Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love finished his first career playoff start on Sunday in Dallas by joining Peyton Manning and Bart Starr among the greatest postseason passing performances in NFL history.
Love completed 16 of 21 passes for 272 yards, three touchdown passes and zero interceptions. He completed 76.2 percent of his passes, averaged 13.0 yards per attempt and 17.0 yards per completion, didn’t take a sack and finished with a passer rating of 157.2.
The numbers are undeniably good. And they would have been slightly better had he not thrown an incompletion after re-entering the game late in the fourth quarter after the Cowboys closed the gap to 16 points. At 16 of 20, Love’s passer rating was a perfect 158.3.
Still, Love either set records or joined elite company on Sunday in Dallas.
Love’s 157.2 passer rating is the best ever by a quarterback who attempted at least 20 passes in a road playoff game, beating Bart Starr’s previous record set in 1967.
Love became the seventh NFL quarterback in history to attempt at least 20 passes and have a passer rating of at least 150.0, joining Peyton Manning, Josh Allen, C.J. Stroud, Kurt Warner, Phil Simms and Lynn Dickey. Even removing the 20 passes minimum, Love’s passer rating was the sixth best ever by a quarterback in a playoff game.
Without the late incompletion, Love would have been the fifth quarterback ever to finish a playoff game with a perfect passer rating and the first since Peyton Manning during the 2003 season.
Love also finished mere percentage points behind Stroud for the best passer rating in a playoff debut. Incredibly, Love and Stroud both completed 16 of 21 passes for three touchdown passes in their playoff debuts, but Stroud had two more passing yards (274 to 272).
Love averaged 13.0 yards per attempt and 17.0 yards per completion, both top-10 marks all-time in playoff quarterback history.
The advanced analytics also loved the performance.
According to Kevin Cole, Love’s EPA per play was +1.13, the best in a playoff game featuring 20 dropbacks since at least 2000.
Per Aaron Schatz, the Packers produced the highest passing DVOA in a game in team history.
This historic performance had been brewing. Love now has five straight games with multiple touchdown passes, zero interceptions and a passer rating of 100.0 or better. In fact, he’s hit all three marks in eight of the last nine games overall. Between Week 10 and Sunday, Love threw 21 touchdown passes and just one interception.
“Man, Jordan Love. Wow, that’s about all I can say, is wow,” coach Matt LaFleur said post-game.
