Power Pack(ers) : Rodgers throws 3 TD passes as Green Bay overwhelms Cleveland 31-3

Rodgers powers Packers past Browns 31-3

CLEVELAND — The Browns were no distraction. The Green Bay Packers can now focus on Brett.

Aaron Rodgers threw three touchdown passes, Ryan Grant rushed for 148 yards and Green Bay warmed up for Brett Favre’s first visit back to Lambeau Field next week with a 31-3 laugher Sunday over the Cleveland Browns, who got over the flu but can’t shake other problems.

It would have been understandable if the Packers (4-2) had overlooked an inferior opponent with their eyes on Favre’s hyped return to Wisconsin with the Minnesota Vikings. But Rodgers and his teammates took care of business against the Browns (1-6), who have scored just four offensive touchdowns and 72 points all season.

Rodgers finished 15 of 20 for 246 yards and the three TDs — a 71-yarder to Donald Driver and 41-yarder to tight end/linebacker Spencer Havner in the first half, and a 5-yarder to James Jones to cap a 99-yard drive in the fourth quarter.

Despite being without injured starting left tackle Chad Clifton, Green Bay’s offensive line did not give up a sack after allowing a league-high 25 coming in. Rodgers’ white No. 12 jersey had no grass stains. He had plenty of time to throw and picked apart Cleveland’s secondary.

On one of the few plays he was under pressure, Rodgers stepped up and scrambled for 19 yards before sliding safely at the feet of Browns cornerback Eric Wright, who was playing with a sore shoulder suffered in a car accident and may not have been able to bring down the Packers QB anyway.

Grant ran through huge holes up front as the Packers’ line dominated Cleveland’s defensive front, which was hit hard this week by a flu virus that knocked 12 players out of practice on Wednesday.

Unlike Rodgers, Browns quarterback Derek Anderson was under duress for four quarters. He completed 12 of 29 passes for 99 yards — just 44 after the first quarter. Anderson drove Cleveland to the Green Bay 1 in the fourth, but the Browns couldn’t get the last 36 inches after two running plays and two incompletions.

By game’s end, Browns Stadium was mostly empty and the only noise was coming from Green Bay fans chanting “Let’s go Pack.”

The lopsided loss capped a turbulent week in Cleveland that included linebacker D’Qwell Jackson suffering a season-ending shoulder injury, the rash of flu cases, trade rumors involving Brady Quinn and Joshua Cribbs and Wright flipping his Mercedes on a wet highway entrance ramp.

Rodgers threw two TD passes in the second quarter as the Packers built a 21-3 halftime lead that might as well have been 51-3 against Cleveland’s inept offense, which managed just 82 yards before halftime and 139 for the game.

Leading 7-3, Rodgers hooked up with Driver on a simple pattern that produced a big gain. Rodgers noticed Browns safety Abram Elam creeping up on a blitz and threw to the open spot, hitting Driver in stride. The Packers’ wide receiver shook off two tackling attempts by Wright and high-stepped into the end zone.

Green Bay went up 21-3 on Grant’s 1-yard burst late in the second quarter.

The Packers took a 7-0 lead on Rodgers’ 45-yard pass to Havner, who was only in the game because of a knee injury to Jermichael Finley. Finley got hurt in the first quarter after a 16-yard catch and did not return.

Rodgers rolled right and found Havner, who hauled in just his third catch this season and outran several defenders down the sideline and bowled the last one over before crossing the goal line.