Aaron Rodgers certainly has a knack for these sorts of heroics.
With eight seconds remaining in the first half, Rodgers took a snap from the Jets‘ 48-yard line and against a two-man rush from the Buffalo Bills and uncorked a high-arcing deep pass toward the end zone.
And despite the three Gang Green receivers waiting for the ball to descend being outnumbered by five in Buffalo blue, it was Jets wide receiver Allen Lazard whose outstretched arms came down with the football for an improbable 52-yard score.
The ball was ripped out of Lazard’s hands after his back was firmly planted in the end zone and the back judge ruled the play incomplete. But one official threw his arms up, and upon discussion, the play was ruled a touchdown on the field and quickly confirmed.
“They decided to rush two guys, so we had all day to do it,” the 40-year-old quarterback said after the game, adding that he “actually threw it a little bit right of where I wanted it, I was trying to throw it between the hashes. The wind was a little swirly tonight.
“There was a lot of jostling and then I saw Allen come down with it. It’s a pretty good feeling.”
With the extra point, the Jets entered the half down 20-17, but would go on to lose, 23-20.
The ball traveled 61.4 yards in the air, which is the longest for completion by a Jets’ quarterback in the NextGen Stats era (beginning in 2016). On the play, Lazard had 0.6 yards of separation and a completion probability of 15.5 percent, per NFL NextGen.
“Saw the ball calling my name,” Lazard said. “We practice that at least once a week and being with Aaron, that’s six years of doing that, had a pretty good anticipation of where the balls gonna be and everything. Very fortunate to be able to come down with it.”
Rodgers only got the opportunity to go for the long throw because of some astute timeouts used by interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich on the Bills’ previous possession.
With Buffalo driving inside the red zone, Ulbrich called the Jets’ first timeout after a four-yard run with 39 seconds remaining. After sacking Josh Allen on the next play, Ulbrich burned the second timeout with 27 seconds left.
At the time, it seemed wishful thinking to try to score with one timeout and 21 seconds remaining after the Bills punched it in on third down.
After a touchback put the ball at the 30, the Jets hit Tyler Conklin for a four-yard gain and Garrett Wilson for 14 yards over the middle before burning their final timeout with eight seconds to play in the half.
A gamble by the interim head coach to use timeouts paid off to the tune of a big touchdown to end the half and trim a two-score deficit to just three points.
This is Rodgers’ fourth successful Hail Mary of his career, and first with the Jets.
With the Packers, Rodgers found Richard Rodgers to beat the Lions with a 61-yard heave on the final play of the game in Week 13 of the 2015 season. In the wild-card round that year, he connected on a 41-yard throw to Jeff Janis sending a game against the Cardinals to overtime.
And then the next season, Rodgers hit Randall Cobb for a 42-yard score at the end of the half against the Giants in the wild-card round.