It's almost unfair. Aaron Rodgers riddled the St. Louis Rams before a Green Bay partisan crowd at the Edward Jones Dome Sunday as Green Bay climbed above .500 for the first time this year. A 30-20 victory wasn't as close as the spread would indicate. Following up his six touchdown effort in Houston, Rodgers went 30 for 37 for 342 yards, three more scores, without a pick and a passer rating of 132.2. His first three incompletions were an overthrown possible touchdown, a spike and a drop. He got sacked three times but once the line got it's footing, he scrambled to make plays and twice burned the Rams on free plays downfield. On the second series, St. Louis jumped offsides and Rodgers found Jordy Nelson (8/122 TD) for 53 and just after the Rams closed to within 20-13, Rodgers did it again, using the freebie to move left and fire a rope to Randall Cobb who made a leaping catch behind his defender for a 39 yard touchdown that essentially put the game away. Cobb would score twice. His first TD capped what Rodgers called the best drive of the year. A 12 play, 80 yard drive consuming nearly 7 minutes to open the third quarter with just a 10-6 lead. Cobb burned rookie Janoris Jenkins with a double move to snatch a five yard scoring pass at the back of the end zone. Even without Greg Jennings who missed another game with a groin injury, and veteran Donald Driver, limited to a handful of snaps and one catch for 2 yards, the Packer receivers of Nelson, Cobb and James Jones caught 22 passes for 244 yards and all three scores. St. Louis had plenty of fire early, looking to go 4-0 at home this season and they actually scored first. They also had all three of their sacks in the first half. After Nelson's 53 yard grab, he caught a 3 yard back shoulder touchdown to put Green Bay up 7-3. The special teams then delivered another surprise, an onside kick, recovered by Jamari Lattimore. But two sacks in three snaps had the Pack settle for a Mason Crosby 47 yard field goal. The Packers had all the energy after intermission, beginning with the masterful drive engineered by Rodgers. Casey Hayward came up with the only takeaway of the day, his fourth interception in the past three weeks. That led to another field goal and a 14 point lead. The defense played an umbrella shell game in the secondary, forcing Sam Bradford to rely on his receivers to break tackles on underneath routes. They couldn't. The biggest play was a 56 yard wide receiver screen to Brandon Givens on a ball Clay Matthews tipped. Stephen Jackson bashed in from 6 yards out cutting the lead to 7 but Green Bay came right back with the game sealing march. The Rams got a consolation touchdown with :15 left when Bradford found Austin Pettis behind Davon House who made his first appearance of the year. The defense played without three starters, B.J. Raji, Nick Perry and Sam Shields, but the newcomers, Brad Jones, Erik Walden and Hayward more than held their own. Green Bay outgained the Rams 402-354 and they converted a solid 9 of 15 third down opportunities. They held the ball for 21 of the 30 minutes in the second half. The only injury of note was a knee injury to Mike Neal but he returned to the game. The inactives were Jennings, Shields, Raji, Perry, Greg Van Roten and Johnny White. Now it's the Rams (3-4) turn to hit the road, a long trip to London to face the Patriots next week while the Packers finally come back home to host the Jacksonville Jaguars at Lambeau. On the link below, the post game comments from Mike McCarthy and the guys after they finally were able to stack success in a 2012 season that is looking more promising by the week.
Packers roll the Rams



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