After Aaron Rodgers’ Hail Mary to Jeff Janis tied the game as time expired, the drama was just getting started in the NFC divisional playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals on Saturday.
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A back-and-forth thriller featuring one astonishing play after another at the finish was not decided until Carson Palmer threw his third touchdown pass of the game, a five-yard “shovel pass” up the middle to Larry Fitzgerald a minute into extra time. On that play, Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant had seemingly made a catch to set up first-and-goal at the Green Bay 1, but McCarthy successfully challenged the call and the 31-yard completion was overturned. The Pro Bowl wide receiver has now played in eight playoff games in his career and posted an incredible 53 catches for 912 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The Cardinals held a 20-13 lead with just 55 seconds remaining in the 4th quarter and the Packers at their own 4-yard line with 0 timeouts remaining.
It was a weird night in the desert when the Cardinals escaped with a 26-20 overtime victory Saturday night. Palmer put the Cardinals ahead 17-13 on a pass that looked to be an interception when it was deflected by Green Bay’s Randall Damarious and ricocheted into the hands of Michael Floyd.
“I didn’t know where anybody was really”, said Rodgers, who threw for 261 yards, two touchdowns and an interception on 24-of-44 passing.
In their last game of the season, against the Arizona Cardinals, the Green Bay Packers played their best game of football since the beginning of the season. But Aaron Rodgers can’t rightfully call out his defense – which by the way had multiple chances to tackle Fitzgerald AFTER he made the catch that set up the game-winning score for Arizona – so he had to make it all about the officials.
The Cardinals will now advance to the NFC Championship game, playing the victor of the Seahawks-Panthers divisional game. Rodgers has already accomplished almost everything one can as a quarterback in the NFL. Mere seconds later, fate showed its face as Rodgers did it again, but it was just enough to send the game to overtime.
NOTES: The referee had to flip the coin twice in overtime, causing confusion with the players and fans around the stadium.
Coin toss ‘debacle:’ The coin toss going into overtime was a “debacle”, Rodgers said. Green Bay would take the ball and respond with a touchdown drive.
“We were conservative, but at the end of the day, you have to trust coaching”, Newton said. What players will return and which players won’t be back.
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The offensive line allowed just one quarterback sack on Saturday night, after giving up nine sacks in the 38-8 regular season loss to the Cardinals. With Patrick Peterson and Rashad Johnson on each side of him, Janis came down with the ball for the touchdown, sending the game into overtime. Neither team will make for an easy game and there is work to be done this week in practice if the Cardinals hope to make it to Super Bowl 50.
