Packers still celebrating improbable win

GREEN BAY -- 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.

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."

REPORT CARD VS. LIONS

--PASSING OFFENSE: C-plus. A week after lamenting the ineffectiveness of the Packers' pass attack the last several weeks, asserting he and his receivers were "on different pages," quarterback Aaron Rodgers is grateful his namesake proved to be highly dependable Thursday night. Young tight end Richard Rodgers caught all eight passes thrown his way, right down to the final untimed play that ended with his leaping catch of a high-arcing 61-yard throw from Aaron Rodgers in the front of the end zone to decide the astonishing comeback victory. The catches and 146 receiving yards are career highs for Richard Rodgers. The successful "Hail Mary" finish more than made up for another underwhelming performance for Green Bay through the air. Aaron Rodgers completed 24 of 36 passes for 273 yards. He atoned for an overthrow of receiver James Jones over the middle that resulted in an interception early in the game with two touchdown throws in the second half. Richard Rodgers and halfback James Starks combined for 13 receptions and 191 yards. The wideout collection of Randall Cobb, Davante Adams, Jones, Jared Abbrederis and Jeff Janis totaled all of 10 catches for 85 yards, led by Cobb (29 yards) and Adams (21 yards, touchdown) with four receptions apiece. Detroit's aggressive pass rush had Aaron Rodgers on the move often behind a patchwork offensive line that was down to only one preferred starter - left guard Josh Sitton - for a brief stretch in the final quarter. Right tackle Bryan Bulaga and right guard T.J. Lang didn't play, center Corey Linsley reinjured his ankle in the first half, and left tackle David Bakhtiari had to go out briefly toward the end after reinjuring his knee. Rodgers absorbed 11 hits and was sacked three times but did draw the controversial facemask penalty on the would-be final play of the game that set up the dramatic game-winner.

--RUSHING OFFENSE: D. Just when all seemed to be well for Eddie Lacy after back-to-back games of rushing for 100 or more yards, he winds up getting demoted again in favor of James Starks and, worse yet, didn't play much Thursday. Lacy was limited to only 19 plays and carried the football just five times for all of four yards. Other than his occasional effectiveness on short passes, Starks wasn't any better in playing nearly twice the snaps as Lacy did. He rushed for a mere 15 yards in nine carries and was bailed out on a fumble at the Lions' 5-yard line by an alert Cobb, who fell on the rolling football in the end zone for a touchdown that started the second-half scoring for Green Bay after it fell behind 20-0. Starks also was stuffed for no gain or a loss on two third-and-1 runs. A scrambling Aaron Rodgers led the Packers in rushing with 27 yards in four attempts, highlighted by his 17-yard dash to the end zone with no defender in striking distance on a third-and-11 play with less than 3 1/2 minutes to go that cut the deficit to 23-21. Undrafted rookie John Crockett, making his pro debut after being promoted from the practice squad before the game, provided a second-half boost with five carries for 22 yards (long of 12).

--PASS DEFENSE: C. Veteran linebacker Julius Peppers went from hero to possibly being singled out as one of the team's many goats had Green Bay not wrested the improbable win from sure defeat. His offside penalty early in the fourth quarter on third-and-13 past midfield made the next two plays manageable for the Lions, who converted a fourth-and-short call and later kicked a field goal to go up 23-14 with a seven minutes left. Peppers' strip-sack of Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford in the third quarter put the Packers in prime position to tack on another touchdown right after the Cobb fumble recovery in the end zone to pull within 20-14. The pocket pressure wasn't much on Stafford, who managed to run away twice for 22 yards. Still, the Packers reached him three times for sacks, including one each for defensive backs Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Micah Hyde, and limited him to 220 yards on 23-of-35 throwing. Both off Stafford's touchdown throws came in the first half, starting with a three-yard toss to wide-open tight end Eric Ebron on busted coverage from rookie linebacker Jake Ryan and a 17-yard strike to Calvin Johnson. The Lions' star receiver made a sensational grab of a high throw as he kept both feet inbound on tight coverage from cornerback Sam Shields. Other than that, Johnson was mostly quiet, catching three passes for 44 yards in eight targets. Golden Tate excelled over the middle with eight receptions for 63 yards.

--RUN DEFENSE: B-minus. Lions rookie back Ameer Abdullah was well on his way to a huge night. Green Bay's forgettable first quarter included giving up explosive runs of 12 and 36 yards to Abdullah, who ran as far as he could before finally being touched, let alone stopped, in the vacated middle of the field on the latter run. From there, however, the Packers run defense had the upper hand against Detroit's multifaceted attack. Abduallah finished with 67 yards in 13 carries, and Stafford was next with his 22 scrambling yards. Change-of-pace back Joique Bell and scatback Theo Riddick combined for only nine yards in nine carries. The Lions barely reached the century mark, finishing with 101 rushing yards with an average of four yards a carry.

--SPECIAL TEAMS: C-minus. The Packers succeeded in keeping the speedy Abdullah from having any kind of game-breaking influence in the game after the rookie had a 104-yard kickoff return in the Lions' upset win at Green Bay on Nov. 15. Abdullah averaged only 25.5 yards in two runbacks with a long of 26. Tate also was a nonfactor on punt returns. Packers punter Tim Masthay recovered nicely from a 30-yard shank at the end of the game-opening series to post robust averages of 47.7 gross yards and 44.3 net yards in six kicks with a long of 62. On the downside were Mason Crosby's lone field-goal try, from 41 yards, bouncing off the left upright, and the Packers' getting zilch out of Hyde's return to action on punt returns (no returns, five fair catches) and next to nothing out of Jeff Janis and Hyde on kickoff returns with a composite average of 20.3 yards.

--COACHING: D. An extra play with no time left on the clock after a controversial penalty by Detroit's defense resulted in the unlikely victory on the completion of Aaron Rodgers' Hail Mary throw. Sure, it's a win that Green Bay desperately needed, but the fortunate outcome doesn't mask a continued confluence of issues' facing the team. The Packers started the game horrendously in all three phases, getting down 17-0 before the first quarter finished. Green Bay had more head-scratching play calling on offense and didn't have any of its skilled players doing much of anything again, except for sure-handed Richard Rodgers. The defense also was out of sync in the first half until it buckled down, sparked by Peppers' forced fumble. The special-teams units had another roller-coaster game.