Aaron Rodgers Carrying Heaviest Load of Career for Struggling Packers Offense

Forget the Fail Mary. 

And, just for a moment, forget how much the Green Bay Packers' offense has struggled so far in 2015. 

Right now, it is the time of the Motown Miracle. 

The play that will now stand out in the minds of Packers fans for years to come when they think back on the 2015 season is the one that transpired between quarterback Aaron Rodgers and tight end Richard Rodgers in the final seconds of Green Bay's matchup with the Detroit Lions on Thursday night.  

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

A facemask penalty against Detroit's Devin Taylor on 3rd-and-10 at the Packers' own 21-yard line gave the Packers one improbable shot at the end zone as they trailed Detroit 23-21. 

Forget that Green Bay had already clawed its way back from a 20-0 deficit at halftime; now, the entire game rested on the right arm of Aaron Rodgers. 

The quarterback dropped back, rolled out to his right, and launched the ball 61 yards into the end zone, where a group of Green Bay pass-catchers awaited it.

It appeared to be just out of reach for the group of assembled weapons, but amazingly, tight end Richard Rodgers turned, located the ball, reached his hands up and stepped backwards into the end zone to come away with the walk-off touchdown. 

After the game, Rodgers—of the tight end variety—didn't seem to grasp the magnitude of the play he had just made, or how quickly it would become embedded in Green Bay Packers canon. 

"I just went for it," Richard Rodgers said on the NFL Network broadcast Thursday evening, explaining that he could see, given how high the ball was thrown, that he had a chance to catch it. 

But the fact that the ball was catchable at all—or indeed that the Packers were even in position to win the game in the final seconds—is all due to Aaron Rodgers, who continues to mask the flaws this Packers offense has revealed itself to have this season and keep the team in the playoff hunt. 

He may have only been 24-of-36 with a 96.2 passer rating on the night against Detroit, but this Packers win belongs entirely to Rodgers. 

Rodgers displayed confidence when discussing his final Hail Mary attempt into the end zone, per the Packers' Twitter account, but the truth is that the win seemed just out of the Packers' grasp as the quarterback reeled back for his final scoring effort:

Green Bay's only two scores to that point had been an eight-yard reception by Davante Adams and a 17-yard scramble by Rodgers himself.

For most of the game, it seemed the issues that have plagued the offense this season, especially in the second half, would doom the Packers once again this week. The Packers only went 3-12 on third downs, and most of those conversions came late in the game. 

But ultimately, the Packers were able to stun the Lions in the second half on a sequence of improbable plays, from a series of lateral passes that resulted in the aforementioned facemask penalty, to Rodgers' improbable shot at the end zone. 

The play was a perfect bookend to the failed Hail Mary attempt against the Seattle Seahawks in 2012, and Rodgers himself alluded to that. 

"I've never had a completed Hail Mary before," Rodgers said after the game, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com).

The shocking play and its resulting conclusion do not erase all the issues the Packers have had through this point in the season, but it allowed the team to live another day as it contends for the NFC North title—and also effectively killed Detroit's chances at a postseason berth. 

At the end of the day, the Packers offense cannot sustain itself on Rodgers scrambles and Hail Mary passes. The receivers need to work on their issues with dropped passes, and the play-calling needs to become more varied, which will give the receivers the ability to win their one-on-one matchups. 

Seventy-five percent of the product the Packers offense put on the field Thursday was not the stuff that playoff teams are made of. But the final 25 percent was brilliant. 

If the Packers can harness whatever has been working so well for them in multiple fourth-quarter situations this season—whether that's going with the no-huddle offense more often or giving Rodgers the freedom to call plays from the line of scrimmage—they may be able to put more than a quarter's worth of good play on the field in the remaining games this season. 

But one thing is for sure and was underscored in Thursday night's game: Despite the struggles the Packers have had on the offensive line and receiving corps this season, as long as this team has Aaron Rodgers, it has a chance. 

Promoting John Crockett to the active roster gave the offense a spark, and getting rookie receiver Ty Montgomery back could also invigorate this team heading into the final quarter of the season. 

But ultimately, the Packers have to game plan to optimize Rodgers' skills on the field, because he can't do it all himself.