After this Super Bowl is played, the Green Bay Packers may have the Eagles to thank for making them a balanced offensive squad. They were easier to deal with when they were one-dimensional, now you have to play to stop the run and that will open things up for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers wide receivers.
Green Bay has a good chance of winning this football game because of their newly found running attack. The Falcons defense will have the same issue that the Eagles had last weekend. Do you make stopping the run your priority or stopping the pass?
The Eagles wisely geared up their defense to stop Rodgers and the Packers passing game and out of nowhere came rookie John Starks. The Falcons will likely do the same thing, because they might be able to play two-deep coverages and still keep the Packers running game in check.
I think Rodgers has moved into the upper echelon of quarterbacks who can run the offense from the line of scrimmage and adapt to whatever the Falcons game plan. He figured out the Eagles defensive game plan in six plays.
If they take the Packers passing game for granted, Rodgers and his receivers will put points on the board in an instant. Once they get ahead of Atlanta, it will force the Falcons to throw the ball more often than they would like to.
When the Falcons have the ball, you’ve got a similar dilemma for the Packers defense of focusing on the run or the pass, but I haven’t seen Atlanta turn Matt Ryan loose throwing the ball the way the Packers will do with Rodgers. Ryan has quality targets in Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez, but I don’t think they would throw the ball more than 30 times.
Ryan can’t put the offense on his back for the entire game and carry the offense, Rodgers can. Stopping Michael Turner is a good way to force “Matty Ice” into some mistakes.
Pass rushing wild man Clay Matthews and the multi-talented Charles Woodson allow the Packers to be one of the best teams in the league versus the pass. If they can stop Turner from making big runs early they’ll be able to isolate Ryan and the Falcons passing game.
I like the Packers over the Falcons. Green Bay is playing well and I think their defense and their new balanced offense will be too much for a Falcons team that can’t get the job done if you stop their running game. It will be Packers 24-16
