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Teams should know by now to not give a master of the free play another shot with football in hand. The Detroit Lions' defensive no-no with a questionable penalty enabled quarterback Aaron Rodgers to carry out perhaps the most dramatic win in the Green Bay Packers' nearly 100-year-old history.
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A 61-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to leaping tight end Richard Rodgers in the end zone on an untimed down lifted Green Bay to an improbable 27-23 victory at the Detroit Lions on Thursday night.
"We rehearse that play in practice every week, and it never works," linebacker Clay Matthews said. "The defense always gets the interception. That's the type of stuff that you don't see in the NFL, in college, but we'll gladly take it."
The desperation heave from Aaron Rodgers earned the desperate Packers (8-4) an unlikely win. They overcame a 20-0 deficit in the third quarter to pull off the largest comeback victory in Rodgers' eight seasons as an NFL starter and avoided taking a loss for the fifth time in their last six games.
"Outside of the Super Bowl (title in the 2010 season), to me, that's our greatest regular-season win," Mike McCarthy, the Packers' 10th-year head coach, said Friday. McCarthy also called Rodgers' sensational high-arcing pass that was measured to travel at least 70 yards through the air "probably the best throw I've seen in my time in this game."
Rodgers was only in position to make and execute the game-winning Hail Mary throw - or "Scat Two Rebound Pass," as it was called in the Packers huddle - after Lions defensive end Devin Taylor drew a facemask penalty. The controversial infraction came after Taylor grazed the lower part of Aaron Rodgers' facemask as he tackled the quarterback deep in Green Bay territory at the end of a sequence of lateral passes on what would have been the final play of the game with Detroit ahead 23-21.
"The game's not over until zero, zero, zero on that clock," Packers receiver Davante Adams said.
With the clock at 0:00, Aaron Rodgers reset the offense for the extra play from the Packers' 39-yard line. He escaped the Lions' initial three-man pressure, rolled to his right and let loose with the impressively arching throw toward the end zone.
"A lot of times, we practice it from like the 50 or maybe the (minus) 45," Rodgers said. "I knew we were around the 40, (so) I knew I was going to have to buy some time to allow (the receivers) to get in the end zone. I felt good about throwing it in the end zone from the 40. ... The (linemen) did a good job of holding their blocks, and I knew once I got outside to the right, I was going to be able to set up and throw."
Aaron Rodgers said Adams was the target point for the pass. However, as the football hung up in the air for nearly five seconds, Richard Rodgers drifted back from inside the Lions' 20 toward the goal line and timed his jump perfectly in front of a host of Detroit defenders and teammates in the front of the end zone.
Rodgers caught the ball at its highest point on its descent and secured it as he landed, touching off a wild celebration by the Packers.
"It's written in the playbook that my job is to box out, and Davante is supposed to jump, and I'm supposed to wait for a tip," said Richard Rodgers, whose huge play capped a career-best night of eight catches for 146 yards.
McCarthy rewarded his resilient team by giving them the entire weekend off. The Packers don't play again until Dec. 13, when they host the Dallas Cowboys.
They could be back in control of the NFC North lead by then, depending on what the front-running Minnesota Vikings (8-3) do Sunday against the visiting Seattle Seahawks.
"We had really put ourselves behind the 8-ball as far as the division and the playoffs in general," Matthews said. "So, to bounce back and put ourselves in position to hopefully take back the North, it means a great deal. We'll take it any way we can, but we still have work to do."
