







The plan against Aaron Rodgers was battle-tested shortly before the 2010 playoffs started. The Atlanta Falcons kept Rodgers under control in the regular season, containing the Packers offense during a 20-17 victory six weeks prior to their rematch in the postseason.

Sure, this would be tough, the Falcons figured, but not impossible. Put in the same game plan, play better on offense and victory would be theirs.

Not so much.

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"He knew everything we were doing and he was three steps ahead of us," Falcons coach Mike Smith said in looking back at the 48-21 loss. "When you look at the game film, it wasn't that we played that badly. Aaron took it to this next level."

Or as Rodgers put it, simply: "They played the exact same defense."

The San Francisco 49ers, who opened the season with a 30-22 victory in Green Bay, would be wise to consider that situation as they get ready to host Rodgers and Green Bay on Saturday night in the second round of the NFC playoffs at Candlestick Park.

"If there's one problem with the 49ers, it's that they're not multiple enough on defense," said former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer, who as a Northern California native, Bay Area resident and former 49ers player is a thinly veiled 49ers fan. "The defense they were in the first week of the season is the same defense they are now. Don't get me wrong, they're great, but it's the same looks."

Meanwhile, Rodgers is in the midst of one of the greatest quarterback runs in the history of the NFL. In his first five seasons as a starter, Rodgers has compiled a quarterback rating of 100.0 or better in the past four, including an NFL-record 122.5 in 2011 and 108.0 this season.

For comparison, four-time league MVP Peyton Manning has four seasons of a 100 or better rating … in his career. Two-time MVP Tom Brady has three.

[More: Mike Shanahan's obsession to win clouded judgment with RG3]

Just as impressively, if not subtly, Rodgers is working on an incredible streak of minimizing mistakes. He has not thrown more than one interception in a game since the 2010 NFC championship game at Chicago. That's a streak of 34 consecutive games, playoffs included, starting with the Super Bowl against Pittsburgh that year.

If you include only regular-season games, the streak is actually 39. Either way, it's the longest streak since the beginning of the Super Bowl era, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The next longest streak had been 27 by Neil O'Donnell.

But here's where that streak gets real perspective. Of the five other quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl over the past nine years (Brady, Manning, Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees), none of them has ever gone even a full season without throwing more than one interception in a game. Roethlisberger did it in his suspension-shortened 2010 season in which he missed four games and had an overall streak of 18 games from '09 through the '10 playoffs.

Rodgers, in contrast, is essentially at two full seasons and counting.

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