Jarrett Bell Amazing is now the norm for Packers, Rodgers
Heroics put Green Bay step from Super Bowl
Is this destiny?
“Not yet,” Randall Cobb maintained Sunday night, after the Green Bay Packers punched their ticket to the NFC Championship Game after outlasting the Dallas Cowboys 34-31. “If we win the Super Bowl, maybe. Now is not the time to say it.”
Fair enough. There is more work to be done.
Another shootout looms next weekend at the Georgia Dome. Then maybe it ends with a bang in Super Bowl LI.
But this is clearly what destiny looks like — like Aaron Rodgers, with that sly grin, picking himself up after absorbing the most punishing blow he endured in the game on a blindside hit from blitzing safety Jeff Heath. Too bad for the Cowboys that they couldn’t force a fumble, too, on that 10-yard sack. Because Rodgers had something left.
Like a few seconds to work with.
Let Jared Cook explain it. It was the tight end’s 35-yard toedrag catch along the sideline, after Rodgers dashed out of the pocket and zipped the ball on the
run, that set up the 51-yard field goal by Mason Crosby that won the game as time expired.
“I don’t think you ever get used to things Aaron does,” Cook said. “He always does things that make your jaw drop. Think about it: Dude rolled to his left and put it on a dime.”
So that’s how the game was won. It didn’t take a Hail Mary. The Packers just needed one more big play to position themselves for a shot to win it in regulation, and Rodgers delivered. Again. “As long as we have time and downs, we’ve got a chance,” said Ty Montgomery, the receiver who has morphed into a running back with the team in a pinch.
The Green Bay players toiling alongside Rodgers are probably not unlike the 1920s New York Yankees who rolled with Babe Ruth. Or the Chicago Bulls teammates of Michael Jordan.
They are playing with a living legend, one of the greatest ever.
“He’s a magician,” Cobb said.
And so crafty. Rodgers pretty much drew up the last offensive play in the dirt, giving each of the receivers instructions on the fly. No wonder Cook flashed an incredulous look when asked if he was the primary target.
“Uh, I don’t think so,” he said. “But you never know.” Just be ready. “At the end of the day, they’re going to talk about that guy as one of the top three quarterbacks who ever laced them up,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said of Rodgers.
Back to the throw. Someone asked Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy for an instant comparison of how the completion to Cook ranked with other passes over the course of Rodgers’ career.
“It’s the best one today, that’s for sure,” McCarthy said.
Yeah, why rank it now? There’s probably another crazy one coming next weekend.
This time, magic came on third-and-20. Twelve seconds were on the clock.
As Rodgers circled left, ex- tending the play as advertised, Cook ran a deep crossing route from the right slot.
Rodgers was off balance while on the run, but you couldn’t tell by the velocity on the ball. It was a hummer.
Or, in other words, just another ho-hum, routine throw from a legend.
“I feel confident anytime I’m out there, game on the line or not, but we’ve made those throws before in practice,” said Rodgers, who threw for 356 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception. “It’s a matter of trusting your muscle memory and your training and thinking about a positive picture when you break the huddle and executing it right away.”
That’s what destiny looks like, a positive picture. Rodgers must have envisioned something special a few weeks ago when he declared that the Packers could run the table at the precise time they were mired in a four-game losing streak.
Now, after blowing an 18-point lead that put the Cowboys on the brink of a miracle comeback victory, the Pack are on an eightgame winning streak.
As Cobb put it, “We never flinched. We always had faith.”
Never mind that Green Bay players are dropping like flies.
Sunday, there was no Jordy Nelson, who was nursing cracked ribs. He’s only the team’s top receiver.
The battered secondary lost another man during the game, as safety Morgan Burnett went down with a thigh injury.
None of that was enough to derail the mission.
The Packers believe. And that’s a powerful thing to combine with momentum about now — especially as long as they have Rodgers out there, sizzling with the hottest hand in the land.
The Atlanta Falcons are warned. He’s coming for you.
And he looks a lot like destiny.