynn Dickey, with 332 at Dallas on Jan. 1, 1983, had been No. 5. Rodgers also owns No. 8 and 10.

PACKERS 300-YARD PLAYOFF PASSING YARD GAMES

A couple of sidelights from Rodgers’ game Sunday:

— The 32 yards lost via sacks were the most he’s suffered in any playoff game. The five sacks tied a career high, set back in his first postseason start against Arizona on Jan. 10, 2010 and a win over the Giants on Jan. 8, 2016.

— It was his first game as a starter in which he didn’t have a rushing attempt. Fill in your own third-and-goal comment here.

Some non-Rodgers items from Sunday’s game:

— Marquez Valdes-Scantling had the 32nd 100-yard receiving game in Packers playoff history His 115 yards ranks No. 20 on the list but among 100-yard receivers his 28.75 yards per reception is second, topped only by Antonio Freeman’s 35.0 (105 yards on six catches) in Super Bowl XXXI.

— Davante Adams had nine receptions, tying the franchise record for playoff catches in a game. He’s done it two other times – the previous week against Los Angeles and last season against San Francisco. Edgar Bennett, Freeman and Jordy Nelson also had nine in a postseason contest.

— Jaire Alexander was the first player to have two interceptions in a playoff game since New Orleans’ Marcus Lattimore on Jan. 13, 2019. It’s just the 11th time it’s happened since 2010 and he’s the fourth Packers player to do it, joining Tramon Williams (Jan. 15, 2011 at Atlanta), Sam Shields (Jan. 23, 2011 at Chicago) and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (Jan. 18, 2015 at Seattle; also a loss). Sadly, it’s the first time a home defender had two picks and his team lost in 14 years, when Baltimore’s Ed Reed had two in 15-6 loss vs. Indianapolis. Eugene Robinson (Jan. 4, 1997 vs. San Francisco) is the other Packers player to have two interceptions in a home game. No other player other than the above listed have two picks in Green Bay playoff history.

Statistics courtesy pro-football-reference.com and its Stathead tool