NFL teams
Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Same-old Jay Cutler, same-old Aaron Rodgers

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Somewhere in the Bay Area, Charles Woodson might have been repeating his "same-old Jay" line from 2012, when the Green Bay Packers picked off Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler four times.

Woodson is long gone from Green Bay, finishing out his career with the Oakland Raiders, but if he was watching football Sunday night, he would have seen that his old team still owns Cutler and the Bears.

In their second-most lopsided victory over the Bears in 190 meetings, the Packers embarrassed the old rivals 55-14 at Lambeau Field. And here's why: Cutler was, well, Cutler, and Aaron Rodgers was not.

If you asked Packers receiver Randall Cobb, who caught Rodgers' record-tying sixth touchdown pass of the first half -- yes, the first half -- it was same-old Rodgers, too.

"He was great," Cobb said. "It's normal."

Normal against the Bears and Cutler, that's for sure.

Rodgers and the Packers (6-3) won their eighth straight over the Bears (3-6) when Cutler starts (Cutler did not play in the Bears' victory here last November, when Rodgers broke his collarbone).

Rodgers was everything Cutler was not Sunday night. He read defenses and changed plays at the line of scrimmage -- like on his 73-yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson (who totaled six catches for 152 yards and two touchdowns) in the second quarter -- and it flummoxed the Bears' secondary, which twice left Nelson wide open for touchdowns.

"As they do from time to time, they tried to change the coverage up, but not everybody was on the same page," Rodgers said of the first touchdown to Nelson. "So you had Tim [Jennings] playing two-[high coverage] and the safety's playing single-high."

That was Rodgers’ 16th career touchdown pass of 70-plus yards, the most in NFL history, surpassing Brett Favre and Peyton Manning.

"There's not a target on the field that he can't hit," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "He has the ability to throw it as deep as he needs to. He's got a big-time arm. More importantly, he's got the athletic ability to get in space and make those throws."

Rodgers could have named his touchdown total on Sunday night, but McCarthy wisely took him out of harm's way after he missed his chance to throw a franchise-record seventh touchdown pass with 10:52 left in the third quarter. He already owned a share of the team record for touchdowns in a game.

"There's a time and a place for coming out of the game, and that was it," said Rodgers, who finished 18-of-27 for 315 yards and six touchdowns without an interception. "We were up 45-0 there, and it's time to watch."

By that time, another full-fledged Cutler implosion against the Packers was on display. Packers safety Micah Hyde picked off a pass that former Bears pass-rusher Julius Peppers appeared to tip ever so slightly to set up the Packers' second touchdown in the first quarter.

Of course, that wasn't Cutler's only interception. The game was long decided when Green Bay cornerback Casey Hayward returned an interception 82 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

In Week 4 at Soldier Field, the Packers clung to a four-point lead at halftime. In the six head-to-head quarters since, Green Bay has outscored the Bears 72-14. In those six quarters, Rodgers has eight touchdown passes and no interceptions. Cutler has one touchdown pass and four interceptions.

Cutler is now 1-11 in his career against the Packers, including 0-4 in Green Bay.

Yes, it was easy to say, same-old Jay.

"You can. I can't,” Packers cornerback Tramon Williams said. "But we've typically played these guys well, as you guys already know."

Fine, then how about the same-old Aaron?

"Well I can promise you, this is not easy," said Rodgers, who has 25 touchdown passes and three interceptions this season. "It's not easy to do this every week."

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