It’s Week 1, and it was about two and a half quarters in, so Matt LaFleur was at the point most coaches are, still learning about his Packers’ strengths and weaknesses, which buttons to push and which to lay off. Which led to a moment of indecision with 6:34 left in the third quarter and Green Bay up 17–6 in Chicago.
His first-year starting quarterback, Jordan Love, had just scrambled for nine yards to turn a third-and-12 into fourth-and-3 at the Bears’ 35. He could have just send the field goal team out for a 53-yarder to push the lead to 14, though that was another spot where he was breaking in a new starter after moving on from another forever Packer, kicker Mason Crosby. So he went to Love and asked him, “Do you wanna go for it?”
“Yeah,” Love responded, without missing a beat.
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Just then, safety Darnell Savage, eavesdropping on the conversation, screamed at LaFleur, “We got you, Coach!”
“I was like, All right, f--- it. Let's go for it,” LaFleur said over his cell a couple hours later, as the Packers’ team bus made its way to the airport for the short trip home Sunday. “We ended up calling a timeout on the play because I didn’t like our play initially. We wanted to take a peek at what I thought was coming. So we called the timeout. And I was like, You know what? F--- it. Let’s try to go to our best player.”
And on this Sunday, for the first time in his five seasons as Packers coach, LaFleur wasn’t referencing the quarterback when he said that. And it was more than just O.K. It was actually optimal.
LaFleur was talking about Aaron Jones, who on this snap was set to Love’s left. At the snap, the veteran back ran laterally to the numbers, where T.J. Edwards was waiting, then snapped inside, leaving the Bears linebacker in his dust, and giving Love, sitting in the pocket, an easy target over the middle. Love hit Jones as he was crossing the line for the first down, and Jones did the rest—racing through the defense for a 35-yard score.
The moment pushed the Packers’ lead to 24–6, but did so much more in telling the story of Love’s first game action as an entrenched NFL starter, and one replacing a legend. In so many ways, actually, it allowed Love to follow the advice he got in a text from Rodgers the night before training camp started, telling him to just be himself and not anyone else.
Remember, it was a defensive guy who gave LaFleur the verbal green light to pull the trigger, telling his coach that, if the offense failed, his unit would make up for it. It was Jones whom LaFleur trusted. It was the offensive line that gave Love the time to easily make the throw.
Love didn’t need to be Rodgers on Sunday. Because the Packers are good enough to not need that from him at this point. Which is probably what everyone missed about his taking over as the starting quarterback.
One Sunday down, a whole season to go—we’re here for Week 1. And before we get started, I did want to take you through a few changes for this year.
We’re flipping some things around to try to get you my content a little more efficiently. So this year, we’re going to get the Ten Takeaways online overnight, so whether you want those at 2 a.m. or when you wake up in the morning, they’ll be there for you. After that, the other elements will hit the site over the course of Monday morning.
Which is to say on the site today, you’ll find …
• A look at Nick Bosa’s emotional return to San Francisco and the field.
• Derek Carr’s turning the page and coming up big for the Saints.
• The Niners’ brilliance, the Dolphins’ explosiveness, a big day in D.C. and so much more in those Ten Takeaways.
But we’re starting with the story of the day, which in my mind was what unfolded at Soldier Field.
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It’s easy to forget just how good the Packers were over LaFleur’s first three years.
No, Green Bay didn’t make it to the Super Bowl. But it did win 13 games three consecutive years—previous to that, they’d hit the 13-win mark only three times since the merger—and advanced to two NFC title games, and all that didn’t happen due to Rodgers’s mere presence, as big as No. 12’s role (he won two MVPs in that three-year stretch) was in it.
So coming into 2023, the Packers didn’t just have a quarterback who spent three years in the Green Bay incubator, the same way Rodgers once did. It also had a roster full of guys such as Jones, prideful and decorated pros, who had to spend an entire offseason hearing folks digesting every report of Love dirting a throw in practice as if the future of the franchise were going into the ground with the ball.
“I mean, you’re talking about some of the better players at their respective positions in the league,” LaFleur says. “So I’m sure these guys have a lot of confidence.”
You’re talking about Jones, David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins, Kenny Clark, Preston Smith, Rashan Gary, Jaire Alexander, Savage and De’Vondre Campbell. All with something to prove and the chance to show this was never a one-man show.
And the upshot of that for LaFleur and his coaches was the safety net that would create for their young quarterback. If those guys played to their capabilities and young guys such as Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Luke Musgrave, Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt developed, there’d be no need for Love to press or play outside of himself.
On this Sunday, at least, he didn’t have to.
The first touchdown drive of Love’s career? It happened on the first possession of the game in Chicago. It covered all of 40 yards in 11 plays. Love was 2-of-4 for 21 yards, with an eight-yard touchdown to Romeo Doubs on the drive. And it was followed by a pair of three-and-outs. The Packers moved it a little better in the second quarter and were able to scrape together enough to set up a 52-yard field goal from rookie kicker Anders Carlson at the end of the half, but even that one was set up by a nifty punt return by rookie Jayden Reed.
“Our defense, we capitalized on a short field that first possession and then really the first [possession] of the first half we couldn’t even get into a rhythm—like, we never got into a rhythm,” LaFleur says. “We were in get-back-on-track situations. We only had 28 plays at halftime offensively.”
But what the Packers did do, in having the special teams and defense lift the offense up, LaFleur says, was play “really good complementary football, especially early on.” And as a result, he continues, “in the second half, we kind of broke the game open.”
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Before they got there, LaFleur and Love had another moment on this afternoon full of them.
The 24-year-old quarterback took a sack with fewer than 30 seconds left in the first half, with Bears pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue tracking him down in the backfield for an eight-yard loss. LaFleur slow-played it after that, and his instinct to play it safe didn’t go over great in all corners of the Packers’ operation.
“He was pissed at me,” LaFleur says of Love, laughing. “I didn’t get the play call in fast enough and we had to burn our last timeout to kick that long-ass field goal. I could see it in his face. He didn’t say anything, I could just tell.”
LaFleur walked over to Love, as Carlson and the field goal team trotted out for the 52-yarder, and said, I know. That’s my bad.
“He wanted to get a play in and try to get [closer]. But you know, I appreciate it. That’s football, man,” LaFleur says. “There’s real emotion involved with it. It’s not always going to be perfect, and he’s a competitor, and I think you saw that competitiveness. I mean, shoot, he scrambles for [nine yards] on that third-and-13 to set up that touchdown pass to Aaron Jones. That’s what I love about this kid, man. He’s competitive.”
And LaFleur showed that love for Love by slowly but surely taking the governor off a bit as the second half wore on. Which, of course, was facilitated by the run game and the defense.
On the Packers’ first possession of the second half, Jones accounted for 68 of the 75 yards covered in an eight-play touchdown drive, 51 of those coming on a throwback screen pass that Love completed to his back, throwing a bit off balance. The second possession brought the fourth-and-3 decision and resulting touchdown throw to Jones but actually was initially set up by another big punt return from Reed—35 yards and giving Green Bay’s offense a first-and-10 at the Bears’ 42.
The Bears answered to close the deficit to 24–14, and that’s when the growing confidence of the young quarterback would show itself. On a first-and-10 with 14:21 left, Love fumbled the snap from Josh Myers, ran to collect it, spun around, and heaved what looked like a prayer toward the left pylon. Only in this case, rookie tight end Luke Musgrave was standing there wide open, as Love knew he would be, for a 37-yard gain.
“It was like watching a slow-motion car crash,” LaFleur says. “Because you see Musgrave leaking through, and I’m like Oh my Gosh, he’s so wide open. I saw Jordan botch the exchange, and I was just hoping he was going to pop his feet and throw it.
“It’s not always how you draw it up, but it was a hell of a play by those two guys.”
And on the next play, Love delivered a dime to Doubs, who gutted through a hamstring injury to play, and whose presence was even more important in this one with Watson down.
“I can’t say enough about Rome,” LaFleur says. “First of all, we didn’t know he was going to play until about Thursday. He was questionable all week and we had a good feeling; we knew he was going to be put on a pitch count. And it was just such strong, aggressive hands by him on that play because that’s not an easy play. That’s a contested catch. Jordan put it in a perfect spot. I knew he was going to throw it when I saw it by just the look.
“I knew he was going to throw it right there, and those two made a hell of a throw and catch.”
Walker registered a pick-six a few minutes after that, and the Packers were well on their way to taking a win back with them to Wisconsin. With so many people having a hand in it.
Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin/USA TODAY NETWORK
Thumbing through the numbers, the statistical category that stuck out to LaFleur going home was one you may have overlooked watching a game that, in the end, the Packers won going away—third down.
The Packers converted nine of 16, while they stopped the Bears on 10 of 13 attempts. And that, to LaFleur, was a good summation of how this all came together for Green Bay.
It was Love’s day, sure, after three years of waiting. But it was a lot of other guys’ days, too.
“Losing Christian Watson, that’s one of our most explosive players on offense,” LaFleur says. “And you lose him and just like we saw the other night with the Chiefs when [Patrick] Mahomes lost [Travis] Kelce, that’s a big deal. So I think going into the game, we were trying to lean more on the run game, and there was some good and some bad in there. But I think, ultimately, it helped eventually open some stuff up in the pass game.
“We hit that lead to Musgrave, we hit Aaron Jones on the play-pass screen for 51 yards. So there was a lot of big plays that came off our run game. Although it wasn’t going great at times, it was enough.”
Point being, it took everyone. And because it took everyone, Love didn’t have to do too much. And because of Green Bay’s roster, everyone will be enough most weeks. And what’s great is that, as LaFleur sees it, there’s a lot to love about everyone, with the group that he and GM Brian Gutekunst have put around their young quarterback.
“It’s a bunch of good dudes that come to work every day with a good attitude,” LaFleur says. “There’s a youthful energy with our group, because we do have a lot of young guys. The locker room was as cool as I’ve ever seen it postgame. Those guys were all dancing, having a hell of a time. They were excited.”
While LaFleur refrained from jumping in on the dancing—he joked he’ll wait to show the guys his moves—he was excited, too.
And, yet, there’s also the reality that this was one week.
There’ll come a time, of course, when the Packers need to lean on their quarterback more than they did Sunday. The good news is if the Bears game showed LaFleur something about Love, it’s that when that time comes, the moment won’t be too big for the guy charged with taking over for a legend.
“I can see the growth and maturity that’s occurred over the last three years, sitting and waiting,” LaFleur says. “He’s a lot different dude than when he first got here. And that’s natural. He’s 24 right now and he was 21 when we got him. You’re going to grow. You have to grow up fast in this league. And luckily for him, I know it wasn’t always fun because you’re a competitor and you want to get out there and you want to play and you’ve got to sit there and learn and wait, but I think he really took advantage of the situation.
“Granted, we’re early on, you’ve got to ride the wave, you’ve got to be resilient. You can’t let one game lead you either positively or negatively into the next game. You’ve got to have a short memory. But I think he understands that, and you’ve seen it. It wasn’t perfect today. It was pretty good, but it wasn’t perfect. He’ll be hard on himself and be critical of things he probably could’ve done better.”
LaFleur then paused to choose his words, and added, “I think all in all, for a first showing, it was extremely positive. … He did a really nice job.”
A lot of Packers did.
Which gave Love a heck of a starting point. And now we’ll see what’s next.
