The Green Bay Packers were in excellent position to hand the Los Angeles Rams their first loss of the season on Sunday, but an inexplicable error by running back Ty Montgomery resulted in them handing the game away. It was clear Aaron Rodgers was furious by the way he reacted, but it’s fair to wonder if Montgomery will every be forgiven by his teammates.
The Rams had kicked a field goal to go up 29-27 and were kicking off with 2:05 remaining. In theory, that should have been plenty of time for Rodgers to lead one of his patented game-winning drives, but he never got a chance to touch the ball. Montgomery fielded the kickoff in the end zone and chose to run it out, and he fumbled to give L.A. the ball at the Green Bay 21.
After the game, Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Montgomery was specifically instructed to take a knee in the end zone. Some brief footage from the FOX broadcast showed a disgusted Rodgers on the sideline, and one coach described how angry the quarterback was to Michael Silver of NFL.com.
“Aaron was hot,” the coach said. “And he had a right to be. He yelled, ‘Take a f—ing knee!’ He was very, very mad.”
To make matters worse, it sounds like Montgomery may have chosen to ignore orders from the coaching staff because he was angry over being pulled off the field on Green Bay’s previous offensive drive. Several players and coaches told Silver that Montgomery threw a “tantrum” after that, and at least one believed it played a role in his decision to take the kick return out of the end zone.
“They took him out (the previous drive) for a play and he slammed his helmet and threw a fit,” one Packers player said. “Then (before the kickoff) they told him to take a knee, and he ran it out anyway. You know what that was? That was him saying, ‘I’m gonna do me.’ It’s a f—– joke.”
Montgomery’s intention obviously was not to fumble, but that’s precisely why he was told to take a knee. If you have an opportunity to give one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time the ball back with two minutes remaining needing a field goal, you take the guarantee.
If you saw what Rodgers did in Green Bay’s previous game, you can understand why he was so livid. There’s a chance the Rams would have stopped the Packers, but because of Montgomery we’ll never know.
