JACKSONVILLE – Jayden Reed made a huge catch, Chris Brooks made a huge sacrifice and Brandon McManus made another huge kick.
It all added up to an imperfect, but complete team victory for the Packers in a down-to-the-wire affair at EverBank Stadium Sunday, capped by McManus' 24-yard game-winning field goal as time expired in a 30-27 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
All ships needed to pull together for Green Bay after backup quarterback Malik Willis was summoned to replace Jordan Love, who exited with a groin injury in the third quarter and did not return.
With the game tied at 27 with less than two minutes left, Willis connected with Reed on a 51-yard pass to propel the Packers into scoring position.
Jacksonville tried to let Brooks score after exhausting its timeouts but the reserve running back went down at the 3-yard line to set up McManus' game-winning kick, one week after the veteran made a 45-yard game-winning field goal in a 24-22 win over Houston at Lambeau Field.
"It's an honor to be here and excited to watch these young guys play and pick up one another and support one another," McManus said. "Malik did a great job and Jayden Reed made the kick super easy and was able to get down the field. Great, great awareness too when the Jaguars did a freeway call where they try to let us score a touchdown.
"We're situated up and extremely knowledgeable by the players to go down so the field goal is the last play of the game."
Everything started with Reed's catch. The second-year receiver said he saw the play unfold before the ball was even snapped after Green Bay was building to the play call all afternoon.
With the game on the line and Love out, Head Coach Matt LaFleur dialed it up for Willis to execute. Confident in his assignment, Reed sifted through the middle of Jacksonville defense and came out clean on the other side for a wide-open 51-yard completion.
There was beauty in the play's simplicity.
"We ran a play earlier that kind of countered it a little bit and we just seen the opening, so we ran it," Reed said. "I already knew I was gonna be open before the play was even called. Just great play-calling by Coach and great execution by us."
Willis was again efficient in his four completions for 56 yards, including a 3-yard TD to Tucker Kraft earlier in the quarter. Acquired in an August trade with Tennessee, Willis won a pair of September spot starts over his former team and the Indianapolis Colts.
To pick up the third win over an AFC South opponent, Willis and the Packers had to dig deep. After Kraft's score, Green Bay punted on its next two possessions, opening the door enough for the Jaguars to tie the game.
The Packers' offense was still confident, though. After a 4-yard pickup on first down, running back Josh Jacobs thought for a second Reed might take his 51-yard catch to the house.
"If you watch me on that play, I had my hands up," said Jacobs, who finished with 127 rushing yards and two TDs on 25 carries. "As soon as he caught the ball, I thought he was gonna score. We believe in him. There's not a lot of people in this league that's catching him with a full head of steam running.
"For Malik to be able to make that play, for him to come up with that big catch and get those yards, it was definitely needed."
Jacksonville exhausted its timeouts before trying to allow backup running back Chris Brooks to score a touchdown on a second-and-7 carry at the Jaguars' 12-yard line.
Brooks sacrificed his first NFL score and went down at the Jacksonville 3, allowing Green Bay to bring the clock down to two seconds. If Brooks scored, the Jaguars would've had a chance to retie the game with about 59 seconds remaining.
"Just don't score. That's the only thing going through my mind," said Brooks, a former undrafted free agent who signed with Green Bay after training camp. "It's for the greater good of the team, so it's always a pleasure to get the win first and then do whatever I can to help the team."
McManus took care of the rest. It not only was the first time McManus has hit back-to-back game-winners but it's also the first time in NFL history a kicker has made game-winning field goals in his first two games with a team, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
While the win was far from perfect, it was enough to rip off Green Bay's fourth straight win and complete a season shutout of the AFC South.
"Obviously, they have the right culture here. Coaches have implemented it and the players have bought in," McManus said. "(They) built these players up, continue to build them up because we're going to need every single one of them. You don't know when it's your time to make the big play. I'm super excited to be here and help this team win."
