The Green Bay Packers turned the table on Hail Mary history.
After long being associated with the infamous "Fail Mary" back in 2012 against the Seattle Seahawks, the Pack came up with their own miraculous ending on Thursday night when Aaron Rodgers heaved a 61-yard moonshot on an untimed down for the 27-23 win over the Detroit Lions.
"I will just say this: At least our guy really caught the ball in this one," coach Mike McCarthy said with a small smirk, via ESPN.com. "You can quote that."
Richard Rodgers certainly caught the ball, but the ending was not without controversy. Lions defensive end Devin Taylor was called for a penalty after barely grazing Aaron Rodgers' facemask to set up the final play.
"Yeah, I've been on the wrong side of it," McCarthy said. "It's been so long I can't remember being on the right side of (one). Never to win the game. Maybe halftime."
The penalty will garner the outrage from Detroit fans -- even though it's one that would get called every time. Packers fans, meanwhile, awake giddy their team pulled off the stunning win, but terrified of the struggle it took against a four-win Lions squad.
"There's going to be no masking this. We know that we struggled," Aaron Rodgers admitted, adding it was his first ever Hail Mary to win a game. "We're inconsistent on offense. We can't be that type of football team if we want to finish the season where we want to finish the season. We're 8-4, there's four games left, and we know it's about giving yourself an opportunity, getting into the dance.
"It's a great game we play. This one obviously ranks up there as one of the greatest joys on the field that we've had, together as a team and personally."
