36. Packers 31, Jets 24 (2014)

Green Bay was in need of a good showing in the home opener after being blasted by Seattle in the opener. It did not start well for the home team, as the Packers dug themselves into an 18-point first half hole, but were able to climb out thanks to big plays from Aaron Rodgers to Jordy Nelson. A controversial timeout call benefitted the Packers, helping them defeat the Jets in week two.

Just like the first 20 minutes, the Jets could not have asked for a better start than they received. On the opening play of the game, Rodgers and rookie center Cory Lindsley had an exchange problem and Sheldon Richardson recovered for New York. Five plays later, Geno Smith scored on a 1-yard run and the Jets had a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.

Packers fans probably thought there was so much time left that Green Bay would still win comfortably. Well, Green Bay picked up one first down before punting on its next drive and the Jets drove down the field again and Smith found Eric Decker for the score from 29 yards away to give the Jets a 14-0 lead.

Green Bay was able to get on the board with a field goal before the Jets drove down the field for another touchdown. New York converted three third downs and a fourth down on a 17-play drive that took more than eight minutes off the clock and ended with a touchdown by Chris Johnson to give the road team a commanding 21-3 lead.

The Packers were able to put some drives together and perhaps more importantly, some stops as well to get back into the game at the end of the first half. After back-to-back possessions resulted in field goals for Green Bay, New York drove down the field and was threatening to make it a 28-9 game. That was when Tramon Williams stepped in and turned the momentum back in the Green and Gold’s favor. Geno Smith was looking toward the end zone, but Williams picked off the pass intended for Zach Sudfeld and it remained a 21-9 game.

Then Green Bay went on a three minute drive, covering 97 yards to get the game to one score. Four different receivers caught passes on the drive and the Packers were able to pass for chunks of yardage, setting up a Rodgers to Randall Cobb touchdown strike right before halftime to cut the deficit to 21-16.

Well into the third quarter, Green Bay was on the march when Rodgers hit Nelson for 33 yards down to the Jets 10. Three plays later, Rodgers found Cobb for his second touchdown of the day and the Packers had the lead. Rodgers also threw to Cobb for the two-point conversion. Muhammad Wilkerson would be ejected following the conversion due to throwing a punch.

New York would tack on a field goal to tie the game up at 24, but it would not stay that score for long. On the first play from scrimmage after the kickoff, Rodgers found Nelson down the right sideline at midfield, but the cut back to the middle of the field and outraced Jets defenders into the end zone and Green Bay had the lead right back.

The Jets would have one final threat. They drove to the Packers 28, where on fourth down, Smith launched a pass into the end zone for Jeremy Kerley. The former TCU standout went up and grabbed it over Williams for the score.......or so we thought. But New York called a timeout right before the play. Technically, Rex Ryan was the only one who could call a timeout, but Mornhinweg called it and Sheldon Richardson was alerting officials that they were trying to call the timeout, so it was granted and the touchdown was wiped away. On the play after the timeout, David Nelson caught a pass for the first down, which kept the drive alive. But four plays later, on another fourth down, Sam Shields knocked away another fourth down pass and the Packers took over on downs and would run out the clock to win the crazy game.

Green Bay, even though it came back to win, was sluggish to start the season and it continued with an ugly 19-7 loss in Detroit the following week, which prompted the famous “Relax” comment from Rodgers.