Former Urbandale J-Hawk and Iowa State Cyclone star receiver, Allen Lazard, scored the third touchdown of his young career against the Detroit Lions Sunday afternoon.
The 28-yard catch came with just over five minutes to play in the game and evened the score with the Lions at 20.
On Green Bay’s next possession, Packer’s star quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, went right back to Lazard for a 13-yard gain, Lazard’s fourth catch on the day.
But Lazard’s legs were landed on awkwardly on the tackle, he grimaced as he went to the ground, and he immediately put his hands on his helmet, signifying something wasn’t right.
The Packer’s training staff came out to look over his apparent lower leg injury before the former Cyclone left the field under his own power with only a slight limp.
A possession later, the Packers won the game 23-20 on a last second field goal.
Coincidentally, when the Packers faced the Lions in October, Lazard scored his first ever touchdown on a 35-yard pass with just under 10 minutes to go in the game. His touchdown also gave the Packers 20 points, and they went on to win that game on a last second field goal too.
Lazard is having a breakout year in his first full season with Green Bay.
After appearing in only one game and catching one pass last season, Lazard has played in all but the first game of the 2019 campaign, has caught 35 passes for just under 500 yards, and has scored three touchdowns.
He’s also made quite an impression with Packer’s star quarterback Aaron Rodgers who “may have put in a good word there in the fourth quarter to get him some opportunities” during the October match-up with the Lions.
“The thing that got me was, which you love as a quarterback, and that’s receivers coming back and telling you he wants the ball and what routes he wants to run,” Rodgers said. “The big first down we had to him on the out route, that was him coming back to the huddle and telling me what play he wanted. For a young guy to do that, how can you not have confidence in that.”
With this Sunday’s win over the Lions, the Packers finish 2019 regular season with a 13-3 record and will have a first round bye in the playoffs.
That gives Lazard two weeks to recover from his injury before he and the Packers make their playoff push.
