“It’s clear that dropping that first person hurts, especially at that time in the game,” Lazard said. “It was an unacceptable relegation, but thank God, my coach, my teammates really trusted me. Aaron threw a good ball for me to go play.”
Head coach Matt LaFleur added: “He played a great time in a big moment.”
The relegation culminated in an impressive effort by the Packers and their highest-rated goal-scoring attack against the Rams and their highest-rated scoring defense.
Players scored the first five times to touch the ball (three TDs, two FGs), then paused twice before TD clinched Green Bay nearly on its regular season scoring average of 31.8, well ahead of the Rams average of 18.5 points.
Asked who could stop Green Bay if the best defense in the league could not, receiver Davante Adams simply said, “Nobody.”
Adams got the Packers’ first TD of the night, beating corner Jalen Ramsey with a double move from the 1-yard streak, on his way to nine-grabs over 66 yards.
The Green Bay attack line dominated the trenches, clearing the way to a galloping 191 yards before kneeling and no bags of Rodgers (23 of 36, 296 yards, two TDs, rated 108.1). Rams’ strongman Aaron Donald and his diseased ribs were deemed a non-factor by goalkeeper Elgton Jenkins and others, while the unit as a whole was modified once again without the intervention of left All-Pro David Bakhtiari.
“Stellar is a good word,” said Rodgers when asked to describe the line play. “Because it’s rooted in the superstars, and they were the stars of the match tonight. That was a great performance by them. They dominated the melee streak.”
Jones finished 99 galloping yards and TD on 14 gigs, Jamal Williams added 65 yards in 12 attempts, and rookie AJ Dillon contributed 27 yards on six lunges, the last of which was a flop that Rodgers luckily recovered.
