Jean-Jacques Taylor
ESPN Staff Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Sometimes great players make a play that reminds everyone why they’re great. And no matter how much an opponent prepares to stop them, they can't.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made one of those plays Sunday, completing a 36-yard pass to tight end Jared Cook along the sideline to set up Mason Crosby's winning 51-yard field goal as time expired.
Twelve seconds left. Score tied. Third-and-20 at the Green Bay 32. Then Rodgers showed us all, once again, why he’ll enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years after he retires.
Rodgers rolled left on a designed bootleg with left guard Lane Taylor shielding him from Cowboys linebacker Justin Durant.
Then Rodgers delivered a pinpoint pass to Cook, who dragged both feet before sliding out of bounds at the Dallas 32 with three seconds remaining.
The Cowboys had practiced all week to stop just such a play. After all, in the wild-card round they had seen Rodgers complete a Hail Mary against the New York Giants on the final play of the first half that helped rally the Packers to the victory.
Unfortunately, no defense for perfection exists.
“We were in a Cover 2 look with our package that has six DBs and three down linemen rushing,” safety Barry Church said. “He was able to get out of the pocket. We preached all week that you can’t let that guy get out of the pocket because he does damage out there. But he escaped, and he’s a great player and he made a heck of a play. He threaded it in there, and Cook made an unbelievable toe-tap catch, and that was all she wrote.”
Safety Byron Jones said there’s not much you can say when a great player makes a great play.
“When he’s scrambling like that, it’s probably best to turn it to man almost because the integrity of the zone kinda breaks down when he is squeezing the field,” Jones said. “I’m low. I’m playing in front of the receivers, and you got deep guys playing in the back. So we got to find a way to not let that little hole pop up like that for him to squeeze it in."
Rodgers finished the game 28-of-43 for 356 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He completed six passes of more than 20 yards, the second-highest total the Cowboys had allowed this season. The Packers totaled 27 first downs and 414 total yards, and converted 6 of 11 third downs.
Still, the Cowboys had limited Rodgers for much of the second half after yielding a touchdown drive to start the third quarter that gave the Packers a 28-13 lead.
“We wanted to keep him in the pocket so he couldn’t make those throws,” cornerback Brandon Carr said. “It’s a tough game. It’s a high-powered offense and a quarterback who can do it all.”
ESPN Staff Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Sometimes great players make a play that reminds everyone why they’re great. And no matter how much an opponent prepares to stop them, they can't.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made one of those plays Sunday, completing a 36-yard pass to tight end Jared Cook along the sideline to set up Mason Crosby's winning 51-yard field goal as time expired.
Twelve seconds left. Score tied. Third-and-20 at the Green Bay 32. Then Rodgers showed us all, once again, why he’ll enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years after he retires.
Rodgers rolled left on a designed bootleg with left guard Lane Taylor shielding him from Cowboys linebacker Justin Durant.
Then Rodgers delivered a pinpoint pass to Cook, who dragged both feet before sliding out of bounds at the Dallas 32 with three seconds remaining.
The Cowboys had practiced all week to stop just such a play. After all, in the wild-card round they had seen Rodgers complete a Hail Mary against the New York Giants on the final play of the first half that helped rally the Packers to the victory.
Unfortunately, no defense for perfection exists.
“We were in a Cover 2 look with our package that has six DBs and three down linemen rushing,” safety Barry Church said. “He was able to get out of the pocket. We preached all week that you can’t let that guy get out of the pocket because he does damage out there. But he escaped, and he’s a great player and he made a heck of a play. He threaded it in there, and Cook made an unbelievable toe-tap catch, and that was all she wrote.”
Safety Byron Jones said there’s not much you can say when a great player makes a great play.
“When he’s scrambling like that, it’s probably best to turn it to man almost because the integrity of the zone kinda breaks down when he is squeezing the field,” Jones said. “I’m low. I’m playing in front of the receivers, and you got deep guys playing in the back. So we got to find a way to not let that little hole pop up like that for him to squeeze it in."
Rodgers finished the game 28-of-43 for 356 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He completed six passes of more than 20 yards, the second-highest total the Cowboys had allowed this season. The Packers totaled 27 first downs and 414 total yards, and converted 6 of 11 third downs.
Still, the Cowboys had limited Rodgers for much of the second half after yielding a touchdown drive to start the third quarter that gave the Packers a 28-13 lead.
“We wanted to keep him in the pocket so he couldn’t make those throws,” cornerback Brandon Carr said. “It’s a tough game. It’s a high-powered offense and a quarterback who can do it all.”
