DETROIT – For as long as it's been obvious that Aaron Rodgers' right arm could chuck a football like few others, he's been told to practice the Hail Mary … just in case. All across early football, through Pleasant Valley High in Chico, Calif., and Butte Community College and as a Cal Golden Bear, and eventually a Green Bay Packer, he gives it a go, at least once a week, often more.

With the Packers, it's always the day before the game, at the end of practice. The receivers will bolt to the end zone and Rodgers will heave it down there. Often, they say, they let defenders pick it off.

"We don't want anyone getting hurt," tight end Richard Rodgers said. It's a loose drill. Sometimes, just for fun, they'll even give it a try pregame.

View photos Richard Rodgers was a hero for the Packers on Thursday night. (AP) More

The Packers did that three times Thursday night before their game with the Detroit Lions.

"Just messing around a little bit," Aaron Rodgers said.

In practice, the Hail Mary sometimes works. In the games, it never had. Here Rodgers was, 32 years old, a Super Bowl champion and two-time league MVP, and he'd spent years practicing only to fail every time – 0-3 in the NFL, he said.

So there he was in the huddle Thursday. The Lions led 23-21, about to send Green Bay to its devastating fifth loss in six games. Detroit had staked itself to a 20-0 lead, but the Packers fought back, only not far enough. This loss was going to be ugly.

The ball was on Green Bay's 39-yard line and even that was a gift. The Packers had an extra chance courtesy of an untimed final play due to Detroit's Devin Taylor lightly hitting Rodgers' facemask as he tackled the quarterback with no time remaining.

By the letter of the rule, it was a dubious call. Done against a star quarterback, though, it gets made every time.

Detroit thought it had won, but it hadn't, at least not yet. Green Bay thought it had lost, but now was thinking what if?

Rodgers was staring at his receivers and wasn't exactly bubbling over with confidence – they were gasping for air having just run three consecutive fly routes. Now he was calling for a 61-yard (at least) gasser at the end of an NFL game. Meanwhile he would hope he could avoid the rush and hopefully fling it far enough to avoid the catastrophe of falling to 7-5 with the playoffs suddenly in jeopardy.

"A low percentage play," the quarterback noted.

It's named after a prayer for a reason.

Green Bay had a couple things going for it, though. For one, the Lions' secondary had also run hard for three consecutive plays, chasing Packers on deep routes and a circus-like lateral drill. There were no fresh legs over there, either.

Second, Detroit guessed wrong on what Green Bay was going to do.

With the line of scrimmage 61 yards from the end zone, this would be a jumbo Hail Mary. As such, Lions coach Jim Caldwell said he expected another underneath route with the Packers flipping the ball back and forth, trying to find a seam to make a run – "a pass back and forth kind of thing because of the range," Caldwell said.

By underestimating Rodgers' arm strength – or the Packers' gumption – the Lions didn't put their best Hail Mary-defense team out there. Thinking they needed to defend the entire field, they rushed just three linemen rather than the preferred four – the extra one possibly adding enough pressure to make Rodgers throw before his receivers got all the way to the end zone. Moreover, the linemen package included burly nose tackle Haloti Ngata, who isn't the kind of speed rusher who could chase Rodgers down or be very effective.

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