Packers' Stars Nelson, Adams set Historic pace Heading into the Playoffs

Sputtering and trudging his way through injury in 2015, Davante Adams made it a point to make his presence felt in the Packers' Wild Card game in Washington last year.

He caught all four of his targets for 48 yards and caught a critical touchdown at the end of the second quarter that gave his team the lead going into halftime. It was the only action he saw in the playoffs before suffering an MCL sprain. A year before, he was running all over the Dallas Cowboys' secondary en route to a 117-yard day and a berth in the NFC Championship in Seattle.

Now, he'll be preparing for his third playoff bid with Aaron Rodgers at the helm commandeering the ship and playing possibly his best football in quite some time. He's coming off of his best season in his young career in which his 12 receiving touchdowns combined with peer Jordy Nelson's 14 tallied the most by any receiving duo in Packers' history. They just narrowly topped the 2014 mark of 25 set by Nelson and Randall Cobb.

Adams, this time, will have the luxury of Nelson being on the field, much like he has been all season. Come playoff time, the two are beginning to form cohesion and almost beg for acknowledgement as one of the most lethal duos in the league.

"Our willpower is through the roof," Adams told Packers.com's Larry McCarren after the Packers rightfully reclaimed the NFC North in Detroit on Sunday. "I've never seen anything like it. We got a pretty good guy leading this team, and he's put us in some pretty good situations to be successful."

The Packers put together three time-consuming touchdown drives in the second half, engineered by Rodgers and co. One that lasted 10 plays, spanned 75 yards and ate up over five-and-a-half minutes. Another with 10 plays as well and going 81 yards, chalking up 4-and-a-half minutes, and the dagger that put Green Bay up by two touchdowns - 11 plays, 75 yards, just under five minutes extinguished.

"It's just a matter of sustaining those drives like we did in Philly. It's pretty similar at the end of those games. If we do that, it's going to be really hard to beat us."

His counterpart in Nelson had himself a season that far exceeded many expectations - especially coming off of a torn ACL. He showed skeptics in 2016 that timing and trust between quarterback and wide receiver can never go understated.

Nelson is one of the six current starters who were on the 2011 roster and took part in the beating administered by the Giants in the playoffs that year. Rodgers, T.J. Lang, Bryan Bulaga, Clay Matthews and Morgan Burnett being the others. Sam Shields and Randall Cobb were there as well, but Shields is currently recovering from his fifth reported concussion and Cobb was buried on the depth chart in his rookie year of 2011. You can ask each one of those players what they remember about that cold, dismal January night, but they'll probably give you the same answer Nelson gave reporters on Wednesday.

"They beat us," Nelson simply stated. "We turned the ball over."

As you can probably imagine, Nelson wasn't too full of gleeful expression on that meeting.

The Packers aren't too far removed from their last regular season meeting with the Giants, which took place at Lambeau Field in October. Nelson caught a touchdown and four passes - on 13 targets. It was one of the more abysmal performances of Nelson's comeback year, but a chance to right his "fluke" performance will come this Sunday and the stakes have never been higher.

"I think it was a fluke. To me, it was my own self-inflicted wounds."

Nelson led the Packers in both receptions and targets but had just two drops all season. In other words, he dropped just 1.3% of his 152 targets, which in the grand scheme of things, is phenomenal. Especially considering he was the sixth-most targeted receiver in the NFL this season, and his two drops are tied for the fewest among all of those ahead of him - playmakers such as Mike Evans, Odell Beckham Jr., Julian Edelman and T.Y. Hilton.

"I dropped too many balls," Nelson admitted, which would essentially disprove all of the above information had he not been speaking generally. "It's one of those bad days that you have every once in a while. I don't see it having any effect on this game."

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Zachary Jacobson is a staff writer/reporter for Cheesehead TV. He's the voice of The Leap on iTunes and can be heard on The Scoop KLGR 1490 AM every Saturday morning. He's also a contributor on the Pack-A-Day Podcast. He can be found on Twitter via @ZachAJacobson or contacted through email at [email protected].

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Comments (19)

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NickPerry's picture

January 05, 2017 at 06:10 am

The Packers Offense is playing much better than they were at the beginning of the season, Rodgers and Nelson specifically are playing better. Adams has played really well all season. Yes he's still had some drops but overall he's had a very solid season. Nelson and Adams have accounted for 26 TD's, 172 catches, for 2254 yards for the season. Not bad for a guy coming off an ACL injury and another guy many wanted to cut to keep Janis and Abby.

One last thing... The Giants are one of the worst teams defending the TE position this season. Wouldn't surprise me a bit to watch Cook have his best game as a Packer.

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jeremyjjbrown's picture

January 05, 2017 at 07:49 am

Adams seams to have really matured and has a much better attitude. He's still only 24. I think he's got a bright future.

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NickPerry's picture

January 06, 2017 at 05:14 am

Who would dislike this comment by Jeremy? Lots of Giants fans cruising Cheesehead TV? Or Vikings, Lions, and Bears..

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jeremyjjbrown's picture

January 06, 2017 at 07:47 am

There are a sad number of folks who hold grudges around here when people have a different opinion from them. It's like middle school behavior.

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SpudRapids's picture

January 06, 2017 at 08:59 am

Probably the same people who spent the entire offseason calling for Adams head...

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Bearmeat's picture

January 05, 2017 at 06:43 am

NYG have three premier CBs (remember when we thought we'd have that coming into the year??) and an all-pro safety. Basically, their secondary is what we thought ours would be. I don't expect Jordy and Davante to be large factors.

NYG also stop the run very well between the tackles and they have a good pass rush threat in Vernon. I'm not worried about sacks - our OL is better than their DL in pass pro. BUT, from what I've read, their LBs can be had. Short passes to Monty, Cobb, Allison, seam busters to Cook and off tackle runs is where the offense will make hay.

On the other side of the ball, it is IMPERATIVE that we keep Perkins under control. This is actually my biggest worry from the game. They're going to get theirs passing to ODB. Double him. Bracket coverage, and just keep the deep lid on the passing game so we don't have any WAS or TEN fiascos. If they can't run the ball effectively and there is a semblance of a pass rush, Eli will turn it over.

And then we win.

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croatpackfan's picture

January 05, 2017 at 08:40 am

I say give the Giants RB career day, and Packers win the game is outcome I will welcome!

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Savage57's picture

January 05, 2017 at 07:37 am

What Mike has shown the last several weeks is a much greater creative range using his plays and players situationally.

He'll be wise to follow that trend, taking advantage of the short passing game and game planning this one very similar to what we saw against Philly.

The true West Coast offense we saw in that game is the perfect recipe to attack both the strength and weaknesses of the Giants D.

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NashvilleCheesehead's picture

January 05, 2017 at 07:51 am

Packers 24-17. GO PACK GO!!!!!

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Handsback's picture

January 05, 2017 at 08:03 am

The Giants have been able to slow teams running the ball and defend through the air with a bend but don't break defensive backfield. They beat the Cowboys twice because Dallas couldn't run the ball like they wanted (remember this if a Cowboy vs. Packers game is next) and couldn't move the ball through the air.
Against the Packers, the Giants will want to do the same thing and pile up points through the air with Green Bay's thin secondary.

None of these playoff games will be easy. I see Green Bay getting by the Giants because of Arod and the defense trying to keep the Giants out of the endzone one last time. Similar to Detroit game but closer.

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RCPackerFan's picture

January 05, 2017 at 08:13 am

The Packers offense has really become what we thought they would. And there are more then a few reasons why.

First Rodgers is BACK! I really don't know what it was for about a year, but Rodgers is back to the Rodgers we have known for a long time.

-The offense really seemed to come on once they discovered Montgomery as an option at RB. His ability to be a threat as a Receiver out of the backfield but also to be a good runner has given the offense a lot of options.
Also Ripkowski has emerged as a running threat.

-Since Cook has come back from injury the offense really has taken off. I think Cooks size and mismatch ability has really created more openings for Nelson.

-Adams while has had a couple of TD drops the last few games, his emergence this year really given Rodgers more options. If Adams doesn't drop those 3 TD's, he would have surpassed Nelson as the league Leader in TD's. Instead, Adams finished tied for 2nd in the league.

-Nelson is back! Rodgers and Nelson are once again in sync with each other. Nelson finished the season #1 in TD receptions, #5 in receptions and #6 in yards.
Not bad that your top 2 WR's are 1 and 2 in the NFL for TD receptions.

-Also to help the offense, the recent emergence of Allison has given Rodgers yet another option, and has quietly given the team a deep threat option. Allison in the last 2 games has averaged 19.6 yards per reception. Against the Lions he had receptions of 31 and 39 yards. Against the Vikings he had a 32 yards reception.

-One of the biggest reasons for the offenses success. The OL. I don't think there is a pair of better OT's right now then Baktiari and Bulaga. Also Lang had a pro bowl year, and Taylor have been really good.

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RCPackerFan's picture

January 05, 2017 at 11:39 pm

Other then that he is tied for 2nd in the NFL for TDs.

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SpudRapids's picture

January 06, 2017 at 09:01 am

Eat crow Cow... you said Adams doesn't even belong on an NFL field last year. He has made your opinion look idiotic. He has dropped a few TD passes but so did James Jones early in his career and he fixed that. He also has made some spectacular grabs as well. Stop being a miserable contrarian for like one day please.

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EdsLaces's picture

January 05, 2017 at 09:43 am

I hope Geronimo plays more than Cobb at this point ...

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4zone's picture

January 05, 2017 at 10:59 am

MM's game planning has been maybe his best ever these past few weeks. G'Mo and Adams wide with Jordy & Cook in the slot smells smoken hot from here. I don't care who the DB is, I"ll take Jordy any day.

I expect NY is going to see stuff no one has seen from us this year.

I also have to give our D coaches some respect here. Given the continued devastation to the guys outside they are weaving patches as fast as guys go down. It may not look pretty but let's be realistic here. In the end, its been enough to get us this far. I'm beginning to think they believe they can overcome anything thrown at them. Skill and experience may not be top shelf, but the attitude appears to be.

One more time dear friends, into the breach...

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4zone's picture

January 05, 2017 at 02:56 pm

COW, if you took more time thinking and less time blaming you might surprise yourself. In regards to skills and experience, I am referring to the bodies we have left after all the decapitations and body bags got cleared off the field. If you think we can have starter quality backups 6 deep at every position you need to move to Colorado and start selling what your smoking.

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croatpackfan's picture

January 05, 2017 at 05:03 pm

Yes, you must be right... We all can witness how Montgomery did not play any snap and will not, how CM3 and Julius are suspended, how Jordy did never come back to his old himself, how Aaron is washed and done, how Davante is not NFL caliber player, how ... whatever. You got it right , all.

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SpudRapids's picture

January 06, 2017 at 09:04 am

This is great... Cow has laid nothing but a bunch crap in this forum and most of it wrong... I believe he said trade Rodgers because he is washed up too and that he'd rather have Hundley starting

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4zone's picture

January 05, 2017 at 04:47 pm

COW it is a waste of breath talking intelligently to ya so getty on with your bad self and go try to impress a 1st grader with your idiocy.

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