Green Bay Packers stars Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams stun San Francisco.
The Green Bay Packers’ first comeback led to their second.
Aaron Rodgers may not have shattered the hearts of the San Francisco 49ers if Davante Adams had not recovered quickly from a chest injury.
Give Rodgers his greatest receiver and 37 seconds on the clock — even if he doesn’t have a single timeout remaining — and he’ll give one of the NFL’s most dependable kickers a shot to win it.
That’s precisely what Rodgers, Adams, and Mason Crosby did at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday night.
Crosby’s 51-yard field goal as time expired for an unexpected 30-28 win was set up by two passes to Adams, one for 25 yards and the other for 17 yards.
“You worry about Aaron on the other side all the time,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said.
Especially if Adams is with Rodgers.
That seemed doubtful after 49ers safety Jimmie Ward knocked down Adams with 7:41 remaining in the game. The Packers’ top wideout remained on the ground for many minutes,
and although it seemed he had been hit in the head, he said the problem was that he couldn’t recover his breath.
Adams reappeared one play later.
“I’m different,” Adams remarked when asked how he returned so fast.
He had 12 receptions for 132 yards and a score, but he was the same old Adams.
With 37 seconds remaining, the 49ers grabbed the lead for the first time in the game on Jimmy Garappolo’s 12-yard touchdown throw to Kyle Juszczyk.
Their lead lasted precisely that long.
Rodgers deadpanned when asked how much time he needed for a comeback like this, saying, “37 [seconds].”
Matt LaFleur believed he could have done it with fewer resources.
“Thirty-five seconds,” stated Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy. “Perhaps 34.”
Rodgers hit Adams for 25 yards on a play that he devised in practice just three days before,
despite the fact that it wasn’t written up in the dirt.
With 16 seconds remaining on the clock, the Packers were at midfield after a spike and an incompletion.
Rodgers ran to the 33-yard line to spike it again after another 17-yard pass to Adams.
He pumped his right arm as he did so with 3 seconds remaining.
Rodgers remarked, “I’m not sure [whether that] sealed it.” “We still needed a 51-yard field goal,
but I was confident in my old buddy Mace’s ability to make it.
Over the years, he’s gotten some huge kicks.”
Crosby’s game-winning field goal was his third of the night and his 22nd in a row going back to last season. According to Elias Sports Bureau data,
it was the third-latest game-winning drive in Rodgers’ career in terms of time remaining on the clock when he took over.
Rodgers has thrown six touchdowns without an interception in the last two games after an ugly defeat to the New Orleans Saints to start the season.
Rodgers was only sacked once while playing with a third-string left tackle, Yosh Nijman, who had just 14 NFL plays before Sunday night.
He threw for 261 yards and two touchdowns on 23-of-33 passing.
Adams, on the other hand, had his second consecutive 100-yard game and his 25th overall.
Adams was described by LaFleur as “just what a competitor, dude.”
“Then he goes out and makes two huge receptions in the last two minutes of the game, he is the ultimate competitor.
I believe he is the greatest receiver in the National Football League, and he proves it every week.”
Shanahan said he was concerned his team gave Rodgers too much time after a frosty postgame handshake that may have had something to do with the 49ers’ offseason pursuit of Rodgers,
which enraged the Packers and had them considering tampering charges this spring.
Before their score, the 49ers snapped the ball with 12 seconds remaining on the play clock and could have run the game time down much further.
“We wanted to tear it down,” Shanahan said of the clock, “but Juice put in a lot of work to get in.”
Shanahan claimed he was “pissed about the game” and “wasn’t trying to hang around in the center of the field for too long.” Last week,
LaFleur maintained that his relationship with Shanahan, his former employer,
and mentor, was good and that the brief handshake had no bearing on it.
“That’s a difficult situation for anybody to be in,
and I’m sure he was irritated that we were able to take the ball down and score a field goal to win the game,” LaFleur said. “We have a long history together,
and I won’t allow anything to stand in the way of our relationship.”
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