Quarterback Aaron Rodgers produced a four-touchdown masterpiece as the unstoppable Green Bay Packers crushed the Minnesota Vikings 45-7 on Monday, the home team improving to 9-0 and extending their best start since 1962.
Rodgers, who has electrified with Most Valuable Player-like performances this season, also extended his NFL-leading touchdown pass total to 28 in another superb outing that included 250 passing yards and just seven incomplete passes.
“We just have so much momentum right now and a lot of confidence,” Rodgers told reporters after the Super Bowl champions extended their winning streak across two seasons to 15 games.
Photo: Reuters
“No disrespect to our competition; we take the field and we know it’s about us,” he said.
Green Bay opened with a bang when Randall Cobb delivered an 80-yard punt return for a score just 1:18 into the game and the Packers took a 17-0 halftime lead with Rodgers just warming up.
The quarterback tossed the first of two scores to Jordy Nelson to open the third quarter, the second coming in the fourth to give his team a 38-7 lead.
Photo: EPA
Back-up quarterback Matt Flynn even got in on the act, leading a drive and scoring on a three-yard scramble to cap the scoring in the fourth.
The Green Bay defense had been the only weak link of the team’s dominant start, but they put together one of their best performances to hold down the Vikings (2-7), who remain mired in the bottom of the NFC North division.
Adrian Peterson managed a three-yard score in the third, but Minnesota had just 266 total yards on the night.
The Packers had three sacks and one interception against rookie quarterback Christian Ponder, who completed just 16-of-34 passes for 190 yards.
“I felt, as a defense, we owed it to ourselves to play a game like that,” Green Bay cornerback Charles Woodson said.
“We needed a game like that. It feels good, but it’s still one game,” Woodson said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
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Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB