We have seen this movie before. Aaron Rodgers with the ball in his hand, the crowd and the elements against him, ready to play the last action hero again. This time, though, there was a brutal twist.
When Rodgers hobbled on to the pitch with three minutes remaining, his New York Jets side were 23-17 down. But, having mustered 32 game-winning drives during his long and storied career, this was hardly unknown territory.
Steadily he advanced Jets down the field until they were within sniffing distance of the endzone. Perhaps the old Rodgers would have found one more moment of magic. But old Rodgers, who turns 41 in December, couldn’t deliver.
First he overthrew his star wide receiver Garrett Wilson. Then, with nine seconds remaining, his pass was intercepted by Stephon Gilmore allowing the Vikings to cling on.
“I just underthrew it a little,” admitted Rodgers, who also confirmed that he had sustained a low ankle sprain after being sacked earlier in the game. “I’m definitely banged up. I got my foot caught up in the pile there. There were a lot of things that made some noises on the way down.”
There were 61,139 packed into the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the most for any sporting fixture in the UK over the weekend. And the fans not only revelled in the whole NFL fist-bumping, kiss-camming, XXL jersey-over-hoodie-wearing experience, they were also treated to a slow-burning thriller.
It didn’t look that way in the first half as the Vikings raced to a 17-0 lead – largely thanks to a shocking performance from Rodgers. First he threw a pass straight to the Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, who ran it back for a 63-yard pick 6. Then, to make matters worse, he lobbed another interception to Camryn Bynyum. As the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ Give It Away played on the speakers, he shook his head and walked to the sidelines.
The Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is known as a master of disguising the blitz and confusing opposing quarterbacks. But rarely has Rodgers looked more at sea.
At this point the verdict of social media was unanimous. Rodgers, who is coming back from an achilles rupture, was washed up. He was too slow, too afraid of being hit, a shadow of his former self. But, gradually, the Jets quarterback began to work things out. First he found Allen Lazard with a 14-yard pass to pull it back to 17-7 at half-time. And the deficit was reduced to 17-10 with a Greg Zuerlein field goal at the end of the third quarter. However Rodgers was left grabbing his helmet grill in frustration after Lazard dropped a pass in the endzone. Suddenly the Jets were back in it.
At this stage, the Vikings were doing very little on offense, but a 53-year field goal from Reichard took the score to 20-10 with just over 12 minutes remaining.
A one-yard touchdown pass to Wilson reduced the score to 20-17 and although Reichard increased the Vikings lead to 23-17, Rodgers entered the field knowing he had the game in his hand. This time, though, he was unable to pull it out of the bag as the Jets dropped to 2-3 on the season.
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“We’re slow starters and we make too many mental errors,” said Rodgers, who finished with 29-of-54 passing for 244 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions. “Too many mistakes in general. But I still have a lot of confidence in this team. I think it’s a team that is going to make a run.”
The only consolation for the four-time NFL Most Valuable Player came in the third quarter when he connected with tight end Tyler Conklin for a seven-yard gain to become only the ninth player to pass the 60,000 career yard mark.
Meanwhile the Vikings go into their bye week with an unbeaten 5-0 record, something few predicted before the season, when the bookies had them finishing last in the NFC North.
“You have to give it up for our defence,” said the Vikings’ head coach, Kevin O’Connell. “We needed them today. It was kind of a sloppy day all the way around with a little spitting rain and all those things. There were a thousand excuses out there. But our team didn’t look for any of them. We kept playing.
“There’s going to be days like this. That’s what our game is all about, and I’m just proud of the way our guys battled.”
