ATLANTA -- It's tough to blame this one on Aaron Rodgers.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback, criticized so often this season, put up 32 points and gave his team a six-point lead with less than four minutes to go and still went home a loser.
Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons did him one better.
A well-rested Packers defense watched Rodgers & Co. take the lead with a masterful drive: 13 plays, 86 yards over 8:33. But it didn't matter because the Falcons exposed the Packers' short-handed defense, which couldn’t overcome the loss of its top three cornerbacks to injury.
Ryan spoiled what would've been a sweet win for an undermanned team that seemingly had some unlikely heroes -- Geronimo Allison, Trevor Davis and Jeff Janis -- in the making. Without Randall Cobb or Ty Montgomery, all three caught touchdowns. It was all for nothing, though, in a 33-32 loss at the Georgia Dome.
It ended with what some players called "a busted coverage" and others deemed a miscommunication when Ryan threw the game-tying touchdown pass to Mohamed Sanu with 31 seconds to play.
"A good number of us are playing because we were the young backup that had to play because of injury, so it's next man up," Packers defensive tackle Mike Daniels said. "Those guys, I think they did a good job. I think they did a good job overall. But when you're playing a good offense like that, just doing enough is not enough. You've got to go above and beyond and us veterans are supposed to take that thing by the horns and do that."
Janis put the Packers ahead with 3:58 to play, followed by Rodgers' run for the two-point conversion that gave them a six-point lead. Allison, the undrafted rookie promoted from the practice squad on Monday when fellow receiver Jared Abbrederis was placed on injured reserve (and later waived), made his first NFL reception a touchdown. Davis, the rookie fifth-round pick, showed off his flashy speed on a 55-yard punt return and added a 9-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
There were also contributions from the usual suspects -- Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams were at the top of that list. Nelson caught a 58-yard deep ball -- his longest catch since the 2014 season. On that one first-quarter play, he had more yards than he did in three different games this season. He also caught Rodgers' first touchdown of the game. And Adams, with 12 catches, hit double figures in receptions for the second straight game, matching Montgomery as the only players to do that this season.
"Personally, I’m just really proud of those guys who made plays today," said Rodgers, who finished 28-of-38 for 246 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. "We got Jordy going early with the big completion, but we had three touchdown passes -- one each to Geronimo Allison, who wasn’t on the opening-day roster, to Trevor, who’s had limited opportunities, and Jeff Janis for the go-ahead touchdown. I’m just so proud of those guys and the way they battled. We wasted a couple drives in the third quarter after a really nice first half. The opening drive of the third quarter would have been a momentum-shifter, for sure, if we had been able to put points on the board."
About the only thing you could pin on Rodgers was not being able to come up with a game-winning drive, but he had only 31 seconds to do so after Ryan's 11-yard, game-tying touchdown pass to Sanu.
At 4-3, the Packers aren't out of anything yet -- especially if they can get healthy and with the struggling Colts coming to Lambeau Field next Sunday.