The Green Bay Packers were hoping that this would be the year in which quarterback Jordan Love became the franchise guy they wanted when they traded up to select the Utah State alum with the 26th pick in the 2020 draft. It’s been an up-and-down experience to date, but recently, Love has made a lot of positive strides. Last Sunday, he eviscerated the Los Angeles Chargers’ (admittedly awful) pass defense in a 40-27 win, and on a short week, he had what may have been his best game to date on Thanksgiving Day against the Detroit Lions in a 32-22 win.
Love completed 22 of 32 passes for 268 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 125.5 against a Detroit defense that ranked 10th in DVOA coming into this game.. but has been trending down of late.
But this isn’t about whatever the heck is happening to Aaron Glenn’s defense — it’s about Love’s obvious improvement in processing, and creating important plays out of those processes.
The first of Love’s three touchdowns against the Lions came with 12:21 left in the first quarter; a 10-yarder to Jayden Reed from the outside left slot in trips, with Christian Watson in the left inside slot. That’s where the geometry got interesting.
“We actually messed that play up,” Love said after the game. “Christian wasn’t supposed to be right where he was at. He was supposed to run a slant, and somehow it just worked out. It worked out. I’m not even sure how the ball got in there, but it was great by J Reed (Packers WR Jayden Reed) just being able to concentrate when there was like three dudes right in that window, so just having him be able to concentrate, catch it, and then finish in the end zone was huge. Like we said, it’s not going to be perfect, but when you just go out and make these plays come to life, execute, and then obviously just come up with a big play right there is huge.”
Here, you can see Watson engaging safety Kerby Joseph, and running outside from there. Reed had to navigate all that stuff in the middle, which he did quite adroitly. Love had to read it out from the inside, and the pinpoint throw was something else.
The Lions were playing Cover-1 here, and Love said that Detroit’s increased use of aggressive coverage made a positive difference for the Packers.
“I think they threw a little bit more man at us, and it’s just a testament to the receivers. They’re finding ways to get open and obviously when it’s man it’s going to be a contested catch. You’re not going to be wide open, so I think our receivers just went out there and made some huge plays against that. Like I said, we had a good plan going into the week. Obviously, a short week—you never know what the defense is going to throw at you—so I think just the in-game adjustments and understanding what they’re giving us look wise and being able to take advantage of that, but testament to the receivers being able to get open versus that man.”
Head coach Matt LaFleur seems to think that he’s got his next franchise-defining quarterback, and based on recent tape, he may have a point.
“I thought he was awesome the entire game,” LeFleur said of Love after the win over the Lions. “He is a cool customer and you can have really good conversations with him. I just never see him get too high or too low, whether it’s going good or not so good. He’s just a guy that’s really matured over these last four years. It’s hard not to root for him, he’s such a good person first and foremost. All those guys in the locker room, they love him. I can tell you all the coaches love him, just his approach. He’s consistent in terms of who he is on a daily basis, and that’s just who he is, he’s one of the guys. That’s always important from that position.”
In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys got into what Love had shown in the win over the Chargers. There’s a lot to like here.
You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” video, previewing all of Week 12’s biggest NFL matchups, right here:
You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…
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