Getty Nick Bosa chases Aaron Rodgers during the 49ers' road playoff win on January 22, 2022.
In 2005, Aaron Rodgers had his childhood team the San Francisco 49ers on his mind after being passed over at No. 1 overall, saying how it would be the ‘Niners becoming “disappointed they didn’t draft me.”
Now in 2022 plus with one Super Bowl victory and a wealthy $150,815,000 contract he signed in March, the Green Bay Packers franchise quarterback still has the 49ers on his mind — particularly four games he still thinks about in a Monday, August 8 interview with Peter King of NBC Sports.
Those games? The four times Rodgers lost in the playoffs to the 49ers.
“I’m hurt by all the playoff losses,” Rodgers told King in the latest “Football Morning in America” column.
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Rodgers Reveals Which 49er Loss Stings the Most
Per Pro Football Reference, Rodgers is 6-3 during the regular season against the 49ers.
And that includes the last second 30-28 Sunday Night Football win during Week 3 of the 2021 regular season. Rodgers has also thrown 20 touchdown passes and just two interceptions in all nine regular season meetings.
However, his numbers have taken a dive come playoff time with the 49ers on the other sideline. Rodgers has tossed just five touchdowns in all four playoff games while being intercepted three times. While he’s thrown past 300 yards in five regular season contests versus S.F., he’s only produced one 300-yard outing in the playoffs.
But which game did Rodgers admit to King still stings? Was it the most recent playoff defeat at Lambeau Field that saw Jimmy Garoppolo and Deebo Samuel help orchestrate one more drive that was won off a walk-off field goal by Robbie Gould?
“The 49ers game in 2013 hurts,” Rodgers said.
The game Rodgers is referencing is the 23-20 home loss to the 49ers — the one that saw Rodgers and the Packers tie things up at 20, only to witness Colin Kaepernick and the ‘Niners orchestrate a 14-play, 65-yard drive to set up Phil Dawson and his 33-yard field goal as time wilted away.
The Other Moment That Sticks With Rodgers
Rodgers had the opportunity to make up for that 2013 season playoff home loss, plus the 37-20 thrashing by the 49ers in the 2019 season that sealed the NFC title for S.F, this past season in the playoffs.
The elements were ideal for Rodgers and the Pack: Freezing temperatures, snow flurries on the field, a team from a warm weather climate coming over not always used to those conditions…
And Rodgers admitted to King he still thinks about one play that sticks out to him: The incomplete deep ball to former Packers wide receiver Davante Adams on third-and-11 late in the game.
“Of course,” Rodgers told King when asked about that pass. “You think about all those plays from all the years. Never goes away. Doesn’t mean that you dwell on them or you can’t get past them. You’re a competitor, you remember maybe the failures more than the successes. I think that’s just a part of loving to compete and hating to lose maybe more than you love to win.”
Ironically, that would be the final pass Rodgers would ever throw to Adams before he made his way over to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Overall, even with 150 career NFL wins, Rodgers tends to think about four of his 76 losses…the quartet coming at the hands of the 49ers.