Rodgers rallies Packers past Jets in wild OT finish

EAST RUTHERFORD >> Somehow, a game that ultimately meant very little felt like it meant everything.

Even though the Jets and Green Bay Packers are both hopelessly out of playoff contention, neither team played like it; MetLife Stadium was as loud as its been all season thanks to an extraordinary quarterback duel between Aaron Rodgers and Sam Darnold in Gang Green’s home finale that needed more than 60 minutes to decide.

In the end, the veteran used his experience to get the job done over the rookie.

Rodgers’ 16-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams with 6:25 remaining in overtime gave the Packers a dramatic, 44-38, win.

It was, of course, a disastrous loss for the Jets, one in which they blew a 35-20 lead heading into the fourth quarter. As Gang Green tells it, though, it wasn’t just Green Bay who beat them.

“Taking no credit from them, but we can’t play two teams,” said Jets head coach Todd Bowles, referring to an officiating crew that called his team for a whopping 162 yards worth of penalties on 16 separate infractions, including some late in both regulation and overtime.

“I can explain some of (the calls), but I can’t explain all of them. That’s a question you’ve got to ask them…I thought we were playing two teams, I thought we were playing the Packers and the striped shirts.”

Truth be told, while there were certainly some questionable calls, the Jets had every opportunity to put the Packers away early. Eli McGuire wrote the opening chapter on a two-score game with a fouryard touchdown run with 2:15 left in the first quarter to give Gang Green a 7-0 lead, followed by a Darnold scoring strike to Robby Anderson from 33 yards out that doubled their advantage with 9:02 remaining in the first quarter.

A Rodgers touchdown pass to Jake Kumerow, the 337th of his career, cut the Packers deficit to 14-7 one drive later, but Andre Roberts quickly erased that with a 99-yard kickoff return just 12 seconds later to make it a 21-7 contest.

Things slowly started to fall apart after that, however. Leonard Williams’ ejection for throwing a punch seemed to shift the momentum — and certainly the field position — decidedly in Green Bay’s favor. Jamaal Williams ran the ball into the end zone from seven yards out one play later, and a Mason Crosby field goal in the waning seconds of the first half sent the teams into their respective locker rooms with the score 21-17 in favor of the Jets.

Darnold, who threw for a career-high 341 yards in nearly matching Rodgers pass-forpass, came out firing in the second half, however; his fiveyard touchdown pass to Chris Herndon, seemingly his new favorite target on the first possession of the third quarter. After Anthony Wint forced a J’Mon Moore fumble and turnover on the ensuing kickoff, Darnold struck again with a 20-yard pass to McGuire to give Gang Green a seemingly insurmountable 35-20 advantage with 2:50 left to play in the third quarter.

“To stand up here and say that I’m pleased with the effort, I can say that all day long, but at the end of the day, it’s about wins and losses,” Darnold said. “That’s all anyone cares about.”

Of course, no deficit is insurmountable with the Jets defense. And certainly not insurmountable to Rodgers, who is no stranger to clutch comebacks in games far more important than this one.

After another Crosby field goal made it 35-23, a penaltyfilled drive for the Jets defense aided an eight-play, 94-yard march that took just three minutes and two seconds off the clock culminated in a Rodgers one-yard touchdown run that created a far more manageable 35-30 deficit with 6:32 left in regulation.

Perhaps the ensuing Jets possession is where the difference in experience level of the two signal-callers in lategame situations showed itself. Even after an shocking, wellexecuted fake punt in which Rontez Miles ran for a first down on fourth and one, the Jets gifted Rodgers and the Packers extra time to complete the comeback when Darnold inexplicably threw the ball at Herndon’s feet on third down, which stopped the clock, preserving both time and the Packers’ final timeout.