Aaron Rodgers threw five touchdown passes, including three to Randall Cobb, as the Green Bay Packers rolled over the Kansas City Chiefs 38-28 at rainy Lambeau Field on Monday.
The Chiefs, coming off a mini-bye week following a shocking loss against Denver on Thursday last week, were outclassed in every way imaginable while falling behind 38-14 early in the fourth quarter.
At halftime, Rodgers had more touchdown passes (three) than counterpart Alex Smith had completions (two).
Photo: AFP
Kansas City put an end to one ugly streak as they tried to dig their way out of a deep hole in the second half.
When Smith hit Jeremy Maclin for a 5-yard touchdown late in the third quarter, it was the Chiefs’ first touchdown pass to a wide receiver since the playoff loss to Indianapolis on Jan. 4 last year — a streak of 18 consecutive games.
However, the Chiefs (1-2) repeatedly shot themselves in the foot. The Packers (3-0) gained five first downs via Chiefs penalties in the first half alone.
Photo: USA Today
Early in the fourth quarter, Rodgers drew the Chiefs offside again and, as he has done repeatedly through the early part of the season, took advantage of a free play by hitting James Jones for a gain of 52.
That put the Packers in position for Cobb’s career-high third touchdown reception of the night, which put Green Bay in front 38-14.
Since 2010, Rodgers has four games of five-plus touchdowns. Only Drew Brees (five) has more. Jones had seven catches for 139 yards and Cobb had seven for 91.
Maclin’s 61-yard, bobbling catch-and-run set up Jamaal Charles’ second touchdown run. On the first, Charles imitated Rodgers’ “championship belt” celebration.
On the second, he did a Lambeau Leap. That touchdown, and a two-point pass to Travis Kelce, took the Chiefs to 38-22 with about 10 minutes remaining.
Charles’ third touchdown, a 7-yard run in which he ran over linebacker Joe Thomas, kept the Chiefs alive with 1 minute, 25 seconds to play.
However, Smith, who threw for 251 yards in the second half, misfired on the two-point play to Jason Avant, keeping it a two-score game at 38-28.
Rodgers has turned Lambeau Field into a personal playground, leading the Green Bay Packers on a perfect streak there approaching two years.
Rodgers, the league’s reigning MVP, is prone to shredding defenses at any location, but in the friendly confines of Green Bay he has proved unstoppable, as the Packers have won 11 straight at home including the post-season.
“It’s the crowd. We have a great crowd. And I can use my cadence and go with audibles without using hand signals,” Rodgers told reporters after he torched the Chiefs for 333 yards. “It’s a big advantage for us.”
Rodgers’ Lambeau advantage is becoming unfair, as he has now tossed 48 touchdowns at home since his last interception there.
Green Bay last suffered a home defeat in January last year, when they fell to San Francisco in a wild card playoff game.
The Packers were stung in last season’s NFC championship by a final second road loss to Seattle, a game they felt might have been different had they earned home field.
However, they are well on their way to another playoffs campaign.
Rodgers is already in rare form and is just the second player ever to start his first three games with 10 touchdowns and no interceptions, behind Peyton Manning in 2013.
The Packers offense is humming despite the absence of leading receiver Jordy Nelson, out for the season with a knee injury.
The team also lost pass catcher Davante Adams on Monday to an ankle injury, not that it mattered as they were once again dominant in front of their home fans.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but