Arizona Cardinals veteran receiver A.J. Green, in his first season with the team after playing his first nine National Football League seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, was quarterback Kyler Murray's intended target with a pass into the end zone at the end of Arizona's game against the Green Bay Packers on Thursday night that could have given the Cardinals the lead with just seconds remaining.
Instead, Green didn't appear to expect the pass to come to him, and Packers defensive back Rasul Douglas intercepted Murray's pass to seal Green Bay's 24-21 win.
FOX color analyst Troy Aikman expressed disbelief over Green's effort after what turned out to be the biggest play of the game.
"A.J. Green was the target, and he never looked for the ball," FOX play-by-play announcer Joe Buck said.
"Not only did he not look - it almost looked like he was blocking out there. I'm not sure exactly what A.J. was doing at all," Aikman said. "I'm not sure exactly what happened with A.J. Green - if he just saw the way that Douglas was playing him that the ball was going elsewhere or what. ... That one's kind of hard to understand because if you look at the other side of the field, they're running routes, expecting the ball. That's a hard one for me to even try to explain as to what possibly could be going through A.J. Green's mind."
From @NFL via Twitter:
"What I don't understand - DeAndre Hopkins is not in this game. A.J. Green! This is your time to eat!" FOX commentator Michael Irvin said after the game. "You have to believe this ball is coming your way right now. And he should have been ready for that ball."
"Yeah, I mean, we feel like it's a safe throw if (A.J. Green) knew the route to run," Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury said after the game. "It was the right place to go with the ball. Just didn't communicate on some level and then the guy made a good play."
From @kentsomers via Twitter:
Green finished the game with 50 receiving yards on five catches. He was targeted eight times.
Green has 456 receiving yards and 29 catches through eight games this season.
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