Aaron Rodgers He certainly has a knack for these types of heroics.
With eight seconds left in the first half, Rodgers took a snap from the Jets‘ 48 yard and against a Buffalo Bills two-man run and uncorked a high arc deep pass into the end zone.
And even though Gang Green’s three receivers waiting for the ball to drop were outnumbered by five in Buffalo Blue, it was the Jets’ wide receiver. Allen Lazard whose outstretched arms came down with the ball for an improbable 52-yard score.
The ball was ripped from Lazard’s hands after his back was firmly planted in the end zone and the back judge ruled the play incomplete. But a referee raised his arms and, after discussion, the play was declared a touchdown on the field and quickly confirmed.
“They decided to pressure two guys, so we had all day to do it,” the 40-year-old quarterback said after the game, adding that he “actually threw the ball a little bit right where he wanted it, he was trying.” to throw it among the hashish. The wind was a little swirling tonight.
“There was a lot of pushing and then I saw Allen fall. It’s a pretty good feeling.”
With the extra point, the Jets entered the half trailing 20-17, but would continue to lose, 23-20.
The ball traveled 61.4 yards in the air, which is the longest completed time by a Jets quarterback in the NextGen Stats era (which began in 2016). On the play, Lazard had 0.6 yards of separation and a 15.5 percent completion probability, according to NFL NextGen.
“I saw the ball screaming my name,” Lazard said. “We practice that at least once a week and being with Aaron, that’s six years of doing that, we had a pretty good anticipation of where the balls would be and everything. Very fortunate to be able to get through it.”
Rodgers only had the opportunity to take a long shot thanks to some clever timeouts used by the interim head coach. Jeff Ulbrich on the Bills’ previous possession.
With Buffalo driving inside the red zone, Ulbrich called the Jets’ first timeout after a four-yard run with 39 seconds left. after dismissal jose alen On the next play, Ulbrich burned the second timeout with 27 seconds left.
At the time, it seemed like wishful thinking to try to score with a timeout and 21 seconds left after the Bills scored on third down.
After a touchback he put the ball at the 30, the Jets connected Tyler Conklin for a gain of four yards and Garrett Wilson for 14 yards up the middle before burning his final timeout with eight seconds left in the half.
A gamble by the interim head coach to utilize timeouts paid off with a big touchdown to end the half and reduce a two-point deficit to just three points.
This is Rodgers’ fourth successful Hail Mary of his career, and his first with the Jets.
With the Packers, Rodgers found richard Rodgers to beat the Lions with a 61-yard strike on the final play of the game in Week 13 of the 2015 season. In the wild-card round that year, he hit a 41-yard strike to jeff janis sending a game against the Cardinals to overtime.
And then the next season, Rodgers hit Randall Cobb for a 42-yard score at the end of the half against the Giants in the wild-card round.
