Twenty consecutive completions. Three touchdown passes and a 134.2 passer rating. Off-platform, off-script, it didn't matter. Jordan Love went full Aaron Rodgers, delivering an MVP performance while everything came crashing down around him.
From two missed field goals to costly penalties and coverage breakdowns, the Green Bay Packers spent the first half trying to gift the Pittsburgh Steelers a victory on Sunday Night Football. But like Rodgers had to do so many times while wearing green and gold, Love put the game in his own hands and made a statement with arguably his greatest regular-season performance.
Rodgers might've felt proud had he not been standing on the enemy sideline watching Super Love lead the Packers to a comeback win.
Jordan Love lifts Packers to statement victory over Aaron Rodgers' Steelers on SNF
Green Bay entered halftime trailing by nine, having wasted Love's efforts to get them in field-goal range on two separate occasions. Keisean Nixon had a nightmare first half, and all signs pointed toward Rodgers getting one over on his former team.
Love took that out of his hands.
The run game sputtered along in the first half, but once Matt LaFleur handed the keys to Love, the Packers never looked back. He didn't throw a second-half incompletion until deep into the fourth quarter.
Forget National Tight End Day. The NFL may need to rename it National Tucker Kraft Day. He dominated with seven catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns.
With Love's offense reaching another stratosphere, Micah Parsons and the defense soon followed. Parsons had one sack, Rashan Gary two, while Edgerrin Cooper reminded the world of his rise to stardom — he earned an elite 92.2 PFF grade after making two stops and forcing a fourth-quarter fumble.
But on a night all about Rodgers vs. Love, it was the apprentice who one-upped his mentor. A passing of the torch.
Many still refuse to admit it, but the Love era is well and truly here. He learned so much from Rodgers, and it's only fitting that with his teacher watching on, Love made a statement and crashed the MVP conversation.