Jordan Love is passing every test. In the first seven series of the Saints-Packers home-opener for Green Bay Sunday, Jordan Love went 0-for-7 in productivity. Four punts, two failed fourth-down conversions and an interception, all in the game’s first 47 minutes. These are the times that try a quarterback’s soul—and the times a quarterback has to just forget it and move on to the next series.
Love will be linked to Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers forever, or at least as long as he’s the Packers’ quarterback, the third in a 32-season line of quarterbacks that have kept the Packers relevant for a third of a century. At least early in his career, Love has something in common with Favre and Rodgers: they’ve all beaten the Bears, and they’ve been good (mostly) in crunch time when needed.
In the final 13 minutes, Love went field goal-TD-TD, capping the last drive with clutch completions to Jayden Reed and Romeo Doubs to pull out an 18-17 win. His 30-yard throw up the seam for Reed was a great throw and better catch; his eight-yard throw to Doubs was perfectly placed.
“I didn’t feel nervous at all,” Love said from the Packers’ locker room. “I just stayed even, trusted the team and trusted what we were doing and kept pounding away. That’s what everyone did. When you’re down like that you gotta make plays, and everyone was confident we would. I could feel it.”
Interesting, the similarities (other than accuracy) in the first three Packer starts of the last three starting quarterbacks:
- Favre, 1992: 2-1, 70.5 percent accuracy, 709 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT, 98.1 rating.
- Rodgers, 2008: 2-1, 64.6 percent accuracy, 796 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT, 102.9 rating.
- Love, 2023: 2-1, 53.1 percent accuracy, 655 yards, 7 TD, 1 INT, 94.8 rating.
Love’s got miles to go before he sleeps, of course. But he’s started well. Most importantly, he’s been cool when the games get hot. That’s something you’d better be able to do in the NFL or you won’t last long.