DETROIT -- A 32nd birthday celebration for one of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks ended in grand fashion here Thursday night.
Aaron Rodgers, who practices Hail Mary tosses every Saturday of game weeks at the direction of the Green Bay Packers coaching staff, watched as his 61-yard heave with no time left on the clock came down in the hands of tight end Richard Rodgers in the end zone.
After trailing all game to the surging Detroit Lions, the Packers came away with a 27-23 stunner.
"We've been on the flip side of that," Aaron Rodgers, out of breath, told a CBS reporter after the game. "It was the most amazing game of my life. To be a part of that, to never give up."
And to think that final play could have never happened. The Lions were flagged for a face-mask penalty on the play before, as the Packers tried lateraling the football down the field as time ticked off the clock. That gave Green Bay one last chance from its own 39.
"We practiced it a little bit in pregame," Richard Rodgers said. "Aaron was throwing it up really high, the balls, and I was catching them. I kind of saw the same thing. I ran down there, saw the ball and made sure I was in the end zone, and went up and caught it."
Rodgers, a former Super Bowl MVP, dropped back to pass with his front line giving him plenty of time to throw and he hurled the football -- just like he had Wednesday -- into the bright lights of Ford Field.
The finish was fitting for Rodgers, the tight end, who positioned himself in front of a sea of Detroit defenders and caught the pass that Packers coach Mike McCarthy said likely sailed 70 yards high at its peak.
His father played college football at the University of California and was involved in the infamous 1982 game in which the Stanford band ran on the field as Cal executed a series of laterals to win as time expired.
"I didn't really know what was going on around me," said Richard Rodgers, who had eight catches for 146 yards. "I just locked in on the ball and tried to make a play and made sure I was in the end zone. That's all I was trying to do.
"It's written in the playbook as my job to box out and Davante's (Adams) supposed to jump and I'm supposed to wait for a tip. I might get a (missed assignment). I'll take it, I guess."
The win sparked renewed hope for the Packers, losers of three straight coming in -- including an 18-16 decision three weeks ago to the Lions at Lambeau Field,
The Packers trailed this one 17-0 at halftime. But they held the Lions to just six points in the second half and Aaron Rodgers scored on a 17-yard touchdown run with 3:04 remaining to pull the Packers to within two, setting up the stop and miracle heave.
"I didn't see Richard until the last second," Aaron Rodgers said. "When he caught it, I blacked out. I didn't know what to do. That was the greatest feeling I've had on the field in a long time."
Green Bay (8-4) now sits a half-game behind the Minnesota Vikings, in first place in the NFC North, ahead of a Week 14 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys.
"Really, just three or four plays in the first half, that's what we talked about at halftime," McCarthy said. "We were convinced we were going to win the game, we just didn't know how.
"We didn't think it was going to come down to that."
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