Note: This story, originally published after the game on Thursday, has been updated to reflect tight end Robert Tonyan's knee injury.
Last season, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw an NFL-leading 48 touchdown passes.
By the end of Thursday night’s victory over the Arizona Cardinals, 39 of those touchdowns were out of the lineup.
Still, the Packers pulled off one of the big upsets of the NFL season by shocking the previously undefeated Cardinals 24-21 in a primetime thriller. Green Bay won its seventh in a row despite Davante Adams (18 touchdowns last year) being out with COVID, Allen Lazard (three) landing on the COVID list and Marquez Valdes-Scantling (six) still out with a hamstring injury. Adding injury to injury, big-play tight end Robert Tonyan (11) suffered an injured left knee at the end of a 33-yard catch in the third quarter.
On Friday, his agent, Jack Bechta, confirmed what was feared: Tonyan had torn his ACL and his season is over. It is a big blow not only for the team but for Tonyan, who would have been a coveted free agent this offseason. Instead, using a 10-month recovery, maybe he will be ready for Week 1.
Tonyan went down on the only one of Rodgers’ 22 completions to gain 20-plus yards. Afterward, coach Matt LaFleur was clearly shaken – and that clearly wasn’t a good sign.
“I don’t want to speak too much on that right now,” LaFleur said. “I’m sick for Bobby. He means so much to this team. It’s so cool, I just told him, to watch a guy when you first get here and see the amount of progress that he’s made as a player and the work that he puts in on a daily basis. It’s really cool when you see that progress and you see a guy reach their potential. And I still think there’s more out there for him. As far as whether that’s long term, I don’t know, but I am sick for him, I’m sick for us. My heart goes out to him.”
Rodgers finished 22-of-37 passing for 184 yards and two touchdowns. Predictably, given the state of the receiving corps and the power of a Cardinals defense that entered the night ranked No. 1 in points against, it wasn’t a masterpiece.
Randall Cobb, just one reception shy of Hall of Famer Don Hutson for sixth place on the franchise’s all-time list, served as old reliable for Rodgers. Otherwise? In three-and-a-half seasons, Equanimeous St. Brown had 29 catches. Even that meager total is more than Malik Taylor (seven), Amari Rodgers (two) and Juwann Winfree (zero) combined.
On Thursday, seven players caught at least one pass, led by Aaron Jones with seven receptions for 51 yards. Winfree caught four passes for 30 yards, St. Brown caught two balls for 12 yards – including a big fourth-down catch to set up a third-quarter touchdown – Rodgers caught one pass for 7 yards and Taylor wasn’t targeted.
Cobb caught only three passes for 15 yards but two of those were second-half touchdowns of 2 and 6 yards.
“I told myself coming into this game, I didn’t know what it was going to look like, I didn’t know how many opportunities I was going to get, but no excuses,” Cobb said. “Go out there and make a play when you get the chance and find a way to come down with it. I just was able to make that play and put us in position.”
It was remarkable that the Packers were even in position to win.
Heading into one of the biggest games of the season, the Packers were hit with a COVID double-whammy. On Monday, the All-Pro Adams tested positive for COVID-19. When Adams was out last season, Allen Lazard had a huge night in primetime at New Orleans. On Tuesday, though, Lazard was sent to the COVID reserve list as a close contact. Having not done anything competitive on the field since Sept. 26 because of his hamstring, the team decided to play it safe with Valdes-Scantling.
Without three top receivers to face one of the best defenses in the NFL, the challenge seemed practically insurmountable – no different than the 2015 playoff game at Arizona, a 26-20 loss in overtime in which Jordy Nelson and Adams were out with injuries and Cobb was lost early in the game.
“I was texting with some friends today and I said, ‘I love when the odds are stacked against us,’” Rodgers said. “I feel like it takes all the pressure off. And we just kind of relaxed and played really loose. I thought the energy was really good pre-pregame. I mean, we’re a gritty team. Adversity has hit us many times in the fourth quarter and we’ve responded really well.”
With a 7-1 record, Green Bay will enjoy a three-day break before reconvening on Monday to get ready for the next in a series of showdowns. Next week, it’s a game at the Kansas City Chiefs, who are struggling but obviously can’t be overlooked. After that, it’s home game against the Seattle Seahawks, a trip west to face the Minnesota Vikings and a home game against the Los Angeles Rams.
The Packers figure to be a healthier team at Kansas City than they were at Arizona.
“We showed our depth,” Cobb said. “We talk about it all the time. We talk about it throughout training camp. In the receiver room, we’ve got a lot of guys who do a lot of different things, a lot of guys who can make some plays. You saw other people get involved because we were forced to. When you’ve got the top receiver in the league and the top quarterback in the league, you sometimes can get overshadowed and not have as many opportunities.
“But I told the guys last night, ‘When you walk off this field tonight, make the coaches want to get you involved whenever they’re calling plays.’ I think that some guys stepped up today and showed what they can do when they touch the ball. Hopefully, that continues to grow. This is what we need. Down the stretch, we’re going to need more guys to be able to make plays. I think we proved we have that ability tonight. We’re going to continue to build as the season goes on.”
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