Paul Bretl | 12/20/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers have the opportunity to clinch a playoff spot on Monday night with a win over the New Orleans Saints. The last time these two teams met was in Week 3 of the 2023 season, which isn’t all that long ago, but the Packers’ offense then versus now is night and day different–although we caught a glimpse of the potential that was there in that game.
“Just kind of reliving the game, watching it this week, it’s amazing, just especially, obviously, from the offensive standpoint, the product that we put out then, versus to where we are today, I feel like it’s, it’s night and day,” said Matt LaFleur on Thursday.
Green Bay entered that Week 3 matchup at 1-1 on the season, having come off a loss to Atlanta. Through three quarters, the Saints controlled the game, up 17-0 over the Packers. However, once the fourth quarter arrived, Jordan Love would take over.
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Love’s overall efficiency numbers in that fourth quarter aren’t going to leap off the page. He was 22-of-44 passing overall and just 7-for-18 in the fourth quarter. But when a big play was needed, Love and the offense often came through.
On those seven fourth-quarter completions, Love totaled 104 yards with a touchdown pass, along with rushing for 25 yards and another touchdown. There were also two defensive pass interference penalties totaling 67 yards in that quarter that won’t show up on the stat sheet.
“We had a lot of young players, and it’s not just, it’s not just on the quarterback. But he did an unbelievable job, I would say, in the second half of that game, particularly in the fourth quarter of making some big time plays. I mean, you know, on the final drive, obviously that two point play was critical. We’d scored on a fourth and one right before that. So he made a lot of great plays throughout the course of that game.”
The Packers had three fourth quarter possessions in that game and scored on all of them. The first was an Anders Carlson field goal to cut the deficit to 17-3. On the next drive, the Packers went 80 yards in seven plays, taking only 1:29 off the clock and capped off the touchdown drive with Love going off-script on the two-point conversion play to find Samori Toure in the end zone.
Now, trailing 17-11, the Green Bay defense forced another quick punt, giving Love the ball back. The Packers followed that up with another 80 yard touchdown drive that lasted nine plays and took just 2:27. All of sudden, just like that, the Packers had a 18-17 lead with under two minutes remaining.
“Anytime you face some adversity like that and you’re able to overcome it, it just helps you grow,” said Christian Watson of the comeback. “It helps the individuals of this team grow and our team as a whole grow. So it was definitely huge for development as a team.”
Following this win, the Packers found themselves at 2-1 on the season, but that fourth quarter performance, while impressive, was far from the turning point in the season for a young Packers’ offense.
Green Bay would go on to lose four in a row and it wasn’t until the team’s Week 10 matchup in Pittsburgh that Matt LaFleur would start to really feel the tide begin to turn on the offensive side of the ball.
With that said, what that early season matchup with New Orleans did showcase was the resiliency of this Packers team to bounce back and fight to the end, along with the big play potential and ability to put up points quickly. There is also something to be said for being able to come through in those key, must-have-it moments, as Love did on that Sunday.
“That game definitely meant a lot to everybody in the locker room, and I think it just showed our ability to stay together,” said Jordan Love at his locker on Thursday.
“Obviously it was not a great game, not a great starter for us and I think just everybody staying together and nobody flinching being down 17 and to be able to come back and just chip away at that lead and take it one play at a time, I think it helped us going forward and gave everybody that mindset that no matter what the situation is, what the score might be that we can come back from anything, so I think that definitely helped us a lot.”
Fast forward about 15 months, and after a late-season surge in 2023 that got Green Bay to 9-8 and into the playoffs as the NFC’s seventh seed, the Packers are now 10-4 this season and have one of the highest-scoring offenses in football at 27.1 points per game and a unit that, throughout the season, has been one of the best at generating big plays.
As good as the home stretch last season was for Love and the offense, LaFleur believes that right now, Love is playing the best football of his career. Since Week 11, the Packers’ first game out of the bye week, Love is completing 68.7% of his passes, which is the eighth-best mark during that span. He also leads the NFL in yards per pass attempt at 9.9 and has thrown eight touchdowns to just one interception.
“This is the best ball he’s played,” LaFleur said of Love. “Just when I look at all the little things like I explained the other day, in terms of his ability to manipulate the pocket when he’s under duress, getting the ball to his checkdowns, or whatever it may be, I think he’s playing at a really high level.”
As always, there are numerous factors contributing to that success, which includes improved decision-making from Love, the fact that he’s healthy, along with having Josh Jacobs and a strong run game to lean on. However, as we saw in the offense’s performance against Seattle last Sunday, with four empty possessions in the second half that included a fumble, two punts, and a turnover on downs that in total lasted just 15 plays, this Green Bay offense is still in search of that elusive four quarter performance as well.
With injuries, this hasn’t been the same Saints’ defense in 2024 that ranked 10th in points per game allowed last season. However, this group still has the ability to get after the quarterback, with Chase Young and Carl Granderson each above the 55-pressure mark this season, not to mention that New Orleans ranks tied for eighth in interceptions.
“They’ve just been playing tough defense,” said LaFleur of New Orleans. “They’ve always had a pretty formidable front seven, and I would say that still remains true. And then they got guys that can take the ball away in the back, and they really challenge you. I think (Alontae) Taylor’s a really good corner. Obviously, the Honey Badger, he knows how to get the ball away. So they’ve got, they still got great players back there.”