Will Monday Night Catapult Green Bay?

It may have just been one win over a sub-.500 team, but it felt like something more than that.

The Green Bay Packers were back to being an offensive machine in Monday night’s 27-13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, and quarterback Aaron Rodgers was simply brilliant, as he’s been for much of the year.

Sure, Green Bay is still a sub-.500 team themselves with a 5-6 record, but the win snapped a four-game losing streak and it felt like the Pack was back.

“Winning is hard. Wins are very difficult in this league and we haven’t had the feeling in five weeks,” Packers head coach Mike McCarthy explained. “We missed it. It felt good. It’s a product of December football. We’re getting ready to go into the toughest days of the season and you need these wins. I think anytime you have adversity in life, there is a learning experience. I think we will be a much better football team because of what we went through. The fact of the matter is this is one win. We’re 5-6. We need to stay the course. We look at this as a launching pad, definitely a game we can definitely build off of.”

Is McCarthy right and can this actually be a game the team builds off of?

The schedule says that they can.  The Packers host the first-place Houston Texans next Sunday, who are ranked 30th in the NFL in points per game.  They then host the Seattle Seahawks, who will likely be favorites, but were just thoroughly dominated against a mediocre Tampa Bay squad.  The last three weeks of the season Green Bay closes with their three divisional opponents, on the road at Chicago, home against Minnesota and then on the road against Detroit.  If they can sweep the three divisional games, the NFC North will likely be in their hands.

“It is a big difference between 4-7 and 5-6 for sure,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “But I hope it is not a ton of relief setting in because we still have a lot of things in front of us that we need to accomplish. This was a step in the right direction and a game we needed to take care of business. We have a short week and we have Houston [Texans] coming in and we have to focus on them and have a similar performance.”

With a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers, the Packers always have a “puncher’s chance.”  When Rodgers is on his game, like he is almost all the time, that puncher becomes the equivalent of Mike Tyson in his prime.  Just as nobody in the AFC wants to see the Pittsburgh Steelers on the playoff schedule, no one in the NFC wants to see the Pack.

What’s Up With The Tent?

In a game that didn’t have a ton of second half intrigue, one of the most interesting things going on was a black tent on the Green Bay sideline that Aaron Rodgers kept going in.

Was it for medical purposes?  Was nature calling?  What actually goes on in the black tent?

Rodgers was twisted up on a third-quarter throw and apparently injured his hamstring.

“Yeah, I hurt my hamstring on our first drive in the second half there as I was extending the play,” Rodgers explained.  “I was a little tight in the first half for some reason.  I don’t know if it was sitting around the last two weeks.  These night games… we do a lot of resting.  I’ll be good to go though.”

So what was Rodgers doing in the tent?

Former Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk weighed in.

The tent is used for a bathroom breaks and privacy when you need trainers to wrap/check on injury. #GBvsPHI https://t.co/5SnfSr7rNS

— AJ Hawk (@OfficialAJHawk) November 29, 2016

Rodgers confirmed that he kept going in the tent for medical purposes.

“I just didn’t want to be getting taped up on the television,” Rodgers explained.  “Obviously, when I walked out and saw the camera right in my face I knew there was probably some sort of mini story growing.  But I had to drop my drawers a little bit to get taped up and just wanted to do it in privacy of the tent.”

There you have it.  Rodgers went in the tent to get taped up and didn’t want to expose himself.  Speaking for most of the men watching the game, thank you, Aaron.