The 12 best Packer games of the Aaron Rodgers era (Part 1)

With the fifth season of the Aaron Rodgers era in Green Bay coming to a close, I thought it would be appropriate to rank the twelve best games of this current period in packer history. This is a hard list to put together, because, unlike the Brett Favre era, the Aaron Rodgers period has severely lacked close, heart pounding wins. 90% of Packer games of the past five years have been wins by a touchdown or more, or a very close loss. Two notes before we dive in, these are regular season games only, not playoff games. The four playoff wins would automatically be 1-4 on this list if I included them, so I just decided not to bother. Second, these isn't a list of Aaron Rodgers best performances, this is a list of the overall best games, some of these games Rodgers actually performed somewhat poorly in, so that's not what this list is about at all. This is a lot about how important the wins were for the Packers season, not necessarily how exciting the game was. A win in October against a bad team isn't going to be on this list, even if it was a great game. Here we go:

12. Week 1 2008: Vikings 19 at Packers 24: The first start of Aaron Rodgers career, and the beginning of a new era. I was seventeen years old and this was the first time in my whole entire life that Brett Favre was not the starting quarterback of a Packer game, that's a staggering statistic. Rodgers performed well, completing 82% of his passes, a record for a QB in his first start that still stands today. He also threw for a touchdown and ran for another. The Packers had a 10-6 lead in the third when Will Blackmon ran back a punt 76 yards for a touchdown. The Vikings countered with a TD of their own early in the fourth, but failed on a two point try, putting the score at 17-12. with six minutes left, A Packer touchdown appeared to seal the deal, but the Vikings countered to make it 24-19 and got the ball back with about a minute left to try and win. Near midfield, Atari Bigby picked off Tavaris Jackson to finally put the game away. Unfortunately from here, the two teams went in opposite directions. The Packers would finish the season 6-10, and the Vikings wound up winning the division. Why it was important: Still, at the time, it was a happy moment for Packer fans realizing the world wasn't ending because Brett Favre was no longer at the helm.

11. Week 11 2011 Packers 45 at Chargers 38: The 2011 season was a special one for Packer fans, and this game was one of the highlights. Green Bay entered the game 7-0, but the Chargers were viewed as the biggest threat to date to dereail their undefeated season. The Packers burst right out of the gate, with two pick sixes in the first quarter on the way to a 21-7 lead after fifteen minutes. The Chargers responded with ten points in a row, closing the score to within four points. Rodgers led the Packers two minute offense with ease, throwing a TD pass to Nelson with 16 seconds left in the half, leading to a 28-17 halftime lead. The Packers kept pouring on points, and with ten minutes left, opened up a seemingly insurmountable 45-24 lead, but the Chargers scored twice in 68 seconds, to close within 45-38 with six minutes left. The Chargers got the ball with a chance to tie, but were stopped and the Packers held on to improve to 8-0. Rodgers finished with four TD passes. Why it was important: This win was the game that put thoughts of an undefeated season in Packers fans minds for the first time.

10. Week 11 2010 Packers 31 at Vikings 3: The fourth and final matchup pitting Aaron Rodgers against Brett Favre. The Packers dominated from start to finish with an offensive assault that was relentless. Leading just 10-3 with less than a minute left in the first half, the Packers marched and scored a TD with just five seconds left to stretch the lead to 17-3. They got the ball to start the second half and marched right down and scored again. The lead went from 10-3 to 24-3 without Favre even touching the ball. The Packers tacked on one more in the fourth to turn it into a 31-3 laugher. Favre finished with a less than fifty percent completion percentage, and the least points scored by the Vikings in Favres tenure their. Rodgers had four TD passes. Why its important: It killed any Vikings playoff chances, basically ending Favres career, and officially passing the torch of dominance over to Rodgers.