A single play wouldn’t have swung the game in the Green Bay Packers‘ direction on Sunday. The New Orleans Saints, playing a home game in Jacksonville because of the damage from Hurricane Ida, gave them a 38-3 drubbing in the season opener, the worst loss of the Aaron Rodgers era. Rodgers still explained why one went awry on Monday, and — if true — it’s completely understandable why.
In an interview on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Rodgers told the former All-Pro punter the first of his two interceptions resulted from a pair of shots to his groin.
“I don’t like to make a lot of excuses for interceptions,” Rodgers said just before making one. “…That [first interception] was entirely due to the double nut shot I took.”
Saints defensive linemen Christian Ringo and Cameron Jordan converged on Rodgers immediately after the snap, forcing the reigning MVP to step up in the pocket and throw an errant pass toward Davante Adams. Rookie Paulson Adebo then picked the ball off and returned it to his team’s 40-yard line for one of three New Orleans takeaways on the day.
With or without that interception — and its cause — the Packers put together a dreadful performance against the Saints in Jacksonville. Green Bay rushed for a mere 43 yards as a team while Rodgers completed only 15 of his 28 passes for a scoreless 138 yards, producing a quarterback rating lower than if he threw every ball into the dirt every play.
The Packers’ defense under first-year coordinator Joe Barry was equally as bad. It gave up five passing touchdowns to Jameis Winston and a combined 171 rushing yards, including 83 to Alvin Kamara.
“We got our asses beat and we got 16 more to go,” Rodgers told McAfee.
First on that list of 16 is a Monday Night Football game with another 0-1 team, the Detroit Lions, at Lambeau Field. Rodgers will be looking for more touchdowns than groin shots in that one.
