Marquez Valdes-Scantling was inches away from becoming a Green Bay Packers playoff legend.
Immediately after a five-point loss on the doorstep of the Super Bowl, “gutted” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers could have mentioned any number of plays from a litany of missed opportunities in another NFC Championship Game failure.
His first instinct was to point to a throw he missed that might have otherwise gone overlooked but could have changed the entire game.
The play: 2nd-and-10 from the 24-yard line with 8:31 left and the Packers down five points, and just two plays after Jaire Alexander’s second interception of the fourth quarter. In a nearly identical play to his 50-yard touchdown pass to Valdes-Scantling, Rodgers loaded up and fired again to his single-covered deep threat, but his throw barely missed the mark and a chance for Valdes-Scantling to write an entirely different script to the NFC Championship Game fell harmlessly to the Lambeau Field turf.
When asked about which plays might keep him up at night, Rodgers immediately picked the miss.
“Probably the go-route to Marquez that I threw a little bit too far inside and a little too flat. That’s definitely going to hurt. If I put that in the same spot I put the first one in, maybe he scores, who knows, at least it’s a big one. So that one definitely bothers me,” Rodgers said.
Here's the play. @AaronRodgers12 and @MVS__11 inches away from completely changing the game: pic.twitter.com/oWJ11lGhyo
— Zach Kruse (@zachkruse2) January 29, 2021
Valdes-Scantling finished with four catches, 115 yards and a touchdown. Throw in a 74-yard go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, or even just a big play potentially sparking a go-ahead touchdown drive, and Valdes-Scantling’s NFC title game elevates from another highly encouraging performance during an up and down season to nothing short of legendary, the kind of game that turns an individual player into an everlasting piece of team history.
Missed opportunities always have consequences, the prevailing lesson of so many of the Packers’ playoff disappointments over the years. And just a play after missing Valdes-Scantling deep, the Packers failed on third down and then punted the ball away, never again getting a chance to take the lead.
Rodgers said the Packers had their chances “to seize the game,” specifically two different drives after interceptions with an opportunity to score a touchdown and go ahead.
In the first half, Rodgers hit the go route to Valdes-Scantling, creating a game-tying touchdown that got the Packers into the game after a shaky start. With the Bucs double-teaming Davante Adams in the slot, Valdes-Scantling beat Carlton Davis off the line, gained separation with vertical speed, tracked the ball well in the air and made the play, ending in his 50-yard score.
Two quarters later, Rodgers had a mirror image playing out in front of him. Single coverage. A win from Valdes-Scantling off the ball and late separation vertically. The throw just wasn’t nearly as good. Another foot more toward the sideline or with another angled degree of loft and Valdes-Scantling likely makes the catch on the run and dances into the end zone for another touchdown. With the extra point, the Packers would have led 30-28.
Instead, the result was another missed opportunity, in a game with a dozen and a half of them for the home team, the No. 1 seed and the betting favorite to win.
Valdes-Scantling grew up in Florida as a Buccaneers fan. He was inches away from helping the Packers beat his childhood team and get to the Super Bowl. And inches away from becoming a playoff legend for a franchise that immortalizes postseason heroes forever.
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