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Aaron Rodgers: Pressure to win is on Cardinals

Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers suffered a 38-8 beatdown at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals in Week 16, but he’s not feeling the pressure during the rematch in the NFL Divisional Round.

ESPN’s Rob Demovsky notes Rodgers said the Cardinals have something to prove after losing to the Seattle Seahawks and are clear favorites because of how the regular-season tilt went.

“Well, the pressure’s all going to be on them. They’re coming off a tough loss at home against Seattle. Before that they blew us out. They’re the Super Bowl favorites, and obviously the favorite team on Saturday night, so we’ve just got to go out, be loose, let it all hang out, because the pressure’s all on that side.”

Odds Shark lists Arizona as a seven-point favorite, which is the largest spread of the weekend. But after winning nine straight games — the last of which was over Green Bay — the Cardinals turned around and lost to Seattle 36-6.

While Rodgers and Co. need to assemble a tremendous performance to stun Arizona, Rodgers is right. The Packers don’t need to feel pressure.

Green Bay simply isn’t a great team this season. Defeating Washington in the Wild Card Round wasn’t exactly surprising, but the realistic expectation was that the Packers would only manage one postseason victory. They’ve done that, so any other playoff win is an upset.

Fortunately for Green Bay, though, the non-Rodgers offensive players last week put together arguably their most complete and well-rounded outing since early October. The lackluster attack finally showed some promise, and Arizona’s defense struggled in Week 17.

But the Packers aren’t expected to repeat their strong showing from Sunday. Rather, the Cardinals must not allow it to happen again.

Arizona sacked Rodgers eight times, and he completed just 15-of-28 passes for one touchdown. The reigning MVP also threw and interception and lost two fumbles, which led to a combined 21 points. James Starks’ fumble also resulted in a touchdown for the Cardinals.

There’s no way Arizona can duplicate that stellar day, right? Well, the pressure is on the Cardinals to find out.

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