Reporting by Pete Dougherty, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Packers News
It’s still quite a ways from here to there. But if Jordan Love keeps playing like he has the past couple of weeks, it’s not out of the question.
Love conjured visions of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers in their primes in the Packers’ 45-27 blowout of the New England Patriots on Sunday, Nov. 8.
Time and again, Love put downfield throws right on the money on his way to putting up a 153.2 rating, which is just below the maximum 158.3. He had a hot hand early, a hot hand in the middle and a hot hand late in running the Patriots off their home field.
“When you’ve got a quarterback playing the way Jordan Love’s playing, you’re just dialing up the plays,” is how coach Matt LaFleur put it after the Packers’ win.
In back-to-back games now, a 27-19 win over Carolina last week and then against the Patriots, Love has put up a combined 127.1 rating.
His numbers during the Packers’ five wins over the past six weeks aren’t quite as lofty (106.0), but there’s no denying Love has been the main reason the banged-up Packers were staying afloat at 5-3 entering this game. Then against the Patriots, he took it to another big-play level with seven completions that ranged from 24 yards to 49 yards, all to either Matthew Golden (10 catches for 164 yards) or Christian Watson (7 for 171).
All those big plays led directly to the Packers putting up points, including throws of 24 yards to Golden and 43 to Watson on back-to-back plays in the second quarter. They were part of a three-play, 69-yard second drive that put the Packers up 24-7.
Love also connected on an exquisite back-shoulder throw to Savion Williams for a 10-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter that pretty much put the Patriots away at 31-14.
As he had earlier this season, Love described himself as being in a flow state, and this one really was otherworldly.
“Flowing,” he said, “that’s what it feels like, it feels like you’re in that flow state and just finding ways to get guys the ball. It feels like you’re flowing, it’s a great feeling and you just want to keep chasing every play and making big plays. I think I made some good throws, but guys were making some pretty cool catches as well. We’ve just got to keep building on that.”
What a different place the Packers are in than right after Week 3, when they were blown off their own home field by Atlanta, 35-14. Since then, they’ve won five of six, but there were some caveats. For instance, they beat Tampa Bay without Baker Mayfield, and Chicago without Caleb Williams.
But in this game, the Packers destroyed a New England team that entered the game 5-3 and having won four of its past five, just as the Packers had.
Love wasn’t flawless, but he wasn’t far off in badly outplaying his counterpart Drake Maye, who was in the running for league MVP last season. Love completed 23 of his 29 passes, threw for three touchdowns, ran for another and didn’t turn the ball over. Maye (74.3 rating), on the other hand, was 21-for-38 and threw three interceptions.
This game was the culmination of what the Packers offense has been much of the season. Love and coach Matt LaFleur love to push the ball downfield, and once they started against the Patriots, they didn’t stop.
The Packers are a big-play offense with two outside receivers in Watson and Golden who can run behind defensive backs and track the ball when Love delivers over the top.
“Tonight was just kind of the epitome of everything we’ve been putting work in for,” Love said.
Said Golden: “This is fun, playing this type of football. We’re gonna take chances, we’re gonna throw the ball deep and see what our playmakers are going to do. That’s what we’re doing, coming down, making plays, impacting the game the way we can.”
Remember the days early in Love’s starting tenure when he kept missing deep throws? Now it seems laughable that his deep accuracy was a major concern.
“Can’t say enough about it,” LaFleur said. “Those are low-percentage throws in theory, but he’s making them look high percentage. They’re right on the money, and our guys are doing a great job. There were multiple times right on the sideline where it’s these bang-bang plays and our guys are coming down with it.”
And the fact is, Love did it against a well-coached team that has one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks in Christian Gonzalez. Love, Golden and Watson were just too explosive for the Patriots to contain. In fact, the 45 points the Packers put up was the most an opposing team has had in the 25 years the Patriots have been playing at Gillette Stadium.
“Unbelievable,” Packers safety Evan Williams said. “Most points at Gillette Stadium in history. It makes it so easy on us. Sometimes we wish we’d run the ball a little bit, eat a little bit of that clock. But when you’re putting points on the board like 10 is, it just makes it so easy on the back end. It puts the offense in positions they don’t want to be in.”
These Packers are willing to live and die by the deep ball. In a sequence that summed up LaFleur’s mind-set, the Packers recovered a fumble by running back Rhamondre Stevenson at the Patriots’ 39. And on the very next play, Love took a deep shot down the middle of the field to Watson for a 39-yard touchdown.
“Love being aggressive,” Love said of that play call. “I love the way Matt called the game tonight, just really keeping his foot on the gas, trusting us to make plays. It’s one of those, the call comes in and you don’t know what coverage is going to happen, then you see it post-snap and you go, this is perfect right here. Obviously it’s a great concept vs. coverage and Christian did a great job being able to outrun guys.”
So the Packers pass the halfway point of the season at 6-3, which they have to feel good about considering they were 1-2 coming off that abysmal home loss to the Falcons in a game that now seems like it was several months ago.
They also have a quarterback who has a hot hand and, as this franchise has seen over the past 35 years, that can take a team a long way. The question is whether Love can sustain the level of play he’s built up through half a season.
They don’t hand out MVP trophies halfway through seasons, and it’s not like Love is the leading candidate at this point. There’s Cincinnati’s Joe Burrrow, Buffalo’s Josh Allen, San Francisco’s Brock Purdy, Chicago’s Caleb Williams and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, among others.
But this game at least puts Love in the conversation with half a season to go. And while it’s a long way from here to there, the idea of the Packers going from one MVP quarterback in Favre to a drafting another as his successor in Rodgers, and now to have Rodgers’ drafted successor getting into the conversation, well, it’s a little mind-boggling.
“I’d agree with that,” LaFleur said of Love being an MVP candidate. “Because he’s standing in there, he’s taking hits, and he’s still dealing the ball.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Could the Packers possibly have another MVP quarterback in Jordan Love? | Pete Dougherty
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