Eighteen unanswered 4th quarter points capped off by Jordan Love’s perfect throw and a highlight reel catch by Romeo Doubs made for a happy ending in Green Bay on Sunday. A Packer team that spent three quarters getting in its own way, to the tune of 11 penalties costing the Packers 90 yards and multiple stalled drives, turned it around on the arm and legs of Jordan Love and some clutch catches by his young receiving core.
When the list of Packers sidelined by injury was announced before the game, the Packer faithful had reason for concern. Bakhtiari and Jenkins, their two best offensive linemen, their starting runner and receiver in Jones and Watson, plus their star cover cornerback, Alexander, was a pretty long list.
Add to that De’Vondre Campbell and substitute corner starter rookie Carrington Valentine, who dropped out during the game, to have a list of seven critical players. Could the Packers win this game against what was touted as a top tier defense that had only allowed one touchdown in two games?
Well, it wouldn’t be easy, and it sure wasn’t pretty for the first three quarters, but the answer at the end of the day was… yes. Jordan Love had everything going wrong around him.
His offensive line was collecting penalties like they were souvenirs. The Packers offense continually found a reverse gear before they could get into scoring position. While the trick play on their first series was a brilliant call that had a wide-open receiver waiting downfield, the lateral by 4th string RB Emanuel Wilson at Loves’ feet led to an off balance rushed throw by Love that turned the play into a comical Three Stooges sketch.
That opening drive embarrassment seemed to hang on the Packers during the first three quarters. Young players making rookie mistakes, dropped passes or overthrown open receivers.
A special teams touchdown gift. The fans saw a comedy of errors that was quickly evolving into an opening home game tragedy until Love, Doubs, Jayden Reed, Toure, Wicks and Musgrave and Rashan Gary decided this day would have a happy ending for the Green & Gold.
The patchwork offensive line held their own in pass protection, giving up just one sack on an unaccounted cornerback blitz. The run game is still suspect. A.J. Dillon, Wilson and Patrick Taylor averaged 3.0 yards, 3.0 yards and 2.0 yards respectively.
The only successful runner was Love. His scrambles netted 39 yards including a nifty touchdown run. Love then added a two-point conversion with his second best pass of the day. With the pocket crumbling around him, Love started to head towards the end zone with the ball, but at the last second pulled up and threw a strike to Samori Toure.
Love’s best pass had to be the Packers’ second and final touchdown. A back shoulder bullet to Doubs, who made an acrobatic catch with a defender all over him. We knew there were going to be struggles this season with Love getting his first real leadership role with limited previous real NFL game experience.
The question posed last week after his unsuccessful 4th quarter in Atlanta was whether he could make the jump to an NFL QB that can steal a game in the 4th quarter. He answered that question on Sunday.
The struggles are not over for Love. His deep passes need more accuracy. He seemed to need to lead his receivers one more step on several incompletions that were contested.
On the plus side, he sees the field and has a fire to win. And, he gets the ball out on time, limiting potential sacks while showing no qualms firing passes to any of his receivers. No trust issues from this 2023 Packer QB.
Yes, he had some luck with a Saint kicking gaffe at the end, but 18 points is no small matter in the NFL. The Packers will watch tape of Sunday’s game knowing they were beating themselves at a truly putrid level but that those errors are correctable.
Hopefully, they can right that ship in three days with little to no practice as the Lions come to Lambeau on Thursday.
As I said about Jordan Love since day 1, his accuracy isn’t really NFL quality. There was a point in the game where I thought the Packers were going to lose and I was blaming things like the missed throw to a wide open Musgrave. It really seems like he can’t throw accurately beyond 20 yards and he’s gotten lucky in that when he underthrows by 2-3 yards and the receiver has to come back for it, he’s gotten key pass interference calls. His side arm throws are good, but those only get you so far in the NFL. Teams will pretty quickly figure out that he can’t throw beyond 20 yards and defenses will play him accordingly, just like teams figured out Favre would high throw players early in games and Tampa 2 was invented to take advantage of that. In fact, that’s pretty much what the Saints did till late in the game and what Atlanta did at the end of the game they lost, they took away the short and middle of the field passes he could make.
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I saw online folks bashing the defense, but the defense only gave up 10 points to a team with some good receivers and a decent QB. I don’t blame the defense at all for getting behind in this game. And however you look at it, taking out Carr helped the Packers greatly (Buddy Ryan would be proud).
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In the grand scheme of things, there was a lot to like. The Packers young QB showed he will keep fighting and has the ability to come from behind and players like Jayden Reed and Luke Musgrave are going to be very, very good.
I agree on the love deep throws…it is really the only area he has fallen short. He is still new to starting but also has 4 years experience…so that is his biggest question mark. Outside of that I’m very impressed by his pocket presence and decision making…it’s also nice to have a qb who is a threat to run again. Lastly….his play action fakes are absolutely out of this world.
That’s the type of game where legends are made. After a devastating one point loss last week and three quarters of frustration on Sunday. Not once did Jordan Love yell at his teammates, throw players and coaches under the bus. Not once did he roll his eyes or throw his hands in the air. Not once did Jordan Love utter the words that his WR’s needed to develop and earn his “trust.” The biggest bunch of utter nonsense in all of professional sports. And an Aaron Rodgers exclusive. Love overcame adversity and got it done. Just like the great ones. Everyone else you make excuses for.
Chis Olave WR Saints, drafted 10th overall. Romeo Dobbs, drafted in the 4th round. Did you see much of a difference between these two fine WR’s? Let me help, the answer is no. Except Dobbs ended up being the better value because as a wise man once said, you can find WR’s anywhere in the draft. This nonsense that you have to draft a WR in the first round is a “Total Packers” exclusive. And proves you ladies know nothing about football.
Packers would be wise to pay Rashan Gary now. With every passing game his pice keeps going up. Which begs the question, who is Brian Gutekunst’s best draft pick? Is it Gary, Jaire Alexander, Jordan Love, Christian Watson, Luke Musgrave, Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs? So many choices, so little time….
Your hero Kevin, never came from a 17 point 4th quarter deficit and won. Never. Rodgers would have been curled up in a fetal position on the sidelines crying for his mommy.
Jordan Love doesn’t need your pussy ass excuses. Save those for lover boy. You gotta start somewhere Kevin. After three games, I like what I see. The rest of you ladies can go jerk each other off and badmouth AJ Dillion. This year’s Kevin King.
Except Rodgers did against the bears in 2018, and if memory serves me correct he got injured in the first half?
You have no problem showcasing your comic stupidity, Kevin. At least Cheese, MMSUCKS, Arch, Ferris, and the rest, know when to shut the hell up. Having Jordan Love prove he’s an NFL QB is good for all Packer fans. Even the stupid ones. His best football along with these young WR’s and TE’s is still in front of them. Matt LaFleur’s offense works and he can coach. Love can make every throw. But more importantly he knows what he’s seeing on the field, throws with anticipation, and can read the defense. It’s never easy in the NFL and you don’t win them all. But this organization is in good hands no matter how much you girls want tell each other otherwise.
“At least Cheese, MMSUCKS, Arch, Ferris, and the rest, know when to shut the hell up.”
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Lol, don’t flatter yourself Flip-Flop. You make it sound like we don’t comment because you showed us all up with your superior knowledge. You did not. We’re all tired of listening to your BS and it’s not worth my time to argue with someone who spells like a 3rd grader.
Go ahead and pretend like one of us said “best QB ever” so you can give yourself permission to go beat off over your love/hate relationship with Rodgers.
Seconded. Only it’s 1st grade.
Who is Dobbs? Superfan tool that can’t spell.
Loved that unexpected (after the first 5 minutes) a bit lucky win. Btw do I see a cameltoe on that Kingsley picture?
Hey, Cheese, Ferris! Did you hear the AJ Dillion pick set the organization back years? Why, it’s true because Kevin tells us it is! In fact, he’s gonna tell us all about it in some future post. I’m as excited as you all are! Can’t wait! In the meantime, Jordan Love is looking like the real deal. But don’t get sidetracked by that small, insignificant accomplishment. AJ Dillion is the real story!
Doubs and Reed are going to be very good. Love is throwing them difficult to catch balls and unlike Adams first couple of years, when Rodgers was throwing Adams lasers, they’re catching them. Musgrave is getting way, way open, eventually Love has to hit him, right? And, in fact, Watson doesn’t have to be the primary receiver, they just have to occasionally put on tape him blowing past defenders, like they did last year, and it opens up everything underneath. I’m a Packer Fan 4 Life and I’m pretty excited now about the prospects for this team, especially after seeing the come from behind win. That’s what separates the good from great QBs.
Most good and almost all great QB’s have a completion percentage substantially above 50%. At some point teams are going to start picking these passes off if Love doesn’t improve his accuracy. Some of this is on the receivers for dropping catchable balls. This is Love’s one major flaw right now and who knows if he can correct it. He wasn’t know as the most accurate passer coming out of college. We shall see as the season goes on. It could be worse, at least he looks way better than Justin Fields.
I was talking from a passing only perspective.
I agree there’s a lot of stuff we don’t know yet, but here’s what we do know:
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Jordon Love is better than Randy Wright, who threw 8 interceptions in his first 4 games and only 1 TD. He’s better than three other first round Packer QB busts, Randy Duncan, Jerry Tagge and Rich Campbell.
-Doubs and Reed are better than 1973 bust first round pick Barry Smith, a WR for the Packers who never caught more than 300 yards in a season. Probably better than 2nd round picks Derrick Mayes and Robert Ferguson too.
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The Packers didn’t draft another serial murderer as they did with the I-5 Killer, Randy Woodfield. OK, we don’t know that for sure yet.
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So as a Packer for more years than I would like to admit to, I’m pretty happy right now.
Nice win from the youngsters. This is honestly one of the more fun and interesting teams in recent memory. Not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but just flat out fun. It’s such a young team, the oldest player on offense Sunday was 26 years old. There has to be a lot of patience with this team, there are going to be mistakes and stuff that will make you want to drink. But damn, there have been some fun times. I will say, it’s nice not having a QB out there rolling his eyes and treating young receivers like 2nd class citizens. Love was objectively bad in the first half of that game. There is no sugarcoating that. But I have to give him credit, dude hung in there and showed mental toughness that a lot of QBs don’t have. Shit, I remember Favre having some absolutely atrocious first halves with multiple INTs then going out in the second half acting like the 1st half never happened and bring the team back. Yes his accuracy has been concerning. But his average depth of target is the highest in the league, meaning he is pushing the ball down the field more than any other QB (meaning thows tend to be lower percentage passes). I mean, Josh Allen only completed 52% of his passes his rookie year. The biggest thing is, can Love improve? He hasn’t played much football in three years, with 72 passes in three years. Only two preaseasons since there wasn’t a preseason in 2020. I am convinced he has the mental part of the game down pretty good, but he looks like a guy that hasn’t thrown the ball very much in live game situations.
Sure ladies, let’s bitch about the completion percentage. Because that’s all you’ve got. Stats are next to worthless. Brett Favre has thrown more INT’s than any other NFL QB. Aaron Rodgers has thrown the least amount of INT’s. They both have just one SB win. At least Favre went to two. Rodgers will never sniff another SB. TD to INT ratio is the most worthless stat in all of football. And Aaron Rodgers is King. It’s all about who gets it done in the 4th quarter. It’s about who gets it done on 3rd and 4th down. Right now, Jordan Love is getting it done. That’s the only stat that counts.
You want to doubt Jayden Reed, Luke Musgrave, and Tay Wicks? Go ahead. You’re two years behind on making a decision on Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs. Everyone else has moved on. These are a bunch of young talented kids learning the NFL game on the fly and getting it done. That’s exciting. But that won’t stop you girls from trying to find something to bitch about.
You ladies would be wise to get on board now. Chicago is going to end up with Caleb Williams next year. He’ll be the Patrick Mahomes of the NFC. We’re going to need a young, talented, QB that can go toe to toe with him. Jordan Love looks up to the challenge….
It doesn’t take a psychic Kevin to know that the Chicago Bears are a hot mess. It doesn’t take a psychic to know Justin Fields isn’t the answer at QB. It doesn’t take a psychic to know that Chicago has Carolina’s first round pick who is likewise 0-3 and also looks to be going nowhere thereby increasing Chicago’s chances of procuring the number one pick. And lastly, it doesn’t take a psychic to know that your collective hatred of Brian Gutekunst have left you ladies bitching about petty things like completion percentage and AJ Dillion. When everyone and their mother knew going in it was going to be a process. Just like it was with Rodgers and Favre.
Tom- when are you going to stop bringing up Aaron Rodgers in literally every post? I criticized Rodgers a lot on this board. I hated his demeanor, particularly toward young receivers in later seasons. I don’t think he took enough chances with the ball, and he was allergic to the middle of the field (stats do prove this, and makes playing defense a bit easier when a QB tends to avoid a whole portion of the field). TD:INT isn’t everything, but good god dude, it’s pretty important. Throwing a lot of TDs leads to a lot of points, which you need to win games. INTs are not so great, and can put stress on a defense, which more times than not wasn’t very good in GB. I can’t believe I have to explain this to you like you are 7 and watching football for the first time. Rodgers, objectively is one of the best QBs I have ever seen, certainly probably the most talented. Speaking of Love and Rodgers in the same sentence is disrespectful to Rodgers, and that isn’t even a diss on Love, it’s a nod to the fact that Rodgers is in the top 0.5% of QBs that have even stepped on an NFL field. Love has been impressive, but pretending that there haven’t been some issues there, that may be very correctable, is disingenuous. Lazy arguments like “Rodgers is a stat whore” are dumb as hell. So please for the love of christ, drop your weird obsession with talking about him constantly.
Whether you like it or not Kato, Jordan Love will be forever compared to his predecessor. Just as Rodgers was to Favre until he found his own way. The criticism was that Jordan Love only has a 54% completion percentage. I say BFD. It’s a stat that’s as meaningless as Rodgers TD to INT ratio.
I would much rather have another SB win this pass decade than a QB with a stupid stat that means nothing to everyone except a group of clueless fanboys.
I would much rather have a young QB with a 54% completion percentage that sees the field, can read NFL defenses, and isn’t afraid to throw the ball down field. Then having a QB with a 70% completion percentage who throws only to his check downs because he has no idea what he’s seeing.
The big picture doesn’t have anything to do with stats and everything to do with how good an NFL QB we have in Jordan Love. I understand that challenges your belief system.
So now you’re telling me Brain Gutekunst is a good GM and Aaron Rodgers isn’t the best QB ever? And you ladies say I flip flop. Make up your mind…
Just random observations.
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Two weeks ago, a game that GB really should have won and had in the bag but lost. This time around, a game they should have lost but managed to win. It was a great comeback and lots of fun to watch. Let’s just keep in perspective, it was a missed field goal that was the “dagger”. That was a lucky dagger. For three quarters each phase of the game – offense, defense, and special teams took turns shatting the bed and in the last quarter they all came together and did their jobs.
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When GB was in position to go for that first FG attempt, who amongst us thinks they should have gone for it? Down by 17 and would need three anyway and well within range. Take the points that are available. They got lucky that didn’t bite them in the end.
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Happy to see a come from behind win for Jordan Love as this will do a lot for his confidence going forward and probably calm him down some. Still a bunch of things to work on with downfield accuracy and looking at his targeted receiver too much. I think we seen one that went incomplete to Doubs that his eyes followed him the entire time going left. Musgrave was about ten yards down and wide wide open right for an easy first down on that play. Things like that can be cleaned up. The deep ball stuff should come along better as well. Until then, DPIs are just as good as completions so keep trying.
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Did anyone else catch Jordan Love shooting some stink eye? He did. When Taylor went out right and slowed/stopped about 2-3 yards short of where the pass was delivered and it resulted in an incomplete pass. Jordan can mean-mug too.
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Using Nixon on the offense was creative. He’s got good skills when running with a ball in his hands. How often will they return to using him, or even now using him as a decoy threat for such plays?
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They improved a little with the clock management but there were still a bunch of plays coming off pretty close to expiration where they seemed rushed. Maybe I’m just one of only a few that gets picky about that but I think there’s room for improvement on play clock management.
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After the last two games I’m not watching this team with any predictions in mind. They have been fun but I just want to see them continue to improve where needed and play four solid quarters of good football. In the same game.
I gave Justin Fields the benefit of the doubt when his best WR last year was Equanimeous St Brown. I gave Zach Wilson the benefit of the doubt because he has a horrendous OL. It’s exceedingly difficult for these young QB’s to make it in NFL. It’s next to impossible when you don’t give them help. Still, at some point you have to show me something. Unfortunately I’m not seeing it from either. They’ve both got until the end of the season to turn things around. History tells me the odds are against them.
Now contrast that to Jordan Love who was given every opportunity to succeed in the NFL. He sat behind a HOF QB for three years to learn and develop. He has a young, deep, talented, roster that’s already overcome key injuries at WR and OL. That’s a testament to the organization and the way it’s run. Now you and the girls can tell each other you haven’t seen enough. You can tell each other Brian Gutekunst is a terrible GM. You tell each other Aaron Rodgers is the best QB ever. Unfortunately for you, reality tells a different story. All you have to do is look no further than the product that’s put on the field every Sunday. By all means, live in denial.
The only person claiming Aaron Rodgers is the best QB ever is you Tom. You do it in almost all of your posts. You have a very unhealthy obsession with him for some reason. However, no matter how you slice it you can’t deny that he isn’t one of the best QB’s ever. The best, depends on who you talk to and how that is measured.
Brian Gutekunst certainly is not the worst nor the best GM in the NFL right now. Based upon all the draft picks and free agent signings he’s made since he became the GM, he does not rate in the top half by any measurable means. The one defense you can give him is how much Murphy is or is not involved in the decisions that are being made. If the measurement is how many Super Bowls you’ve won like seems to be your measuring stick for QB’s than he is a failure. You can blame the players and coaches all you want but he is ultimately responsible for the product you see on the field.
Just curious how this comment section is supposed to work nowadays.
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I wrote about a four paragraph comment about the last game. No “c” word included, no cussin’ period, no insulting any other poster. I posted it and it went into the awaiting moderation mode. I seen it there, I did.
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Then it must have been lost in the cloud. What the heck?