Packers-Falcons matchup a cautionary tale for Atlanta

This might look familiar, but the Atlanta Falcons sure hope it doesn’t.

The Green Bay Packers are back in the Georgia Dome, where they handed the top-seeded Falcons a 48-21 drubbing in a divisional game seven months ago. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers played a brilliant game in that one, throwing for three touchdowns and rushing for a fourth.

Now, Rodgers is back and he hasn’t cooled much. He’s coming off a victory over Denver in which he threw for 408 yards — his regular-season career high — and became the first player in NFL history with 400 yards passing, four passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in a single game.

“They have an outstanding quarterback with a lot of weapons,” Atlanta Coach Mike Smith said. “That’s the biggest concern for us, not being able to slow these guys down.”

That all starts with Rodgers, who has completed 73% of his passes for 1,325 yards with 12 touchdowns and two interceptions. He has set the bar very high.

“Yeah, we expect him to go out and play well,” receiver Jordy Nelson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Do we expect him to throw for 400-some yards and have six touchdowns? That’s another story.

“But we expect him to play well, and he expects us to play well.”

There is every reason to believe Sunday night’s game will be a shootout, considering Green Bay also has the league’s 31st-ranked pass defense and the unit has surrendered 25 plays of 20 or more yards.

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan conceded he used the playoff loss to the Packers as motivation throughout the off-season.

“But I think you have to put it past you,” Ryan told reporters this week. “Part of playing in this league is you’re going to make some mistakes and you’re going to make some plays that don’t go the way you want. It’s how you respond to those types of things.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com