Packers alter course of season on game-winning Hail Mary vs. Lions

Aaron Rodgers heaved a desperation Hail Mary pass 61 yards with no time remaining in the game and Richard Rodgers came down with it in the end zone as the Packers stunned the Lions on Thursday night.

Chris Burke | Dec 4, 2015

Packers alter course of season on game-winning Hail Mary vs. Lions /

DETROIT — The play call was ... well, there wasn't one, really. Heck, the Packers didn't even have the right personnel on the field for their final snap Thursday night. But it worked.

Hail Mary. Touchdown. Miracle.

Aaron Rodgers + Richard Rodgers:

Walk-off 61-yard #HailMary FOR THE WIN! #GBvsDET https://t.co/Mmm1tzljx5
— NFL (@NFL) December 4, 2015

“Just get down there, box guys out,” said Packers receiver Jeff Janis. “If things don't go right, you've got to make a play.”

Richard Rodgers did, drifting uncovered into the end zone and leaping in front of a mess of players to haul down a 61-yard game-winner. He actually stepped in front of Davante Adams, for whom Aaron Rodgers intended the desperation heave.

“It's for me,” Adams said. “Richard's supposed to box out and keep guys away ... [Aaron is] supposed to throw it up and I try to catch it. If it gets deflected other guys are there. But Richard had other plans and it was a great plan.”

Watch: Aaron Rodgers throws 61-yard touchdown to defeat Lions

Green Bay had lined up for what appeared to be the final snap seconds earlier. Down by two and on their own 21, the Packers had no choice but to lateral their way down the field. They barely had gained any yards when Richard Rodgers tossed it back to Aaron Rodgers, who had no teammates to help him. That should have been it.

Instead, the Lions being the Lions and all, Rodgers was taken down by what was ruled a face mask. (Replays seemed to show otherwise.) “I think we had some karma saved up there after the no [pass interference],” Rodgers said, referencing an incomplete deep ball thrown Jared Abbrederis's way in the closing seconds, on which the Packers' sideline wanted a flag against Detroit's Isa Abdul-Quddus.

That call would have moved the Packers into field-goal range with time to spare. The face mask bought them one more, untimed shot at the end zone.

They did not sub between the penultimate snap and the actual last play, though, leaving them scrambling even more than usual on their Hail Mary attempt. Normally, Rodgers explained, the Packers would have had a running back in to block instead of the five-wide set that was on the field.

And as for the play call?

“Well ...” Janis laughed when asked. “Pretty much just playground ball.”

There is not always a real explanation for how a winner is crowned in these games. The Packers' 27–23 win Thursday night matched the scoreline of the epic Michigan State-Michigan meeting from just a few weeks back, which Michigan State won by returning a botched punt for a touchdown.

“You live for those moments, the ball in your hand late,” Rodgers said. “We've had some frustrations the last couple weeks. Sometimes it takes a little miracle like that.”

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The Lions were on the verge of locking up their fourth consecutive win numerous times. They led 17–0 at halftime and 20–0 after a Matt Prater field goal in the third quarter. Later, they answered two rapid-fire Green Bay scores with another lengthy scoring drive.

When facing a third-and-12, Matthew Stafford gunned a fastball in to T.J. Jones for 29 yards, the outcome inched even closer to being decided. Detroit eventually punted, but Green Bay took over possession on its own 21, with 23 seconds left and no timeouts.

Remarkably, the game still got away.

“Man, I'm still in shock,” Glover Quin said. “I really don't know how to feel about what just happened. That's crazy, but it shows that the game is not over until there are zero seconds on the clock, and sometimes even then it's not over.”

The ending was fluky, sure, but the fallout is no less important. The Packers' season was on life support before the Rodgers-to-Rodgers prayer—a loss would have been their fifth in sixth games, crippling their playoff hopes. On the other hand, Detroit was rolling with an energy it hadn't felt all year, winners of three straight and one lousy snap from sweeping its season series with the Packers.

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Green Bay was the far worse team for a significant chunk of the night, too. Saddled with a depleted offensive line and a struggling receiving corps, the offense spun its wheels in the mud for 30-plus minutes.

The Lions, not the Packers, looked like the playoff team.

Everything changed in the time it took Aaron Rodgers to step away from pressure and launch a pass so high that it felt like it might scrape the Ford Field roof.

“This one goes right to the top,” Rodgers said, “right below the feeling when the ball hit the ground in the Super Bowl [XLV].”

Best NFL Catches of the Super Bowl Era

Green Bay Packers tight end Richard Rodgers catches the winning touchdown with no time remaining during Green Bay's amazing 27-23 victory over Detroit on Dec. 3, 2015, making it one of the greatest receptions of the Super Bowl era.

Nov. 29, 2015: Odell Beckham of the New York Giants scores a fourth-quarter touchdown past cornerback Will Blackmon of the Washington Redskins.

In SI.com's midseason report for the 2015 season, the play of the year honor was given to this unbelievable catch by Gary Barnidge, in which the Cleveland tight end secured an 18-yard touchdown pass with the use of his left ankle, calfs, knees and thighs, while lying prone on the ground.

2014: Jermaine Kerse’s juggling catch inside the 5-yard line, which nearly won the Super Bowl for Seattle against the Patriots.

odell beckham crop.jpg — Al Bello/Getty Images

2014: Odell Beckham's one-hand TD catch for the Giants vs. Dallas.

2013: Calvin Johnson outjumps three Cincinnati defenders in end zone for a 50-yard TD for Detroit.

2011: Mario Manningham sideline catch for the Giants in Super Bowl 46.

2011: Chiefs’ Dwayne Bowe’s juggling one-handed TD catch vs. Indianapolis.

2010: Randy Moss 34-yard one-hand TD catch in the Patriots game against the Jets.

2008: Santonio Holmes tiptoe catch to win Super Bowl 43 for Pittsburgh.

Damian Strohmeyer for Sports Illustrated

2007: David Tyree's helmet catch for the Giants in their Super Bowl 42 upset of the undefeated Patriots.

2003: Joe Jurevicous's seven-yard TD catch in which he tipped the ball to himself vs. the Eagles.

2000: Antonio Freeman’s roll-over catch off a deflection by Vikings DB Chris Dishman. The grab resulted in 43-yard TD to beat Minnesota in overtime.

Corey Sipkin/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

2000: Jumbo Elliott’s tumbling, juggling 2-yard catch on a tackle-eligible play that helped the Jets tie Miami 37-37 in a game they trailed 30-7. The Jets won in overtime.

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images, Nick Wass/AP

2000: Ravens’ Shannon Sharpe catches 58-yard TD pass that bounces off Denver defenders in a first-round playoff game.

Peter Read Miller for Sports Illustrated

1999: Ricky Proehl’s leaping end-zone catch on a 30-yard TD pass from Kurt Warner. It provided the winning points in the Rams’ NFC title game playoff win over Tampa Bay.

1998: 49ers Terrell Owens hangs on to winning 25-yard TD pass in the final eight seconds despite being clobbered by three Packers defenders in the first-round playoff game.

1986: Phil McConkey catches ricochet six-yard pass off Mark Bavaro for TD in the Super Bowl vs. Denver.

1981: Dwight Clark's jumping catch in the NFC title game between San Francsico and Dallas.

1980: John Jefferson one-hand diving catch in the back of the endzone vs. Oakland.

1979: John Stallworth’s over-the-head grab on a 73-yard TD pass that gave the Steelers the lead for good in the fourth quarter of their Super Bowl XIV victory over the Rams.

1977: Dave Casper’s “Ghost to the Post” over-the-head catch that set up the tying field goal in Oakland’s 37-31 OT playoff win over Baltimore.

1977: Butch Johnson's diving TD catch for Dallas vs. Denver in Super Bowl XII.

1975: Lynn Swann's juggling 53-yard catch in Super Bowl X vs. Dallas.

1975: Dallas’ Drew Pearson catches the ball on his hip for a 50-yard TD pass with 24 seconds left to defeat the Vikings in the divisional playoffs.

1974: Clarence Davis “Sea of Hands” catch gives Oakland a last-second playoff win over two-time champion Miami.

1972: Franco Harris's “Immaculate Reception” vs. Oakland

1966: Max McGee's one-handed catch; the Super Bowl’s first TD.

Moments after Thursday's game ended, Rodgers strolled from the showers to his locker, a towel around his waist and another slung over his shoulders, a smirk on his face. He stopped to glance at something on a teammate's phone, then kept walking through the boisterous locker room, smiling all the way.

All around him, his teammates tried to explain the unexplainable. The truth is, they were as stunned as everyone else.

“It's the greatest feeling,” Rodgers said. “We're blessed to play this game. You live for days like this.”

Published Dec 4, 2015

CHRIS BURKE

Chris Burke covers the NFL for Sports Illustrated and is SI.com’s lead NFL draft expert. He joined SI in 2011 and lives in Ann Arbor, Mich.