Rodgers on Sherman: 'Aware,' not 'scared'

When the Packers travel to Seattle this weekend for the NFC championship game, they'll face Richard Sherman for a second time this season.

In Week 1's 36-16 loss, Aaron Rodgers never threw a pass in Sherman's direction. Jordy Nelson was targeted 14 times on the opposite side from Sherman.

In comments after that game and this week, both Rodgers and coach Mike McCarthy denied they consciously avoided throwing to Sherman's side.

Asked Monday how they'll approach the Pro Bowl cornerback this time, Rodgers said: "You play it the way you always play it. You look for matchups and you go through your progressions and throw it to the guy who's most open.

"He's a great player. You watch the film back and it wasn't like the guy he was guarding was open. Not surprising. That's why he gets paid the way he does and he has the reputation that he does."

Sherman, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound fourth-year player, had four of his 24 career interceptions this season.

"He's a great cover guy," Rodgers said, "he's very intelligent, he's got great ball skills. He's got very good timing with his technique and he knows how to cover people. So you have to be aware of him, not scared of him, but you have a ton of respect for him.

"Look at the numbers, they don't lie. Not a lot of guys catch passes on his side and for the amount of times that he's targeted, his interception totals are very impressive. So you just have to play our game, but if he's locking his guy down, he's probably not going to get a lot of passes thrown his way."