There is a reason why the Green Bay Packers paid Aaron Rodgers $110 million last summer.

There is a reason Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin (Rodgers' former offensive coordinator) wasn't sure if Ryan Tannehill was his starting quarterback a couple weeks ago.

Such reasons couldn't have been more evident than in the final three minutes of Sunday afternoon's game in Miami.

There was Rodgers, coolly leading his team down a short field in a two minute drill. The scrambles, the fake snap, and isolating a linebacker in one-on-one coverage to win a hard-fought game, 24-23 will stand out.

It should.

Earlier, there was Tannehill, making it all possible.

Look, the third-year Dolphins quarterback did play great in the second half, leading the Dolphins on scoring drives of 80, 80 and 79 yards to give his team a 23-17 lead.

With Packers cornerbacks Tramon Williams and Sam Shields injured, Tannehill was good enough to take advantage of their replacements, and the fact that linebackers Brad Jones and A.J. Hawk can't cover wide receivers.

But quarterbacks are paid to win games, and leading by six with minutes to go means the game isn’t won.

I said this then, and it held true later:

If #Packers win, the decision by Tannehill to not take the sack to throwaway ball a huge one. Stopped clock & forced a MIA T.O. Pre-punt..

— Jim Owczarski (@JimOwczarski) October 12, 2014

It seemed so inconsequential, in the moment.

Clay Matthews forced Tannehill to move to his right, but Tannehill never once thought to either turn the ball up the field, or just slide and gift Matthews a sack. No, he just fired the ball out of bounds.

That stopped the clock with 3 minutes, 5 seconds left in the game.

Lamar Miller was given a hand off on the next play for one yard. The Dolphins then bled the clock until they called for time with 2:15 left. After a 40-yard punt, the Packers – who were without timeouts, mind you – were able to run the first play of their game-winning drive before the two-minute warning.

Now, it goes against a quarterback’s nature to take a sack, or try and extend a play and just "let" a player like Matthews sack you. Throwing it away seems like the "smart" thing to do.
It would be – and would have ben – at any other instant in the game.

No, Tannehill lost the game for the Dolphins in that moment.

By just sliding down and taking a sack, the Dolphins don’t have to run their handoff to Miller until there is about 2:25 left on the clock.

They then punt after the two-minute warning.

Rodgers hit Andrew Quarless for the game-winning score with three seconds left, and only after do-or-die, clutch throws to Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams set it up (and a momentum T.J. Lang fumble recovery).

Those seconds mattered, and Tannehill made the wrong decision.

I’m actually positive that Rodgers – or Peyton Manning, or Tom Brady – just fall down in that instance. That’s why they have Super Bowls, Most Valuable Player trophies, and very, very large contracts.

It’s why Tannehill is just a "guy" right now.

Now, to Rodgers. For most of the game, this looked like a carbon copy of the Packers’ struggles with Detroit, the New York Jets and Seattle. Miami came in as the No. 7 defense in the league, and they shut the Packers down after an 80-yard opening drive.

Even after Casey Hayward and Sam Shields gave Rodgers extra possessions by creating turnovers, the points were coming. Bryan Bulaga couldn’t handle Cameron Wake. Receivers couldn’t seem to get open. Rodgers was becoming inaccurate.

Yet 57 minutes, 56 seconds does not a game make.

Tannehill helped give Rodgers 2:04 to win, and he needed nearly all of it.

He was deadly accurate, with passes to James Starks and Jordy Nelson only hitting the turf after the ball hit their hands. There was the decision to fake a spike and fire the ball out to Adams with 19 seconds left, who was smart enough to fight for additional yardage. There was the decision to line up Quarless – by no means a lethal pass catcher – on a linebacker who was completely out of his comfort zone.

The Packers win, move to 4-2, and all seems right in the world for another week.

Green Bay got all that it paid for when it mattered most.