CHICAGO (AP) — It's not hard to see why Aaron
Rodgers is feeling a little more confident these days.
Between a championship run last season and strong
start this year, these certainly are good times for the Green Bay Packers and
their star quarterback.
He came through again on Sunday, and the result was
another win at Soldier Field.
Rodgers threw for 297 yards, including three
touchdown passes to Jermichael Finley, and the Packers shut down Jay Cutler and
the Chicago Bears in a 27-17 victory Sunday.
The stakes weren't as high as the previous meeting,
when Green Bay left Chicago's home field celebrating the NFC title. The Packers
still managed to give the Bears (1-2) more headaches in the NFL's
longest-running series.
Rodgers led the charge, completing 28 of 38 passes
in another sharp performance from a quarterback who sees a difference in
himself this season.
"More comfortable, definitely," he said.
"Going through the postseason like that and feeling good about the way I
played, other than maybe the second half here, it gives you a lot of confidence
going into the season."
The way coach Mike McCarthy sees it, Rodgers should
feel that way.
"He had a lot of success as a player, he won a
world championship last year," he said. "I think that would give
everybody more confidence once they are involved in that. He has a very good
handle week in week out of the plan, how the defense is playing. He is a very
good player, he definitely is on path to be recognized as a great player when
his career finishes."
Rodgers threw his first interception of the season,
when Brian Urlacher picked him off with the Packers leading 27-17 in the fourth
quarter.
The Bears took over at their 45, but two penalties —
holding by Chris Spencer and unnecessary roughness on Devin Hester for a
confrontation with Sam Shields — ended any shot at a comeback.
Rodgers hit Finley with a 6-yard TD on the game's
opening drive, a 7-yarder early in the second quarter that made it 14-0, and a
10-yarder that gave the Packers (3-0) a commanding 27-10 lead early in the
fourth.
Greg Jennings caught nine passes for 119 yards,
while Finley finished with seven receptions and 85 yards. Ryan Grant ran for
92, and Morgan Burnett intercepted Cutler twice on passes intended for Roy
Williams.
"I think we have the potential to get better,
and I don't know how many wins that means or the playoffs or whatever, but I
just think we can play better football," he said. "The standard we've
set around Green Bay is excellence, so until we're at that point, there's going
to be a lot of hard work during the week."
For the Bears, it was simply a brutal performance.
Their quarterback struggled in a big way and the
running game was again nonexistent as Chicago dropped its second straight after
an impressive win over Atlanta.
The Bears managed just 13 yards rushing — and with
only 12 attempts, they matched their second-fewest for the second straight
game. Against New Orleans last week, they called 52 pass plays and handed off
11 times, with a scramble by Cutler bringing the run total to 12.
Coach Lovie Smith credited Green Bay's defense and
said, "If you don't get your running game going, you have to look at what
the other side of the ball did."
Clearly, though, the Bears have some work to do.
"That means they probably have to work on that
for next week because it didn't work today," Green Bay's B.J. Raji said.
"But on a more serious note, we've played good backs this whole season, I
know there is emphasis in the media on (Matt) Forte getting the ball, but we
knew if we took care of business he wouldn't be a factor."
Forte had just 2 yards on nine runs — or less than
a quarter of a yard per attempt.
Things were so bad against Green Bay that fans
cheered sarcastically when he gained 3 yards early in the third period. But it
wasn't as if the quarterback was lighting things up, either.
Cutler was 21 of 37 for 302 yards with two
touchdowns and two interceptions and threw six straight incompletions to start
the second half against a defense that allowed Drew Brees and Cam Newton to
throw for more than 400.
Worse, the Packers were without Pro Bowl safety
Nick Collins, who suffered a season-ending neck injury the previous week.
It wasn't enough to slow the Packers.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
