After delivering yet another virtuoso performance in a 38-28 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers reduced at least one team-mate from workplace colleague to awestruck fanboy.
“I mean, to me, it’s like watching Jordan in his prime,” Scott Tolzien, Green Bay’s second-string quarterback, told ESPN Wisconsin. “He’s at the top of his game. He makes it all go.”
Rodgers completed 24-for-35 passes for 333 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions for a 138.5 passer rating. The two-time NFL Most Valuable Player spirited Green Bay to 24-7 half-time lead and a 38-14 fourth-quarter edge before the Chiefs added a pair of cosmetic touchdowns in garbage time.
The quarterback was at his best when forcing defenders into penalties gave the Packers free plays, including a 52-yard completion in the fourth quarter to James Jones after a flag was thrown for offsides.
“His ability to really process information is as good as I’ve ever been around,” said Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy. “His ability to see not only what’s going on their sideline, watching their communication, their non-verbal communication and their verbal communication, picking up tendencies throughout the game, and being able to apply it to future plays and future situations is very unique. I think it speaks volumes to him in his preparation, knowledge and experience. He’s playing at a great level.”
Tolzien, who backed up Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick from 2011 through 2013 before signing with the Packers as Rodgers’ understudy, effused over the quarterback’s stratospheric level.
“I think, and I just told him after the game, you can’t take for granted what he does. I think sometimes it’s just assumed that that’s how he’s going to play,” Tolzien said. “But he controls the game. He’s just in the zone. The game just seems really slow to him. The checks he makes, the way he controls the tempo, it’s his game.”
With Monday night’s win, the Packers improved to 3-0 and occupy sole possession of first place in the NFC North.
