By his own admittance, Jordan Love isn’t playing as well as he would like in his first season as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.
“I think, obviously, not good enough,” Love said following a demoralizing 24-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. “It’s been, I think, pretty average to start. We got highs and lows. Myself, it’s too bumpy right now. I need to find consistency in my play where I’m able to make every play, go to the right place with the ball on every play and it’s got to be more consistent from me and I think that’s where I’m lacking right now.”
Through seven games, the team is 2-5 and Love is completing only 57.7 percent of his passes. He is also averaging 213 passing yards per game, good enough for 21st in the NFL. His 11 passing touchdowns are actually tied for 10th, but his eight interceptions are in a seven-way tie for the league lead. Add it all together, and you get a 78.2 passing rating, which ranks Love 29th among quarterbacks who have thrown at least 100 passes in 2023.
However, numbers never tell the whole story. They certainly don’t tell the story of Love’s performance against Minnesota when he completed 24 out of 41 passes for 229 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.
Not reflected in his stat line are the drops, penalties, and missed opportunities that plagued the Packers offense for most of the afternoon. On the very first drive of the game, Love evaded a sack and delivered an incredible pass off his backfoot to Romeo Doubs for a 20-yard completion. Unfortunately, the play was called back after left tackle Rasheed Walker was called for an ineligible man downfield penalty.
On the interception, Love was trying to convert yet another long third down by throwing the ball downfield. Love noticed Jayden Reed had found some space over the middle, and when he saw the safety in coverage had his back turned, he decided to give his receiver a chance to make a play. Reed managed to get two hands on the ball initially, but as he was going to the ground, the ball was ripped away by Josh Metellus, who then returned the interception 43 yards into Green Bay territory.
After the game, coach Matt LaFleur said the play never should have ended in a pick, stating that the receiver needs to make that catch if the team is going to start winning games.
On top of the drops and penalties, the protection around Love wasn’t great, either. Love was sacked four times and faced pressure pretty consistently. None of it was conducive to having a successful day at quarterback or moving the ball down the field.
“I say this every week in terms of, there’s going to be a couple plays that you want back, but also we got to make some plays for him, too,” said LaFleur. “I think we had like six dropped balls. That’s going to be tough to overcome. We got to catch it. We got to throw it better, we got to catch it better, we got to block better, we got to stop having penalties that knock us back and put us in these obvious passing situations.”
Needless to say, it’s no wonder Love and the offense are sputtering. Love has the youngest supporting cast in the NFL, and growing pains were to be expected. What wasn’t expected was pure incompetency nearly two months into the season.
Sitting three games below .500 with 10 games left, the Packers season isn’t over, but things are getting ugly at an accelerated rate.
To salvage what is left, Love will expect more from himself, but he will need more from his teammates as well. Meanwhile, LaFleur and his coaching staff will have to dig deep for answers to the team’s offensive struggles.
