GREEN BAY — No prayers could save the Giants from the wrath of Aaron Rodgers on Sunday, least of all the holy Hail Mary they used to beat the Packers five years ago.
The Giants, twice in a decade the NFL's team of destiny, saw their postseason hopes slip away at Lambeau Field in an agonizingly cruel twist of fate.
In one of the most unbelievable cases of karmic symmetry in football history, Big Blue's season-ending 38-13 Wild Card loss swung on a 42-yard Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary touchdown pass to Randall Cobb on the final play of the first half.
Five years ago, on the Giants' run to Super Bowl XLVI, Eli Manning closed the first half of a 37-20 divisional playoff win at Lambeau with a 37-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks on the final play of the first half, as well.
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Nicks' catch in a crowd changed the momentum of that Jan. 15, 2012, victory, stretching a 13-10 lead for the Tom Coughlin-led Giants to 20-10.
Green Bay wide receiver Randall Cobb celebrates after hauling in a Hail Mary touchdown to end the first half during the Giants’ loss to the Packers.
(Mike Roemer/AP)Rodgers' rope from the right hash marks similarly put Ben McAdoo's first Giants team on the ropes. His pass improbably fell to Cobb in the back-middle left side of the end zone with Giants defensive backs Leon Hall, Eli Apple and Landon Collins closest in coverage, but none of them leaping high enough to defend the pass.
The Giants defense deserved better, having shut out Rodgers for most of the first half, due particularly to blanket coverage in the secondary. The Giants led 6-0 on two Robbie Gould field goals.
But Rodgers hit Davante Adams for a 5-yard TD pass with 2:20 remaining, struck on the Hail Mary to Cobb for a 14-6 lead at half.
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And as Manning's offense floundered and the Tom Quinn-coached Giant special teams had an awful game that is going to get somebody fired, Rodgers picked the Giant defense apart in a bloodbath of a second half.
Julius Peppers sacks Eli Manning in the second quarter.
(Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)The Giants (11-5), who won 11 games for the first time since 2008 in McAdoo's rookie season as head coach, only needed one win in Green Bay to get a divisional round date in Dallas - against a Cowboys team they already had beaten twice this season.
Instead, Rodgers and the Pack will head to AT&T Stadium next Sunday, while the Giants fly home wondering what might have been.
Rodgers finished 25-of-40 passing for 362 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions or turnovers. Cobb caught three TDs, tying Sterling Sharpe for the Packers club record. Cobb and Adams both went over 100 yards receiving.
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A Giants defense that gave up 17.8 points per game ended its season surrendering 38 to the hottest offense in football.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and wide receiver Randall Cobb
(Mike Roemer/AP)Both teams suffered first-half injuries to key players: The Giants secondary lost Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie on the second play of the defense's first series with a bruised thigh. The Packers offense lost top receiver Jordy Nelson later with a rib injury after a big hit by the Giants' Hall, who played the whole game at free safety ahead of the starter for most of the season, undrafted rookie Andrew Adams.
But the Giants' shortcomings began with big drops by the two most prominent members of the Giants receivers Miami boat party last Monday: Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard. They wasted a terrific start by Manning, who came out throwing the ball better than he had all season.
Beckham and Shepard dropped two passes apiece in the first half, including dropped touchdowns for each. Beckham dropped a touchdown pass on the Giants' second drive, Shepard on the Giants' third drive.
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FOX's Jimmy Johnson, the former Dallas Cowboys coach, said at halftime of the receivers who partied in Miami on Monday: "The Boat Crew was 8-for-15 in the first half on targets their way. The rest of the receivers were 5-for-6."
Tavarres King celebrates after his third-quarter touchdown vs. Packers.
(Stacy Revere/Getty Images)Gould kicked two field goals, but punter Brad Wing had his worst game of the season even in just the first half, and field position hurt the Giants badly to end the first half.
Gould's short kickoff to the Green Bay 11-yard line let Jeff Janis receive in full stride and blast off to the Packers 44 yard line. The Giants defense got the stop, but floundering left tackle Ereck Flowers surrendered a sack on a 3-and-out Giants drive, and then Wing's terrible 37-yard punt gave the Packers the ball to start on the Giants' 38-yard line.
Rodgers promptly cashed in to Adams. Then, after another Giants 3-and-out that saw McAdoo use small back Bobby Rainey on an unsuccessful 3rd-and-1, the Packers got the ball back with 1:38 remaining and no timeouts.
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Rodgers again drove the Pack downfield and got a little lucky. On the third down before the Hail Mary, Rodgers unwisely threw to tight end Jared Cook over the middle with no timeouts.
Randall Cobb makes a 42-yard touchdown grab entering halftime.
(Mike Roemer/AP)A catch probably would have ended the half, but Giants linebacker Keenan Robinson broke up the pass incomplete, stopping the clock and giving Rodgers one more shot at the end zone.
Rodgers, of course, scored on two Hail Marys in the 2015 season — once in the regular season on the Lions, and another at the end of regulation in the playoffs against the Arizona Cardinals to send the game to the overtime, though the Pack ended up taking the loss.
He made this one count, too.
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All of that said, Manning's 41-yard strike TD pass to Tavarres King, a 2015 practice player, nevertheless brought the Giants back to within 14-13 with 5:16 to play in the third quarter.
Rodgers, however, was now red-hot.
Green Bay kick returner Christine Michael took the ensuing kickoff back 31 yards, and then Rodgers went 63 yards in four plays, throwing 3-for-3 for 63 yards, capped by a 30-yard touchdown pass to Cobb to stretch it back to 21-13 Packers.
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