Aaron Rodgers has the first overtime win of his NFL career.
Including the playoffs, Rodgers lost the first seven times his teams were extended to an extra period but they came out on top against the Bengals at Lambeau Field on Sunday. Rodgers hit Geronimo Allison for a 73-yard gain on third-and-10 and Mason Crosby kicked a game-winning 27-yard field goal two plays later to make the Packers 27-24 winners.
Crosby’s field goal capped a comeback from 21-7 down at halftime for the Packers and allowed them to take home a win on a day when they had their issues on both sides of the ball. The Bengals sacked Rodgers six times and William Jackson returned an interception for a touchdown while the Packers defense gave up nearly 200 yards to a Bengals team that didn’t score a touchdown in the first two weeks.
The defense tightened up in the second half, however, and Rodgers was able to find enough time to throw a pair of touchdowns. The second went to Jordy Nelson with 17 seconds left to play and sent the game to overtime. The Bengals had the ball first, but Packers rookie safety Josh Jones continued a strong game by stuffing tight end Tyler Kroft short of the sticks on third down to force a punt.
Rodgers and Allison took care of business from there and the Packers are now 2-1 on the season. They have a lot of injuries, including both tackles, Mike Daniels and Randall Cobb, and a short week with the Bears on the schedule this Thursday.
On the other side, the Bengals offense looked a lot better than they did in the first two weeks of the season in the first half and they kept A.J. Green involved with 10 catches. They couldn’t sustain drives in the second half, though, and Jones had a key sack to force Randy Bullock into a 48-yard field goal that he missed in the third quarter.
They got strong games from a pair of rookies -- Joe Mixon had 101 yards from scrimmage and Carl Lawson had 2.5 sacks while constantly providing pressure off the edge -- so there’s something to build on. Encouraging signs or not, the Bengals lost and that might wind up as a foundation for future seasons as they are now 0-3 in 2017.
