Paul Bretl | 11/4/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — In a game that was filled with self-inflicted mistakes for this Packers team, none were bigger than the Jordan Love interception turned pick-six before halftime. Although there was still a half of football to be played, against a team of Detroit’s caliber who held a 17-3 lead and began the third quarter with the ball, climbing out of that hole was a massive undertaking for Green Bay.
On the previous drive, the Lions kicked a field goal to take a 10-3 lead. On the last few plays of that possession, the Packers used two of their timeouts to stop the clock, signaling that they wanted to have the opportunity to score before half.
Getting the ball back with 58 seconds remaining in the half, Love completed an eight-yard completion to Romeo Doubs. With the clock running and 32 seconds remaining, Love dropped back and, as he felt pressure, rolled to his right and, in doing so, twisted his body back towards the middle of the field to dump the ball off to Josh Jacobs. However, Lions’ safety Kerby Joseph–who Love did not see–was there waiting for the ball and returned it for a touchdown.
“On the interception,” said Love after the game, “I was moving out of the pocket, obviously Josh was blocking, protection, and I saw him trying to get out and was trying to dump it down. It was a check-down to him, and the ball did not go where I wanted it to. They made a good play on it.”
Along with penalties and dropped passes, interceptions thrown by Love have been a persistent issue for the Packers’ offense this season. Love is currently tied for the league-lead in interceptions with 10 this season, even though he missed two games due to an injury. To make matters worse, two of those interceptions have been returned for touchdowns, which is tied with Tennessee’s Will Levis for the most in football.
“It’s definitely disappointing,” said Love of throwing another interception. “Putting the ball in jeopardy way too many times and definitely something I have to clean up. I’ve talked about it week after week, so something I’ve just gotta learn from these mistakes and clean it up, but definitely something that I’m gonna make a big focus on going forward, of just finding ways to take care of the ball better.”
As I’ve discussed recently, both before and after the game, the Packers offense has struggled to find consistency this season. It’s been a very boom-or-bust offense this season, with the talent and ability to put up points quickly, but this is also a unit that has put themselves behind the sticks regularly, again, whether that be due to penalties, dropped passes, or off-target throws.
The negative trickle-down effect of facing second and third-and-long situations often is that the offense then becomes too pass-heavy, and to a degree, there is some predictability with that. At the end of the day, there are only so many routes that can be ran in those situations.
Love possesses a big-time arm and has the ability to make all the throws on the field, which, along with the interceptions, we’ve seen numerous examples of this season as well. He trusts what he sees and his ability to put the ball where he needs to.
But with that said, at times, and as we saw against Detroit, he looks like someone who is trying to do too much as he and the rest of the offense try to overcome the holes that the offense has put themselves in. An example of this is that five of Love’s 10 interceptions have come when he’s been blitzed.
“It just comes down to staying true with my reads,” added Love, “and if plays do go off schedule, just that fine line of being smart with the ball and not putting it in harm’s way and balance trying to make a play vs. throwing it away and living to fight another day, so I think it just comes down to staying true with my reads, like I said, making great decisions and doing a better job of just being stingy with the ball.”
In terms of games played, Love is still a relatively inexperienced player in the NFL and is working through trying to strike that balance between when to take what’s available, or sometimes just throw the ball away, and when to push the ball and be more aggressive. The answer to that question is, of course, ever-changing, depending on the situation at hand and how the defense reacts to the play call.
There’s an obvious balance that Love needs to find and is still very much searching for. A key element to what makes Love the quarterback that he is is his arm talent, so what the Packers don’t want to do is put the governor on his ability to utilize that strength. It’s not as if things have been all bad for the offense–Green Bay ranks top 10 in points per game and entered Week 9 ranked first in explosive plays generated.
If the matchup or coverage dictates that he should take a shot, he’s going to do that. Now, the mechanics and accuracy or the calculus that led to him making the decision can all be critiqued and are areas that certainly have to improve. It goes without saying, but given the situation–backed up in their own territory and with little time on the clock–Love should have never attempted that pass to Jacobs.
However, when you have a top-flight passer, you expect him to make top-flight throws, and that’s what Love is attempting to do. The process needs to be cleaned up, but I wouldn’t expect to see Love all of a sudden not pushing the ball downfield. It’s what he does really well, and with the receivers the Packers have, it’s how they can exploit opponents.
“It just comes down to playing the position at a high level, sticking to my training, sticking to the reads, like I said and just being great with those fundamentals and obviously the big plays will happen,” Love said. “Not trying to force things, but like I said, just getting back to staying true with my reads and being real disciplined and making great decisions with the ball.”
The Packers will enter the bye week at 6-3 on the season. The mistakes have run rampant throughout the first half of the season, and to some degree, that’s what this team is right now–mistake-prone. There is still time to change that narrative with eight games remaining in the season.
Due to their big play ability on offense and the defense’s propensity for forcing takeaways, the Packers have more often than not been able to overcome those miscues. However, when facing teams like Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Detroit, against those caliber of opponents, those self-inflicted errors can often be too much to overcome. If the Packers want to reach their ultimate goal, the penalties have to be cleaned up and Love has to take better care of the football.
“I think that’s a fine line,” said Matt LaFleur of Love’s play. “It’s a hard thing to really, … you always teach in the rhythm of the play. When it goes off-schedule, you’ve just got to be smart. You’ve got to be smart with the football in a one-possession game. I know he’s doing everything in his power to make the play, but sometimes, again, I gotta go back and look at it before I can give you a good answer on that.”