Sports Betting Blog

The thing about having a guy like Aaron Rodgers as your starting quarterback is that even if he’s not having a great game, if he’s throwing more incomplete passes than usual, he can always get back to his game just when his team needs him most. For the better part of Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Rodgers was off his game, and that was giving the Bucs enough motivation to hunt down the defending Super Bowl Champions until they were down 26-28 with little over 4 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The pressure was on for the Packers who were quite close to losing their perfect season. But at the end, with little under three minutes to go, Rodgers connected a 40-yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson to help the Packers survive the Buccaneers in a 35-26 win.

Once again the Buccaneers made evident that some work needs to be done at the defensive end of Green Bay. The Packers weren’t really able to stop quarterback Josh Freeman and tackling running back LeGarrette Blount, a duo that kept on moving the chains against the Packs. This less then optimal performance from the defense should be enough to set off the panic alarm at the coaches’ offices. This week, head coach Mike McCarthy should have plenty of mistakes to point out during the video analysis to try to sort these issues out before their next game during Thursday Nov. 24 against the 7-3 Detroit Lions in the much-anticipated Thanksgiving match at Ford Field.

The Buccaneers have lost now four consecutive games and at 4-6 for the season they are far away from been the team that most Tampa Bay fans would dream off. On the other hand, these guys managed to stand up tall against the only lossless team left this season and the Super Bowl defending Champions. The Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman had a very decent performance throwing for 28 of 38 passes for 342 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions. LeGarrette Blunt, on the other hand, leaded the rushing department with 107 yards in 18 carries including an intense 57-yard touchdown run when he simply cleared off 6 tackles from the Packers. He sure made it look easy as he brushed off the Packers defenders without too much of a hassle proving once again that they are weaker then one would expect from a 10-0 team.

Aaron Rodgers wasn’t too happy with his performance on Sunday, but things still worked out well for him. Rodgers completed 23 of 34 passes for 299 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Not exactly the numbers we’ve grown used to from the talented passer, but despite making a turnover while the game could still go either way, he pulled it off with that late pass to Jordy Nelson. At the press conference Rodgers said: “I didn’t throw the ball very well. I’m not trying to be ridiculously humble right now, I’m just frustrated. The ball wasn’t coming out the way I wanted it to today.” As of press time the Packers are a 6-point favorite on the spread for Thursday’s game against the Detroit Lions.

The Green Bay Packers can start packing their bags for Texas to play for the Vince Lombardi Trophy at Super Bowl XLV. With an impressive 21-14 win over the Chicago Bears on the road, the Packers have now linked three consecutive wins on the road to make it into the biggest sports betting event of the season. Only three other teams have managed to win three playoffs road games to make it into the Super Bowl. Two out of those three have returned home with the trophy: the 2007 New York Giants and the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers. The 1985 Patriots won the three road games but lost the Super Bowl.

Aaron Rodgers didn’t have his best game ever. As a matter of fact, a quick look at his numbers would make you think he was somewhat of a disappointment. With a 55.4 passer rating, Rodgers was far away from what he has been showing since mid-December during the last two win-or-go-home games of the regular season. But despite his numbers, he was they key-player behind the Packers win over the Bears. The first-year rookie ran for a score and perhaps made his best play of the game in quite an unusual fashion for a quarterback: he completed a touchdown saving tackle that could quite easily have changed the outcome of the game.

The Bears, on the other hand, had to deal with a whole lot of issues on their offensive end. Jay Cutler, the starting quarterback, had been playing way under par before he had to leave the game during the third quarter because of some sort of knee injury. Let it be stated that no one is sure when or how he got injured. As if that was not enough, the Bears’ coach Lovie Smith reaction to the reporters’ questions concerning the nature and the details of Cutlers injury certainly didn’t help to clear up the situation.

Cutler was replaced by the Chicago Bears primary back-up Todd Collins. He was no good. For a moment it really seemed as if the Packers would be able to put on at least a 3-touchdown advantage over the Bears. Things got so bad on Chicago’s side that they had to play their odds and use a third quarterback on the game. Little-known Caleb Hanie came in and was the man in charge of giving the Bears their only hope.

Hanie had a chance to tie the game after the Bears’ defense finally got their act together. Unfortunately he threw a ball straight into the Packers defensive lineman B.J. Raji who ran for 18 yards and into the end zone to give the Packers a 21-17 lead. But Hanie had a few more tricks under his sleeve.

He then completed a 35-yard touchdown pass to Earl Bennet to get the Bears to a 7-point deficit with little under five minutes to play. The Bears recovered the ball, but their last chance to tie the game was frustrated when the rookie quarterback threw his second interception on a fourth down on the Packers 29 yard line.

Aaron Rodgers went 17 of 30 for 244 yards no touchdown passes, two interceptions and a touchdown rush. Not his best numbers, that’s for sure, but heck, the talented quarterback is guiding his team into Super Bowl on February 6.