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Two of the NFL's greatest at their respective positions faced off on Sunday, and it ended up being as good of a bout as anyone could've hoped for. Aaron Rodgers' Green Bay Packers got the last laugh over Bill Belichick's New England Patriots, winning 27-24 in overtime as Mason Crosby connected on a field goal as time expired. Shortly after the game ended, the quarterback and coach appeared to share a warm embrace that both enjoyed.
Belichick and Rodgers continued to show respect for each other too when both spoke with the press. Belichick gave Rodgers nearly all the credit for the Packers' win in his opening statement following the loss.
“In the end, Rodgers was just too good,” Belichick said. “He made some throws only Rodgers can make. We had pretty good coverage on some of those. He’s just too smart, too good, too accurate.
“In the end he got us. We couldn’t quite do enough in the other areas to quite offset it. But I thought we competed we really competed well. A lot of guys competed well. Obviously, we just came up a little bit short. In the end, Aaron got us on too many things. I thought we did a pretty good job on him, but there was just enough for him to take advantage of or make a couple of great throws that we couldn’t quite cover.”
"In the end, Rodgers is just too good. He made some throws that only Rodgers can make."
Bill Belichick gives his opening remarks after loss to #Packers pic.twitter.com/HfczQI42eC
— NBC Sports Boston's Patriots Coverage (@NBCSPatriots) October 3, 2022
Aaron Rodgers was quite good in the second half on Sunday. After completing just four of his first 14 passes, the Packers superstar completed 17 of his final 21 passes, finishing with 251 passing yards and two passing touchdowns with an interception.
Rodgers stepped up in the clutch, too. On the Packers' game-winning overtime drive, he completed all four of his passes for 50 yards, hitting his receivers on quick strikes in the flats.
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Belichick tipped his cap to the quarterback for the plays he made down the stretch.
“Aaron just got us on too many things that I thought we did a pretty good job on,” Belichick said. “But he made enough great throws that we couldn’t quite cover. He’s a great, great player. He made some great plays. That was the difference in the game.”
Even though he got the better part of Bill Belichick, Rodgers tipped his cap to the coach, too.
“He’s a legend, deserves all the credit he gets,” Rodgers said.
“The truth is always the easiest to say, so the things I said about Bill last week, I meant,” Rodgers added. “The way that he coaches and the success he's had, he's a phenomenal leader and always has his guys ready to play. Those were some of the sentiments I'm sure that I echoed, and the rest I'll leave to some of the stray microphones that probably cut some of it.”
Rodgers also reflected on the moments he shared with Belichick before and after Sunday's game.
“Before the game he came over and we shared some words,” Rodgers told reporters. “It's nice to be able to have some private conversations from time to time. He came over [when] we were in throwing lines, and we had a nice embrace and shared some words back and forth.”
Belichick 🤝 Rodgers#nevsgb pic.twitter.com/rpdwDXCFpi
— The Camera Guys (@NBCSCameraGuys) October 3, 2022
Furthermore, the 38-year-old shared a likely reality of Sunday's game as he took pride in moving to 2-1 in his three matchups against Bill Belichick.
“It likely is the last [game against Belichick],” Aaron Rodgers said. “So, lot of respect for Bill. Nice to beat him, that brings us to 2-1.”
Due to the NFL's scheduling rules, the Patriots and Packers are only set to face off once every four seasons. However, with the addition of the 17th game in 2021, both teams could face each other in 2024 if they finish in the same spot in their respective divisions in the 2023 season. But there's still a lot of football to be played between now and then, and it's no sure thing that either will still be with their respective teams when Patriots and Packers are scheduled to meet in 2026.
