Jeff Janis, a second-year player from Saginaw Valley State, caught a pair of touchdown passes and might have been the hero of the game if not for Fitzgerald’s overtime dramatics.
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Ultimately, it was Arizona that earned the coveted bid to next week’s bout, outlasting Green Bay, 26-20, late Saturday night. After the Cardinals won the toss, Palmer connected with Larry Fitzgerald on a 75-yard play to set up the winning score, a flip pass to Fitzgerald for a 5-yard score.
“I have been in some up and down games before but the last seven minutes of that game was something else”, Arians said on Fox.
Minutes later, Rodgers called tails during the standard pre-overtime coin flip, and complained to referee Clete Blakeman when the coin landed on heads without actually flipping in the air.
Rodgers said he got an explanation from Blakeman. “He just tossed it up in the air and it did not turn over at all and it landed on the ground”. So we obviously thought that was not right.
It wasn’t just a billion-dollar industry, one where these on-the-make owners are willing to spend half-a-billion just to move to Los Angeles, coming down to a coin flip.
That shock turned to utter exasperation three plays later, when with five seconds left Rodgers dropped back and threw a 41-yard pass down the middle and into the end zone.
Jeff Janis, who stands 6-foot-3, pulled it down at the Arizona 36, a 60-yard gain.
With 1:55 to play and no timeouts, the Packers started at the 14.
Green Bay gave up the ball and Arizona again was on the march.
Aaron Rodgers had another one of those incredible moments as an National Football League pro, dragging a pretty average Green Bay Packers team to the cusp of the NFC Championship by launching his arm into the stratosphere.
Floyd only had 3 catches for 26 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“Oh, hell no”, the York High graduate said. “He picked the coin up and flipped it to tails, and then he flipped it without giving me a chance to make a recall there”.
Much like he did for Kurt Warner back in 2008, he did for Palmer in Palmer’s first career playoff win.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) looks for a pass interference call against the Arizona Cardinals during the second half of an NFL divisional playoff football game, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz.
Two plays later, he lined up in the backfield and took a shovel pass for the game-winning score. “My eyes lit up in the huddle”.
Arizona advances to the NFC Championship Game, where they will face the victor of Sunday’s matchup between the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks. When the Cardinals drove to the Packers’ 9, Morgan Burnett’s well-timed blitz led to Damarious Randall’s end-zone interception.
In the second quarter, Peterson’s 100-yard interception return was negated by a penalty.
Most of the 65,089 on hand at University of Phoenix Stadium went absolutely bonkers during Fitzgerald’s run.
The Packers followed with a season-ending loss to Minnesota, but bounced back quickly, rolling to a 35-18 wild-card victory over Washington last week. It will be tough for that one to top what happened on a Saturday night to remember.
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He was looking for a receiver to the right, but afterward said he knew Fitzgerald’s assignment was to remain in the short left flat.
