Packers' Rodgers running on guts

IT MIGHT NOT have been Jack Youngblood on a broken leg in Super Bowl XIV, but it was something like it.

Aaron Rodgers passed for 316 yards and three touchdowns and compiled a 125.4 passer rating in the Packers' divisional playoff win Sunday over the Cowboys.

Unofficially, that is the best performance in NFL playoff history by a one-legged quarterback. Rodgers played with a torn muscle in his left calf.

Tony Romo had a chance to validate his MVP candidacy over Rodgers' on Sunday. He was efficient - 15-for-19 with two TDs - and he was hurt, too, with two fractures in his back and lingering damage to his ribs.

But Romo was not quite good enough.

Not against Rodgers, the highest-rated passer in league history. He beat Romo and the Cowboys on one leg, no less, and in 20-degree temperatures.

Maybe next time Rodgers will tie one hand behind his back.

He will need both hands this Sunday.

Rodgers, the best quarterback in the game, will lead the Pack to Seattle to face exciting young quarterback Russell Wilson and the league's best defense over the past three seasons.

The Colts' Andrew Luck and Tom Brady might perform a symphony of passing Sunday evening in New England, but it'll be rock 'n' roll all afternoon in Seattle.

That is, assuming Rodgers can roll.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Monday that Rodgers was better than he was a week ago, but Rodgers said Monday that he suffered a setback in the win against the Cowboys, a game he played after 2 weeks of rest thanks to a first-round bye.

"It's worse than when I started the game, but it's doing OK," Rodgers said. "It is what it is. It's a significant injury. I was able to get through it."

Can he get through it again?

The Seahawks feature a defense that is being spoken of in legendary terms.

If the Packers somehow win, it will only amplify the magnitude of Rodgers' heart and talent.

Not that it needs amplification at this point.

"I've got a lot of respect for that," Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright said. "He's playing hurt. He can make all those throws. He's sucking it up for these last few games."

Indeed, the two of the more memorable images of the first eight playoff games concern Rodgers.

First, there was Rodgers hopping on one leg after he hit Andrew Quarless with a 4-yard dart to start the game's scoring - a play he said he normally would have run in. Then, Rodgers limping off the field when he fired a 13-yard bullet to Richard Rodgers for the winner with slightly more than 9 minutes left.

Rodgers also connected on two third-down throws later in the quarter that retained possession for the Packers and protected their five-point lead.

Even if the Seahawks end Rodgers' run, his performance through this pain should never be diminished. He injured it just before Christmas during a game in Tampa, beat Detroit to secure a bye and then beat Dallas.

His stats in those three games: 72-for-97 for 860 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions. That's a passer rating of 121.5.

"What he's done . . . with the condition of his calf, is spectacular," McCarthy said.

"We know he's a little banged up," Wright said. "He looked just fine to me in the last game. He's making all his throws. We're going to treat him like he's healthy."

Wright is wise to be wary. Rodgers' proficiency is even more astounding when you consider:

He has had to work mostly out of the shotgun.

The value of his uncanny pocket presence is degraded because his movement is severely restricted.

He is no threat whatsoever to run.

This is significant, because, among quarterbacks with at least 150 rushing yards, Rodgers ranks third, with an average of 6.3 yards per carry. The two ahead of him are Jacksonville's Blake Bortles, a rookie running for his life; and the Seahawks' Wilson, whose offense is constructed for him to run.

Rodgers averaged more yards per carry than Colin Kaepernick and Cam Newton . . . until Rodgers' injury turned him into Peyton Manning.

It turns out, Rodgers is even better at being Peyton Manning than Peyton Manning, who never bore the burden of being Aaron Rodgers.

Our society suffers from a pathological need to rank everything. Where does Rodgers rank?

Perhaps ahead of Willis Reed, considering Reed was inspirational, if not effective, for the Knicks in the last game of the 1970 Finals; ahead of Kirk Gibson, who limped to the batter's box on two bad legs but had to swing only once; certainly ahead of Curt Schilling's controversially bloodied Red Sox sock.

It's somewhere in the area of the Chargers' Philip Rivers, who had a knee repaired enough to enable him to play in the AFC Championship Game in 2008, then had ACL surgery afterward; gymnast Kerri Strug, who won gold with a vault onto a bad ankle at the 1996 Olympics; Pistons point guard Isiah Thomas, who scored 43 points in Game 6 of the 1988 NBA Finals, much of it on a severely sprained ankle.

Certainly not with Youngblood, who played two more postseason games and the Pro Bowl on his fractured fibula.

Rodgers hasn't proved himself that tough.

Not yet.

On Twitter: @inkstainedretch

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