Packers: Breaking down Jordan Love’s performance vs. Lions
Jordan Love saw meaningful action (albeit in a meaningless game) for just the second time in his Green Bay Packers career yesterday against the Detroit Lions.
Love took over for Aaron Rodgers at the beginning of the second half. His box score read: 10/17, 134 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, 64.0 passer rating
You know by now that box scores tell just a fraction of the entire story. So let’s take a detailed look at Love’s second-half action from Sunday afternoon.
It’s time to remove bias surrounding Jordan Love
Before we begin, let me first state how important it is to separate Jordan Love, the player, from Jordan Love, the draft pick.
The decision to draft Love divided the Packers fanbase. But that doesn’t mean you have to hold the grudge forever. Has any player ever been subjected to as much undue criticism before playing… three games?
On the other end of the spectrum, even if you think Love is the next legendary Packers franchise quarterback, that doesn’t mean he’s God’s gift to Wisconsin. He’s going to make mistakes, and it’s okay to accept he has imperfections. Let’s begin.
Love’s decision making blew me away
Starting off with by far the most impressive element of Love’s game on Sunday. Those decision-making concerns from his Utah State film were nowhere to be found.
Every pass Love attempted was the correct one — and that’s huge! Even on the two-point attempt when he was under duress and nobody was open, Love had the wherewithal to give Amari Rodgers a chance to make a play on the ball when the Lions had everybody clamped up.
Love read all of his RPOs correctly, didn’t make a single throw into double coverage and even took a read-option keeper into the end zone. This should be a major source of optimism for the Packers.
Identifying pressure and getting the ball out fast
The Lions didn’t blitz Love often, but when they did he was in complete control. Detroit sent a six-man rush twice, and Love managed to efficiently dump the ball to the flats without much stress on each occasion.
This is a marked improvement from the game in Kansas City, when Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo made Love look like a deer in the headlights as he relentlessly sent his linebackers after the debuting quarterback.
It’s areas like these where learning behind Aaron Rodgers really comes to light. You may also have noticed Love drawing the Lions offsides on fourth-and-2. That play was met with applause from the reigning MVP on the sideline.
Effectively operating the quick passing game
Matt LaFleur’s quick game offense is terrific for simplifying the game for young quarterbacks. Love hit each of his three receivers — Juwann Winfree, Amari Rodgers and Equanimeous St. Brown — on accurate throws from three-step drops.
He showed solid anticipation on out routes, and had pretty good timing with his receivers. Those first-team reps while Aaron Rodgers wasn’t practicing likely helped him out a lot in this department.
If #10 is the guy in Green Bay going forward, the quick game will remain a staple of LaFleur’s offense.
A should-be touchdown to Tyler Davis
It’s a shame that this play will be forgotten forever, because it was a tremendous throw. Rolling to his right out of the pocket off play-action, Love floated a beauty over the head of a trailing defender and into the hands of rarely-used TE Tyler Davis.
I wouldn’t call this an egregious drop given the circumstances (tight coverage on Davis) but it was a drop nonetheless.
Love was reprimanded with a touchdown pass to Josiah Deguara. It was nothing more than a routine screen pass from the quarterback. So at least that balanced out the TD number on the stat sheet.
The deep incompletion to Equanimeous St. Brown
We’re all spoiled with the privilege of watching Aaron Rodgers every week, but it’s clear that Love isn’t anything special when he’s got a pass rusher in his face — and that’s okay! Very, very few quarterbacks can make these throws.
I thought Love’s pocket presence was solid. He knew when he had to get rid of the ball, and he did. But pressure cost him twice inside the final two minutes, and his offensive line was at fault on both occasions.
Equanimeous St. Brown knifed through the middle of the field on a post route from the slot, beating what appeared to be Cover 7 man-match coverage.
The safety to St. Brown’s side of the field was caught cheating towards the boundary, and a vital chunk play was on the cards. The only issue? Yosh Nijman was beaten straight up and the pressure caused Love’s throw to hang too far inside, allowing the mispositioned safety to recover and break up the pass.
Breaking down the game-sealing interceptions
The Packers were granted two late opportunities to get back in this game. On the first one, Love got brutally unlucky on a slant to Amari Rodgers.
A tip at the line altered the ball’s trajectory, causing it to knuckle, and Amari Rodgers was unable to haul it in. The ball fell perfectly for the Lions who had multiple defenders in the area. This was just sheer bad luck more than anything, you can’t decipher anything from this.
The second interception harkens back to my previous point about throwing under pressure. This time, Royce Newman allowed a stunting end to breeze right through the interior and into Love mid-throw.
One play earlier, Love delivered an accurate ball from a clean pocket to St. Brown on a dig route, so Love went right back to it. However, this time the pressure caused Love to miss the throw high and into the waiting arms of the deep safety.
Obviously some of the blame has to go to the quarterback for this play, but the number of QBs capable of making this throw is less than 15. The offensive line — and Royce Newman in particular — is the primary culprit for this game-ending play.
Final thoughts on Love and Packers
In the limited action we’ve seen, Jordan Love hasn’t been anything special. But neither was Aaron Rodgers in his first two years with the Packers.
Love has shown significant development from his Utah State days, and if he didn’t get so unlucky in this game, maybe the perception of him would be very different. Remember he was out there with a backup offensive line, throwing to fringe roster players against a starting NFL defense, albeit the Lions.
I’m optimistic about Jordan Love. He’s got a decent chance of becoming a viable starting quarterback next season, whether that’s in Green Bay or somewhere else. But whether or not he’ll ever be a top-five caliber quarterback remains to be seen.
If Aaron Rodgers signs an extension this offseason, my guess is that the Packers will look to hold onto Love, unless he requests a trade. In that case, GM Brian Gutekunst may offer Love the liberty to move into a starting role for some other team in exchange for a second-round draft pick.