Charlotte, N.C. — The quarterback who was hit 14 times, who was chased from here to the airport on plenty of his 48 pass attempts, who ended the game dragged down by a defensive lineman, winced slightly as he bent to retrieve two towels from the floor. Barefoot, he returned them to the shower and sunk into his locker for the task of putting on shoes.
The black loafers sat before Aaron Rodgers like a chore, the effort needed for socks and footwear an unwanted burden after hours of inexorable pressure and unyielding rushers. He removed from his shoe an iPhone wrapped in headphones, the screen glowing green with messages. He placed the phone to his left and leaned back into the locker to pause, to rest, to summon the strength to continue while lamenting a play that will haunt him from the game he'll desperately want back.
On fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line, his team a few feet from a miraculous 23-point comeback, Rodgers had the pass he wanted and watched it disappear.
"I had the easy opportunity there for a pitch-and-catch touchdown, but I got scared by something," Rodgers said at the podium a few minutes later. "I can't explain it. It was a mistake by myself."
With Randall Cobb uncovered in the end zone, Rodgers danced in the pocket until defensive tackle Kawann Short broke free. He backpedaled, frivolously stiff-armed a 315-pound lineman and chucked a feeble pass in the direction of someone — anyone — who could extend a miracle.
A leaping interception by linebacker Thomas Davis extinguished the attempt for a third touchdown in as many drives by a Green Bay Packers team that needed more than three quarters to find itself and then morphed into an offensive typhoon. Rodgers conjured back-to-back scoring drives in the waning minutes to constrict a lopsided game and rectify, on some level, an offense known to sputter. But his 369 passing yards weren't enough, his four passing touchdowns too few, and the Carolina Panthers withstood near-implosion to stymie the Packers, 37-29...
Well, that explains it. Everybody probably wondered when AR suddenly flinched and kind of lobbed an aimless flutterball. He looked weird and flustered.