With the euphoria having settled and the Green Bay Packers breathing a sigh of elated relief, it was left to ponder where the final play of last week’s 27-23 win over Detroit stood in the pantheon of franchise lore.
The only comparable moment in recent memory came with 46 seconds left in the regular season two years ago when the Packers and Chicago Bears were playing for the divisional title.
The NFC North was the weak sister division that year. Every other first-place team in the NFC finished with at least 10 wins, but the Bears limped into that game with an 8-7 mark and the Packers, who had played a tie game with Minnesota earlier in the season, were 7-7-1. Winner takes the North, loser goes home for the winter.
The Bears led 28-27 late in the fourth quarter and the Packers faced fourth-and-8 on the Bears’ 48-yard line. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers took the snap and managed to barely escape a sack from the long arms of an onrushing Julius Peppers.
Whether it was a result of a communication breakdown in the defensive backfield or just a superbly run route, Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb had put about a city block’s worth of separation between himself and Bears cornerback Zackary Bowman. Cobb hauled in Rodgers’ delivery for a game-winning touchdown and the Packers had an inspirational last-minute victory in a game of major consequence.
That one was huge, and indelibly tattooed on the consciousness of both the Packers and their oldest NFL rival.
For sheer theater, though, nothing will top the one-play, last-chance scenario that played out when 6-foot-4 tight end Richard Rodgers snatched a victory out of thin air.
“We don’t call it a Hail Mary,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “We call it a rebound pass, like getting position to get a rebound in basketball. Aaron Rodgers can sure throw the football. It was one of the best passes I’ve ever seen.”
Heavy words. Before writing them one off as grateful hyperbole, consider that Rodgers had to get enough loft on the heave to give the receivers time to get in position to make a play, and that the throw had to come down precisely in the end zone. Too short, and the best they get is a long gain to end the game. Too long, and forget it, the Packers lose their fifth out of the last six and it’s the kind of December pandemonium every team with postseason aspirations tries to avoid.
Just like that, everything changed.
“I’d never completed one like that,” Aaron Rodgers said. “It was a good time to get one.”
It’s always a good time to end a losing skid, but with the final four games of the regular season afoot, and in the manner that this one was pulled off, it was one for the ages.
And so as the Lions and their fans are treated for shock, the Packers look to build on the game that McCarthy called “energy-giving,” as well as the team’s “greatest regular season win” of his tenure as head coach.
Areas still in need of improvement for the Pack to make an earnest postseason run include running back. Eddie Lacy saw limited action in the Lions game, a coach’s decision upon which McCarthy would not elaborate.
But with the extra few days of preparation for Dallas’ upcoming visit to Lambeau Field, and with the shot of restored, across-the-board confidence the team is reveling in today, there is every indication that the Packers are poised to shake their midseason doldrums and make their move. One thing sure is that they will battle, and they can’t be counted out until the clock runs out.
Sometimes, not even then.
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