Aaron Rodgers threw five touchdowns in the first two regular season wins against the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks. After Monday night, he has 10 touchdowns on the season.
The quarterback made his previous numbers look silly with five touchdowns in the Green Bay Packers 38-28 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night.
Rodgers led the Packers (3-0) with 333 yards through the air along with 16 yards on the ground. The 31-year-old threw five touchdowns and stayed dominant throughout the entire contest.
"Aaron is a phenomenal player ... and playing great football," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said with a laugh. "I'll just keep saying it."
The first touchdown went to Ty Montgomery, the rookie from Stanford, for an eight-yard score. Little did Kansas City know, it would be the start of a very long night.
With two minutes and 18 seconds left in the first quarter, Rodgers found Randall Cobb for the first-of-three times on Monday night. The first was a three-yard connection to give Green Bay an early 14-0 lead.
The Chiefs (1-2) made things interesting early and late, but it all started and ended with Jamaal Charles. The running back found open space and rolled in for a nine-yard touchdown to cut the Packers lead to seven.
Before Rodgers threw his next touchdown, the Packers kicker hit a 44-yard field goal. Rodgers, however, threw deep left to James Jones for a 27-yard score to put the Packers up 24-7 as time was winding down in the first half.
The Rodgers to Cobb combination became active again to start the third quarter. He hit his favorite receiver for a four-yard touchdown. The Packers led 31-7 at that point.
Jeremy Maclin has not caught a touchdown for the Chiefs this season, but he made his presence felt with a 141-yard night with a touchdown on eight catches. Previous to tonight, Maclin only totaled 109 yards over two games. His touchdown reception was a five-yard catch in the middle of the field from the arm of quarterback Alex Smith.
There was one, two and three. The third touchdown between Rodgers and Cobb was for four yards, again. It was the same play as the first touchdown and the simple but effective play gave the Packers a 38-14 lead to start the fourth quarter.
Rodgers has thrown 45 touchdowns and zero interceptions in his last 18 starts at Lambeau Field. Those numbers alone prove that the 24th overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft deserved the National Football League Most Valuable Player award last season.
After, it was all Charles and the Chiefs. The running back scored a four-yard and a seven-yard touchdown with 10 minutes to go and with one minute and 25 seconds to play in the Monday night affair. The first touchdown had a successful two-point conversion, but the second did not, which kept Kansas City down by 10. They went on to lose, 38-28.
While Charles never broke out for huge yards, he solidified the run game for Kansas City with three touchdowns and 49 yards on 11 carries. The top NFL running back added five catches for 33 yards.
The defense for Green Bay was vital to the victory over Kansas City. Led by linebacker Clay Matthews, the Packers had an unimaginable eight hits on Smith. Meanwhile, Rodgers was hit just four times by Chief defenders.
"Forcing (them) to punt that first half was pretty boring, being on the sideline," Matthews said. "But, hopefully, this is just an indication of where we're headed as a defense."
Smith finished 24-for-40 with 290 yards through the air, one touchdown and one interception. Remember, he was drafted first overall in the 2005 NFL Draft, the same year Rodgers went 24th overall.
The take away came at the hands of Sam Shields, who returned the interception for just 15 yards. It was a very poor pass from Smith that deserved nothing more than an interception. It capped off a rough night for the 31-year-old.
"Green Bay did a nice job," a curt Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.
The Packers will travel on the road to face the San Francisco 49ers (1-2) on Sunday, October 4th at 4:25 PM EDT. The 49ers are coming off a 7-47 loss at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals (3-0).
On the other side of the football, the Chiefs will play the Cincinnati Bengals (3-0) on Sunday, October 4th at 1:00 PM EDT on the road. Cincinnati are off to an unusually impressive 3-0 start to hold first place in the AFC Northern Division.