Patriots ready for top QB matchup
Aaron Rodgers vs. Tom Brady: Could there be a better matchup?
When the NFL schedule was released in April, everyone in the NFL probably looked forward to the matchup between the game’s two best quarterbacks. Now, it is here. Ironically, it is the first time Rodgers has started a game at Gillette Stadium and only the second time that he has faced Brady. When the Packers played the Patriots at Gillette Stadium in 2010, Rodgers missed the game with an injury and Matt Flynn started as the Patriots defeated the Packers. It was the game offensive lineman Dan Connolly had a rumbling, stumbling 71-yard kickoff return.
The Packers lost, but they did not lose another game that season as Rodgers led the Packers to a Super Bowl victory. It was Rodgers’ only Super Bowl appearance as Packers fans have become used to playoff disappointment.
In 2014, the Packers beat the Patriots at Lambeau Field, but the Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl. The Patriots will play their fourth night game in five weeks Sunday night. The Packers have had an up and down year losing a heartbreaking game to the Los Angeles Rams last week when Ty Montgomery ran the ball out of the end zone. Head coach Mike McCarthy supposedly told him to take a knee. Montgomery has since been traded to the Baltimore Ravens.
The Packers are 3-3-1 and one of their wins was against Buffalo. In their other two wins against Chicago and San Francisco, Rodgers bailed them out after the Packers were outplayed for most of the game.
SERIES HISTORY: 11th regular-season meeting. Series tied, 5-5. The Packers beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl in 1997. The Packers were also the first road team to win at Gillette Stadium in October 2002 when they defeated the Patriots 28-10.
