Look around the NFL and you have your surprises (5-1 San Francisco, 5-1 Detroit) and your mainstays (5-1 New England). You have typical strong teams (4-1 Baltimore and San Diego) and some teams we’re all anticipating will fall apart (4-2 Buffalo, Cincinnati, Oakland). But so far this season there has been just one dominant team — and it’s the one that ended last year at the top of the heap: the Green Bay Packers. The last of the unbeaten teams, the Packers dropped 42 points on New Orleans, took care of business at Chicago, Carolina and Atlanta in road games and blew out St. Louis (24-3) and Denver (49-23).
“This is the only team that we’re seeing right now that truly looks dominant,” NBC football analyst Cris Collinsworth said. “You can look around at the other teams that are not bad, but if you are looking for a dominant team, it is only the Packers at this point.”
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That’s mainly on the strength of the NFL’s fourth-ranked offense. The defense ranks 23rd overall in yards allowed a game (383.7), so that remains an issue, especially as Green Bay prepares for a Nov. 6 game at San Diego. It shouldn’t have any trouble with Minnesota this weekend. Win those two and you’re staring at 8-0 with five of the final eight games at Lambeau Field. Undefeated? Unlikely — especially with a Thanksgiving Day game at Detroit giving us our first relevant noon game on that holiday in forever. But get that far and we can start talking about the 1972 Dolphins.
Aaron Rodgers is crafting an MVP season. Last week against the hapless Rams, he was 18-for-29 with 316 passing yards and three touchdowns. His overall quarterback rating is 122.4. He has 17 touchdown passes and just three interceptions through six games. He is completing 70.3 percent of his passes. Rodgers is on a serious roll.
“If there’s a football version of batting practice, it looked like it was batting practice for Aaron Rodgers [against St. Louis],” NBC studio host Dan Patrick said.
– Brian McNally
