Gregg Patton
The Green Bay Packers will have the redoubtable Aaron Rodgers, a two-time Most Valuable Player and former Super Bowl MVP, playing quarterback.
The Washington Redskins will have Kirk Cousins, a first-year starter whose coach was widely ridiculed for naming him to the job at the beginning of the season.
Oddly enough, when the two teams meet Sunday night in their first-round play-off game, the Packers may not have the obvious, overwhelming advantage at the position.
There is little doubt Rodgers still strikes a healthy fear in opponents, but he is coming off one of his less spectacular seasons and still searching for a dependable, favourite receiver four months after losing go-to man Jordy Nelson to injury.
Cousins has spent the season maturing into a surprise leader and top-tier passer for the underestimated Redskins.
It may seem like heresy to mention it but statistically, Cousins, 27, had the better season. He threw for 4,166 yards with 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions for a passer rating of 101.6.
Rodgers’ passer rating of 92.7 was his lowest since he became the Packers starter in 2008.
He still had a brilliant 31-to-8 touchdown-to-interception ratio, but he also had a career low of 3,821 passing yards over a full season.
No doubt Rodgers’ long-time track record as an elite player and his experience in play-off games counts for more than the numbers that each quarterback amassed over one season.
But to dismiss Cousins as a novice not up to the task could be a mistake.
Most pundits doubted him in September, when coach Jay Gruden bypassed the franchise’s one-time saviour, Robert Griffin III, in favour of Cousins, a fourth-year back-up who had been the 102nd player taken in the 2012 draft.
Griffin had been No 2 overall that year, but after early success had been injury-prone and inconsistent.
Cousins did not seem like a great option, having thrown 18 touchdown passes and 19 interceptions in 14 career games subbing for Griffin.
But he used the doubts as fuel. When he led Washington to a dramatic win in October, after they trailed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-0, he came through the media area and angrily screamed, “You like that?” twice at reporters.
He was just getting started.
Over the final eight games, he posted the league’s best passer rating, throwing 19 touchdown passes against two interceptions, and Washington went 6-2 to finish 9-7 and capture the NFC East title and the play-off berth that few prognosticators had expected.
Now his “You like that?” will be printed on towels and handed to fans who come to the game in Washington.
He was much calmer this past week talking to reporters about his first post-season start, and his match-up against Rodgers.
“It’s very important that I stay within myself, just do what I need to do,” Cousins said. “It’s important that we operate well on offence, convert on third downs, score points in the red zone.
“They have such a great quarterback on the other side. If you don’t make good on those opportunities, typically they’ll make you pay.”
Meanwhile, the Packers are hoping to find their groove after losing their final two games of the season.
“I’ve never lost confidence in myself and our team will be ready to play,” Rodgers assured followers.
One old reputation, and one new one, will be tested.
Vikings can go back to their roots with ice-cold win over Seattle
Call it a throwback game.
Call it old-fashioned, icy-weather football.
Mostly call it fitting that the Minnesota Vikings will once again play a post-season game in frigid, below-zero temperatures on Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks come to town for a first round National Football Conference match-up.
In the first two decades of Vikings history, the team was known for their success in chilly post-season games, winning seven of 10 home play-off games and reaching four Super Bowls.
Then, from 1982 until 2013, the Vikings moved into the canopied Metrodome where they seemed to lose their hard, frost-bitten identity.
They went 5-3 in post-season home games indoors, but never made another Super Bowl.
A new covered stadium will be ready next autumn. In the meantime, the Vikings are finishing the second of two outside seasons at the University of Minnesota.
Sunday’s forecast is for
-17°C at kick off, then dropping.
Coach Mike Zimmer hopes to thaw-out some old, frozen magic.
“I actually love it,” Zimmer told ESPN.com. “We get to use it to our advantage. You get teams that aren’t used to playing in the cold weather games. It’s all a mental thing.
“I’m a big fan of it.”
Icy conditions notwithstanding, the Seahawks, two-time defending NFC champions, are still favourites.
This likely will be the Vikings last chance ever to use their naturally hostile climate for psychological advantage.
Eliminating Seattle in a freezing stadium would add a special bit of history to the team’s legacy, before they re-enter the bland world of temperature-controlled football forever.
NFL notes
— Green Bay ranked 23rd in total offence and 15th in defence during the regular season.
The last time they had a better defence than offence was five years ago, when they won the Super Bowl.
— Washington running back Alfred Morris gained only 751 yards this year after averaging more than 1,300 in each of his first three years.
Jay Gruden, the Washington coach, said: “We haven’t killed him throughout the season by giving him 25-30 carries a game. He’s fresh and this is the perfect time to start to utilise him.”
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