National Football League

Was Green Bay's win over the Cardinals a product of their greatness or Arizona's clumsiness?

Updated Oct. 29, 2021 3:32 p.m. ET

Arizona was primed to go 8-0, with everything clicking for the Cardinals on their final possession Thursday night.

Leading a final drive with his team down 24-21 to Green Bay, Kyler Murray was ducking and darting out of would-be tackles with ease. When he wasn't doing damage with his legs, Murray was showcasing his arm as he led a two-minute drill downfield.

Meanwhile, Aaron Rodgers was visibly frustrated on the Packers sideline. He paced up and down the field with a skittish excitement as Murray and crew ran roughshod on his defense.

Before long, Arizona was knocking on the door of the end zone. The Cardinals had plowed from their own 1-yard line into the red zone, and with 15 seconds remaining. All Rodgers could do was hope for a field goal to send it to overtime, rather than a game-winning score.

What the Packers got was even better.

After spending their last timeout, the Cards had a few more plays to try for six, before they'd inevitably spike the ball and settle for the tie. On their first attempt for pay dirt, Cliff Kingsbury opted to drop Murray back and look outside for a fade route. No. 1 did just that, taking a two-step drop, and airlifting a rainbow toward A.J. Green, who had a one-on-one matchup with Rasul Douglas.

Problem was, Green wasn't expecting the ball to be thrown in his direction.

But Douglas was.

Douglas whipped around in the nick of time to locate the ball. He tipped it into the air initially, before securing it with two hands, making sure his two feet were firmly planted in bounds, and when that was confirmed, he waved a vivacious, "Good-bye" to Arizona's home crowd.

It very well might be the play of the year for the Pack.

Even better for a storybook ending: Douglas was just signed by Green Bay three weeks ago, after recently being released from Arizona's practice squad.

"The guy that made the pick was with them for four weeks," Rodgers said about Douglas.

"He was on the street. We brought him in, he's starting for us. He's a great dude, he has really meshed well with our team, and to come up with a play like that with 15 seconds left is incredible."

Rodgers couldn't have been happier following the statement win, which marks Green Bay's seventh in a row.

"This is a scrappy, tough, physical team," Rodgers proudly exclaimed. "We were without our defensive coordinator, without the best receiver in the league, Davante Adams, and Allen Lazard, our do-it-all guy. To have these guys come out and play the way they did, I'm so proud of them. To watch our defense finish off the game like that, on the road, against a great football team. It's gonna be a great freaking ride back to Green Bay."

Rodgers made it a point though, to give Murray his flowers following a gutsy performance.

"I told him I respect the way he plays. He's started off with some incredible years. He's so talented."

The Packers will take their wins in any way they can get them –– even if they come from opponents' gaffes.

But Nick Wright wasn't so quick to praise the winning team for its heroics. In his mind, the W was more about Arizona's blunders than Green Bay's superiority.

"It's impossible for that to be a running play!" Wright said of Green on Friday's episode of "First Things First." "This is an all-time gaffe by a really good player, who's been good for them this year."

Chris Broussard thought otherwise.

"I want to give props to the Packers," Broussard said. "We know how banged up they were on defense and because of COVID. They came out and played terrifically. They executed the game plan to perfection."

And for Colin Cowherd, Rodgers' performance was the best he has seen from No. 12.

"In the top 100 games of productivity for Aaron Rodgers, that won't qualify," Cowherd said on "The Herd."

"Nobody will talk about it 20 years from now in a bar. That is the single most impressed I've been with him his entire career. He was missing his top three receivers, 11 starters, his best tight end got hurt mid-game [and] they didn't have their defensive coordinator. And they go on the road against a great team and win it. It was not pretty. But that's the most I've ever been impressed with him."

Cowherd wasn't nearly as harsh in his evaluation of Arizona as Nick Wright was.

"There are bad wins and there are good losses," he said. "For Arizona, that's about as good a loss as you can have. Green Bay's offensive line mostly controlled the game, yet Arizona came within a play of winning the game."

Whether Green Bay "won it" or Arizona "lost it" will remain an ongoing debate.

What's not debatable: These are two of the NFL's best teams, and according to Rodgers, they're bound to see each other again come playoff time.

We can only hope the sequel will be half as good as the first edition.