Tom Pelissero

USA TODAY Sports

ATLANTA — Robert Alford isn’t ashamed to admit it.

That was definitely a flop by Alford, the Atlanta Falcons cornerback, after Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers pulled Alford’s helmet off at the end of a scramble in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game and then threw a little elbow on his way back to the field.

“Oh yes,” Alford said, grinning after the Falcons’ 44-21 romp sent them on to Super Bowl LI. “I tried to get another penalty up on him.”

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Rodgers was one of several Packers to get in Alford’s face after an earlier hit on the Packers star that officials initially flagged, only to reverse themselves because they ruled Rodgers didn’t slide.

And Alford didn’t seem overly impressed by Rodgers’ rough day, on which the superstar had several heated exchanges with officials over flags he thought should’ve been thrown and was penalized himself for the play that left Alford helmet-less and trust-falling into an official on the sideline.

“You seen him snatch my helmet off,” Alford said. “That’s not Aaron Rodgers-like type plays. I mean, he’s a great quarterback. For him to do that, I’m speechless with that one.”

Were the Falcons in Rodgers’ head?

“I really don’t know. I’ll leave it up to y’all to decide,” Alford said. “I’ve never seen Aaron Rodgers do the things, some of the things, that he’s done. But I think we probably rattled him a little bit.”

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Rodgers finished 27-of-45 passing for 287 yards and three touchdowns with one interception on a day he was far from Green Bay's biggest problem. There were dropped passes, several injuries along the offensive line that pressed defensive tackle Letroy Guion into duty at guard, and an awful showing by the defense, which hemorrhaged 493 yards.

The Falcons knew they needed to get pressure on Rodgers, and cornerback Brian Poole tattooed him twice in the early going on slot blitzes, one of which left Rodgers begging referee Bill Vinovich for a flag, gesturing that he got hit in the face.

Rodgers also had words with defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, who spun the two-time MVP around on a play officials were blowing dead, but didn’t take him to the ground.

"Shoot, they (didn’t) dang blow the whistle until I got to him. But ain’t nobody worried about that," Jarrett said.

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"They’re a team that gets away with a lot of stuff as far as holding calls and everything. So, when the thing isn’t going his way, when the game’s played fairly, it tends to be a problem.”

By the time Rodgers took that face mask penalty against Alford in the fourth quarter, the Falcons led by 29 and the outcome was long decided.

“When he’s done that,” Alford said, “all I could do was just smile and look at the scoreboard.”

And, of course, flop.

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Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero

PHOTOS: NFC Championship Game