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A new narrative: Aaron Rodgers keeps winning games in the clutch

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Aaron Rodgers has become pretty good at this whole game-winning drive thing, wouldn’t you say?

If the Rodgers-can’t-win-games-in-the-clutch narrative hadn’t been debunked yet, it should be once and for all after what the Green Bay Packers quarterback pulled off Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.

And he made this one look easy: Nine plays, 75 yards in 1 minute and 2 seconds capped by a 12-yard touchdown to Davante Adams with 11 seconds left for a 35-31 victory at AT&T Stadium. Child’s play compared to what Rodgers did in January, when took over with just 35 seconds left in the divisional playoff and flung that sideline pass to Jared Cook to set up the game-winning field goal.

“That’s a big thing that people hammer him on is not having those fourth-quarter comebacks,” Packers right tackle Bryan Bulaga said. “Obviously, he’s more than capable of doing that. … I don’t understand why people give him flak about it. Talk about this one a little bit.”

Don't worry, Bryan. They’ll be talking about this one for a while.

It shouldn’t get lost in the feel-good story that was Adams’ comeback just 10 days after he sustained that brutal hit that concussed him and sent him to the hospital. Nor should it get overshadowed by the breakout performance of rookie running back Aaron Jones.

It’s either Rodgers or Tom Brady as the best player in football, and now Rodgers has to be considered one of the best in the clutch, too.

It was just two weeks earlier when he engineered a 12-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson to force overtime against the Bengals – a game that become Rodgers’ first career overtime victory.

Sunday’s game-winner to Adams with his fourth touchdown pass in the final 30 seconds of regulation since 2014. That leads the NFL, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The others were the Nelson touchdown two weeks ago, the 61-yard Hail Mary to Richard Rodgers at Detroit in 2015 and the touchdown to Andrew Quarless at Miami the play after the memorable fake-spike completion to Adams.

“He’s done it before,” said receiver Jordy Nelson, who was sidelined for reasons unknown on Sunday’s final drive. “Plenty of time. A timeout. Knowing we only needed a field goal has a lot to do with it.”

But Rodgers wasn’t thinking field goal.

“I’m thinking touchdown,” said Rodgers, who threw for 221 yards and three touchdowns on 19-of-29 passing. “We had time. We had a timeout.”

Still, it was just Rodgers’ seventh-game winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime since 2014. He entered the game tied for 15th most in that category over that times span -- tied with the likes of Blake Bortles and Jay Cutler.

This game-winning drive started with a 14-yard completion to Adams, and it was off and running (and passing).

“The key to any good two-minute drive is the first play,” Rodgers said. “You’ve got to get some positive yards. We had a good concept front side and had an alert back side, which actually set up the entire final sequence. I hit Davante on a back shoulder to start the whole drive. That ultimately sets up the winning pass, because he’s playing high shoulder on the first play; I go back shoulder. He’s playing lower shoulder on the last play; I go over the top with a high throw.”

That Rodgers can think his way through a drive like that speaks to the cerebral aspect of his play. That he also slipped away from a pair of Cowboys on an 18-yard scramble to convert a third-and-8 two plays before the game-winning touchdown shows his physical skills are as sharp as ever at age 33 and in his 10th year as a starter.

That was Rodgers’ 35th third-down conversion with his feet over the last five seasons, tied with Cam Newton for the most among quarterbacks, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

“He claims he’s faster than he looks or more elusive than he looks,” Bulaga said.

He’s also better than his fourth-quarter comeback numbers suggest.

“Aaron Rodgers on the two-minute drill, just don’t know what else to say about him,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “I’ve got to expand my vocabulary, but just a great job by Aaron.”