GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Aaron Rodgers, Hail Mary king.

The Green Bay Packers quarterback, ineffective for most of the first half of Sunday's wild-card game against the New York Giants, threw a last-second, 42-yard touchdown pass to receiver Randall Cobb to give the Packers a 14-6 halftime lead en route to a 38-13 victory.

"That got us going," Rodgers said in his on-field postgame interview with Fox.

"Very unusual play," added Cobb. "My job on that play is box out and let the jumper make the catch."

Cobb said he gave the nearest Giants defender "a little nudge."

"Not too much," he said with a smile. "They didn't throw a flag so I guess it was enough."

The Packers had 6 seconds left in the first half and no timeouts, so trying to throw something short to set up a field goal would have been difficult.

"It's the right call there [with] 6 seconds [left]," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "To throw that ball with the arc, that's really the key to it -- it gives your receivers a chance to catch that ball. Randall Cobb made an excellent, instinctive play. Big play, obviously gave us something going into halftime, and then getting the ball coming out we didn't do much. It definitely gave us momentum going in."

Cobb said the Packers practice the Hail Mary every week in practice, but it's a drill for the defense, and backup quarterback Brett Hundley usually makes the throw.

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers celebrates his third Hail Mary in the past two seasons. Adam Wesley/Green Bay Press Gazette via USA TODAY Sports

Said Rodgers: "I haven't thrown a Hail Mary in practice probably since Week 4 or 5."

Just two minutes and 20 seconds before the completion, Rodgers hit Davante Adams for a 5-yard touchdown pass to get the Packers on the board.

He finished 25-of-40 for 362 yards and four touchdown passes, three of which were to Cobb.

"We're better with 18 on the field and he showed it tonight," Rodgers said of Cobb, whose jersey number is 18. Cobb sat out the Packers' final two regular-season games with an ankle injury.

The Hail Mary was Rodgers' third in the past two seasons, including playoffs. He threw a 61-yard TD to Richard Rodgers at Detroit last year to beat the Lions in the regular season, and a 41-yard TD to Jeff Janis in the divisional playoff game at Arizona to force overtime.

"That's three in the last, you know, calendar year or so -- a little more than that. It's fun. Every single time it's fun," said Rodgers. "I think we're starting to believe anytime that ball goes up there, we've got a chance. I can throw it pretty good, but it's got to happen on the other end as well."

Rodgers is 3-of-5 on Hail Mary passes the past two seasons, including playoffs, while the rest of the NFL is 6-of-32, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Sunday's Hail Mary came in the same end zone where, in 2011, New York's Hakeem Nicks caught a last-second, 37-yard touchdown to close the first half of the Giants' NFC divisional playoff upset of the Packers at Lambeau Field.