An ankle injury could have ended a disappointing afternoon for Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams.
Instead, Adams fought back onto the field and caught the go-ahead touchdown pass, helping create a 24-20 win and adding to his growing legacy with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.
“Dude is a special player. One of a kind. He never ceases to grow my respect. Just another chapter for him today,” Rodgers said Sunday. “Dealing with what he was dealing with, come back out there and catch a touchdown. That’s what you want from your leaders.”
Adams exited the game with an apparent lower leg injury in the third quarter. The FOX broadcast showed the three-time Pro Bowler on the bench with a trainer wincing in pain. But with the Packers suddenly down 20-17 and in need of a scoring drive, Adams re-entered the contest and eventually capped off a seven-play, 75-yard drive with a leaping 6-yard touchdown catch.
It showed the kind of toughness any quarterback could appreciate.
“I won’t get into what he was dealing with, but the fact that he’s out out, and then I’m on the sidelines and I hear 17 wants to go back in. Look, you might think that’s a normal thing in this game, and maybe it was 10 years ago, but you just see less and less of that happening,” Rodgers said.
On the touchdown, coach Matt LaFleur said Adams did a great job “slowplaying” the fake and then “accelerating out of the cut” to create the window, and he made a great catch to finish the play.
Rodgers said he wasn’t trying to throw the pass as high as it ended up being, but even with a bum ankle, Adams was able to go up and get the ball with rookie cornerback C.J. Henderson trailing in coverage.
“17 is built different and always has been. I asked him a couple of times, ‘Are you okay, are you good?’ And he just nodded that he was.”
The touchdown was Adams’ ninth of the 2020 season. It gave the Packers a 24-20 lead with just over nine minutes left.
The defense delivered a pair of stops to finish the fourth quarter and seal the four-point victory.
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