GREEN BAY, Wis. — When it comes 🐲to Hail Mary playoff daggers, turnabout was fair play for the Packers.
Five years after Hakeem Nicks caught a bomb from Eli Manning on the final play of the first half to propel the Giants to an NFC divisional-round victory, Aaron Rodgers a💟nd Randall Cobb pulled the same trick for Green Bay in the very same end zone here Sunday afternoon.
T♌he resulting momentum shift was similar, too, as Cobb’s 42-yard catch in the back of the end zone over a host of Giants defenders became a springboard in the Packers’ 38-13 wi﷽ld-card win.
It was Rodgers’ third successful Hail Mary in just the past two seasons, but his first aga🧔inst the Giants. It left Big Blue dumbfounded and kicking themselves for letting the veteran Cobb sneak behind them and then not fully extending for Rodgers’ moonshot.
“The ball was a great ball,” rookie cornerback Eli Apple said. “We could have boxed out better and gotten up earlier in the play. We just have to execute in that situatio🌜n, and we didn’t. Tha🌊t’s all. As a collective unit, we didn’t do the job.”
Cobb’s catch sent the Packers into𝓀 halftime suddenly leading 14-6 in a game they had trailed 6-0 less than three minutes earlier. Suitably eneജrgized, Green Bay outscored the Giants 24-7 the rest of the way, avenging two home playoff losses to Big Blue in 2007 and 2011.
“It’s tough being on 💦the other side, especially with no time on the clock like that,” Rodgers said. “You go✤ from a tight, 7-6 game to now you’re down eight points, so that was a big play for us.”
Cobb also showed some veteran savvy on the play, appearing to push veteran Giants defensive back Leon Hall at theꦬ last moment to create enough space to haul in Rodgers’ heave just inside the end line.
Cobb al🤡so said the Packers now practice the Hail Mary play once a week because Rodgꦛers is so good at it.
“I guess everybody but me misjudged it,” said Cobb, whose clutch play was part of a huge day overall with five catches ♐for 116 yards and three touchdowns. “It’s unbelievable how many times [Rodgers] completes them.”
Safety Landon Collins, who also was in on the play, insisted the🌟 Giants didn’t bungle the play as much as it might haveꦅ seemed.
“Nothing went wrong,” Collins insisted. “We just saw the ball and jumped, and Cobb just stayed inbounds and just reached out and caught it. I was surprised he caught the ball and stayed inbounds, but that’s a great play and that🧸’s what great players do. He did a greatꦫ job of what he did.”
Added Apple: “The game’s all abo🦹ut momentum, and when we let them get back into it, Rodger𝄹s got into a rhythm, and it was hard to recover.”