"I didn't hit the ground once," the Packers quarterback said after a surgically precise dissection of the Bears' porous pass defense. "I barely got touched. No sacks, no quarterback hits, only a couple of hurries. When the guys up front are protecting you like that, you can stand in there and throw the ball with confidence."

Not to mention skill and efficiency. Rodgers, the much-scrutinized successor to cheesehead legend Brett Favre, connected on 23 of 30 throws for 227 yards and two touchdowns, utilizing nine receivers.

He was 6-for-6 on the Packers' first touchdown drive, finishing it with a 3-yard flip to Greg Jennings. Then he went 5-for-6 on an 88-yard third-quarter expedition that settled matters, keeping it alive with a 29-yard laser to Jennings on a third-and-5 play and ending it with a 5-yard TD toss to tight end Donald Lee after a clever ball fake.

Yet it was one of his few misfires that Rodgers recalled most vividly. On third-and-8 from the Bears' 40-yard line and the Packers leading 7-3 late in the second quarter, he slipped out of the pocket and arched a floater toward Donald Driver running free behind the secondary. But he didn't get enough on the ball, and Brian Urlacher peeled back for the interception, his first of the season.

"I had Donald but I short-armed it, and Urlacher made a great play," Rodgers said.

If Favre was the rambunctious gunslinger, Rogers is more the town marshal, maintaining order and keeping a tight lid on things.

"Aaron managed the game very well," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "He played fast, he got a good rhythm going and he didn't try to force things downfield."

As did the offensive line. Along with keeping Rodgers upright and spotless, it cleared the way for the Packers' running game to amass a season-best 200 yards, with Ryan Grant piling up 145 on 25 carries and Brandon Jackson adding 50 in 10 tries.

"Our offensive line dominated the game," Rodgers said.

"This is November Football, and this is how you have to do it," McCarthy added.

Said Grant: "This game defined us in terms of where we want to go. We wanted to pound the ball, execute and be physical, and we were able to do that. We took the approach that it was a must-win game."

It was also McCarthy's first win in three tries against the Bears at Lambeau.

"This game was very important to the Packers -- the 2008 Green Bay Packers . This is the standard of play we're capable of, and now we have to maintain it."

dmcgrath@tribune.com

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