After Sharp Joint Practice vs. Ravens, Love Says Packers Are Ready

Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers’ passing attack delivered a strong performance against arguably the best defense in the NFL at Thursday’s joint practice.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) runs through a drill during a joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday. / Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK

GREEN BAY, Wis. – It’s practice, to quote the noted philosopher Allen Iverson, but Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love torched the Baltimore Ravens’ top-ranked pass defense during Thursday’s joint practice.

With that, regardless of whether he faces the Ravens’ backups in Saturday’s preseason finale at Lambeau Field, Love proclaimed himself and the offense ready for Week 1 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

“I feel like the team as a whole, we’re definitely ready,” Love said. “It’s been a great training camp. We definitely got better every day, I feel like. Obviously, there’s mistakes and things like that that happen, but we were able to learn from those. I feel like we’re definitely ready to go.”

Beyond the obvious things like completions, touchdowns and interceptions, what has Love seen to make him believe the team is ready to face the powerhouse Eagles in two weeks in Brazil?

“It’s all a feel thing and feeling where guys are at,” Love said. “When we get back to meetings, what type of mistakes were made? Are we making mental mistakes or is it just more, all right, this wasn’t a great concept vs. what the defense is doing? Things like that.

“If we can limit all of the mistakes and we’re out there making plays, flying around and having good days like today against a great defense, I think that’s the bar. You never really know until you get out there, but we’re just trying to be as ready as we can be.”

After an up-and-down training camp – Thursday’s practice was the 18th and final one with full-speed periods of the summer – Love was sharp against arguably the best defense in the NFL.

Last season, the Ravens ranked first in points allowed, first in opponent passer rating, first in yards allowed per passing play and fourth in sack percentage. Love, however, had one of his best days of camp after a sharp day on Tuesday, as well.

By our count, he was 17-of-26 passing with four touchdowns and one interception.

Love’s second pass of a third-down period was intercepted by linebacker Patrick Queen. He came back with one of his best passes of the day, a bullet to Romeo Doubs over the middle that might have been a 60-yard touchdown had the sure-handed Doubs not dropped the ball.

There were two scripted red-zone periods with down-and-distance and line of scrimmage predetermined. The first, with the ball starting near the 20-yard line, resulted in Love going 2-of-3. The second completion was to Doubs for a gain of about 15 inside the 5.

The second red-zone period started with the ball inside the 10-yard line. Love threw four passes, and they resulted in touchdowns to Tucker Kraft on a screen, Doubs on a second-reaction pass to the pylon, Christian Watson on a fade against All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton and Doubs again on an out.

“I think it’s all about the play we got vs. what they’re doing,” Love said. “We’ve run all these plays throughout camp a good amount vs. our defense. Just being able to see a different defense and see somebody who hasn’t really seen some of the stuff we’re doing and just trying to see if we execute it at 100 percent. That’s what we did out there.

“I threw a couple of plays that were contested and guys were able to come down with the ball and make some great catches down there. Down there, it’s all about making plays.”

Practice ended with a 2-minute drill. The Packers’ No. 1 offense failed miserably in two opportunities at Denver. Against Baltimore, Green Bay got the field goal needed to tie the score. Love started the drive with completions of 20 yards to Jayden Reed to midfield and 37 yards to Doubs to the 13.

The drive stalled when the Ravens blew up a screen. Love’s third-and-14 pass to Dontayvion Wicks in the back of the end zone couldn’t have been thrown any better, but the coverage was tight and safety Ar’Darius Washington might have gotten his hand in there to prevent a touchdown.

So, after a training camp filled with a lot of push-ups after losing to the defense in the daily competitive periods, a three-snap touchdown in the preseason opener at Cleveland and a disappointing practice at Denver, Love and Co. say they’re ready for the Eagles in two weeks.

“Training camp is training camp,” Love said. “It’s just trying to build every day and learn from every rep you get.

“The pushups, things like that, the defense, they got us on a couple of drills, whether it’s 2-minute drill during the competition periods, It’s just one of those things where it sucks doing pushups, but I think at the end of the day it’s good on good and we’re both getting better. Whether the outcome is us doing pushups or the defense doing pushups, who really cares? It’s just one of those things where we’re learning and getting better every day.”

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The #Packers have a new defensive lineman - as reported by @_MLFootball and others - and he's from Madison.https://t.co/n0LDzEiN0H

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) August 22, 2024

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