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There might not be a play more chaotic in football than the backward lateral. It’s produced some memorable highlights in the past — think New Orleans in Jacksonville, Miami against New England — and the Green Bay Packers nearly joined the pantheon of the great backward lateral plays on Sunday.
In a last-ditch effort with the Packers trailing 23-21, Rodgers dumped a pass off over the middle to tight end Robert Tonyan. With no timeouts, the team relied on multiple laterals to work the ball deeper into Commanders’ territory. When Rodgers collected the ball at Washington’s 30-yard line, it appeared for a moment that Green Bay would make magic happen. He rifled the ball across the field, but the ball hit the ground and went through the legs of offensive lineman Jon Runyan and went out of bounds.
As painfully close as they got to pulling off the improbable ending, it would have been even more painful if they were successful. Green Bay was called for a personal foul penalty during the play.
It was essentially the only highlight for Green Bay, as the offense continues to sputter without a bona fide No. 1 wide receiver. The Packers have looked bad on offense for a few weeks now, having yet to find rock bottom despite dropping to depths unseen in the Rodgers era.
The Packers gained 232 yards, and Rodgers was outdueled by Taylor Heinicke, who made his first start this season. Last Sunday, the Packers gained 278 yards in a 27-10 loss to the New York Jets.
Per the broadcast, the Packers’ failure to convert a third down against Washington snapped a streak of 370 consecutive games with a third down conversion.
As bad as Sunday’s loss was, if Green Bay’s proven anything this season, it’s that just when things look like they can’t get any worse, they find a way to outdo themselves.
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