Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady both still seem to feel a type of way about the Green Bay Packers’ decision not to go for it on fourth down in the final quarter of last January’s NFC Championship Game.
The two future NFL Hall of Fame quarterbacks joined their respective golf partners — Phil Mickelson with Brady and Bryson DeChambeau with Rodgers — for an interview with Bleacher Report on Tuesday in promotion of The Match, their upcoming golf showdown that is set for July 6 in Big Sky, Montana. Naturally, Brady couldn’t make it through without taking a playful shot at Rodgers for their previous encounter.
“I do think you do have a partner that probably would have liked to go for it a little more often than he has in the past,” Brady joked to DeChambeau, “so Bryson, I’m glad you’re encouraging him to kind of go for it when it’s on the line rather than just knock it into the fairway or something like that and play for the next shot.”
“Well, I usually don’t get the option,” Rodgers answered with his own job at the Packers, wearing in clear view of his camera a shirt that read: “I’m offended.”
“I know the pain,” Brady added, all in good fun.
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Fourth-Down Call Still Haunting Packers
For those who have forgotten — by choice or otherwise — Packers head coach Matt LaFleur made a puzzling decision late in his team’s 31-26 conference championship loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earlier this year.
After marching downfield from their own 34-yard line to the Bucs’ 8, the Packers ran three straight passing plays that all ended in incompletions and were left with a crucial fourth-down call with 2:05 left on the clock and Tampa Bay ahead by eight points. Either they could take one more shot at the end zone and risk walking away with a near-certain loss or they could take the easy points and count on their defense to give them another chance later.
Much to the surprise of his quarterback, LaFleur chose the latter after seeing how his offense stalled out in the red zone on three consecutive plays, and the rest quickly became a dark chapter in Packers history as the Bucs ground out another 49 yards over seven plays and secured their trip to the Super Bowl.
Tom Brady brings up the #Packers 4th down call while promoting his upcoming golf match with Aaron Rodgers. “I do think [Aaron] would like to ‘go for It’ a little more often than he has in the past.”
Rodgers is wearing a “I’m offended” shirt. 👀
(via B/R)
Rodgers Got No Say in Late-Game Decision
Looking back, LaFleur didn’t apologize for his decision. He acknowledged some regret purely for the fact that it didn’t work out, but he also believed in the rationale that led to him kicking a field goal rather than asking the league’s NFL MVP to go for gold.
“Anytime it doesn’t work out you always regret it, right?” LaFleur said in the postgame. “But it was just the circumstances of having three shots and coming away with no yards, and knowing that you not only need the touchdown but you need the two-point. The way I was looking at it was we essentially had four timeouts with the 2-minute warning, and we knew we needed to get a stop. I thought we were going to have a stop there at the end.”
Rodgers didn’t go out of his way to say he didn’t like the call; he actually rationalized his coach’s thinking when asked about the call in his own postgame interview. At the same time, he also said he wasn’t aware LaFleur was considering ending the drive with a field goal and made it clear he was given no choice in the matter.
“I didn’t have a decision on that one,” Rodgers said. “That wasn’t my decision. But I understand the thinking above two minutes with all of our timeouts, but yeah, that wasn’t my decision.”
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Tom Brady Throws Shade at Packers in Interview With Aaron Rodgers