Road to Super Bowl XLV Recap: Green Bay Packers

Ending one era and beginning another in Philadelphia didn't even take half a football game for this years second best defensive player. In Week 1 of the Packers season, linebacker Clay Matthews fought off a block on his eventual succession to chasing down quarterback Kevin Kolb from behind. Kolb sustained a concussion which ignited the start to phenomena quarterback Michael Vick's valiant return. Despite shutting down the Eagles 27-20, Green Bay took quite an injury hit as well. After just 8 carries on the day, running back Ryan Grant left the game with a season-ending ankle injury that would leave him on Injured Reserve for the 2010-2011 season.

While starting off 3-1, the Packers Week 5 match-up against the Washington Redskins would end in another injury bug disaster. Tight end Jermichael Finley went down with a season-ending knee injury, causing the Packers to lose one of the best tight end's in the game. At 6'5" and 250 lb, the man is an absolute head ache for Defensive Coordinators to game-plan against due to his ability to create mismatches with that rare blend of size and speed. To make matters even worse, Rodgers suffered his first of two concussions on the season. In dropping the next two games because of those detrimental injuries, the Green Bay Packers fell to 3-3.

Fortunately for Packer Nation, it didn't take long for Aaron Rodgers to recover from his injury. Even though they lost to the eventual Number 1 seed Atlanta Falcons in Week 12 by just 3 points, five of the Packers next six games landed in victories. And just as the team started to heat up, Rodgers suffered his second concussion of the season. Back-up quarterback Matt Flynn and the Packers lost by an embarrassing score of 7-3 to the Lions in Week 14, and in the following week Green Bay would suffer a similar fate at the hands of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Even with a valiant effort by Flynn, New England got the best of a beaten up Packers squad in a 31-27 contest.

The much needed return of Aaron Rodgers came in Week 16 as the Packers would go up against two playoff caliber squads in the next two weeks, thus defining their playoff-bound dreams. Back-to-back victories against the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears ignited life into the now 10-6 playoff team.

Facing three of the NFC's powerhouses, the Green Bay Packers found help from a new found rushing attack by way of Buffalo native running back James Starks in this years playoffs. With this, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers have bravely defeated the Eagles, Falcons and Bears en route to Super Bowl XLV.