Another Interception by Jordan Love Means Another Home Loss for Packers

The Green Bay Packers lost 24-14 to the Detroit Lions on Sunday. On a day filled with mistakes, none were bigger than Jordan Love’s killer pick-six.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) gets up after throwing his pick-six against the Detroit Lions. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur found yet another question about yet another interception by Jordan Love “annoying.”

A second home loss of the season to an NFC North rival is annoying. A third consecutive loss at Lambeau Field to the Detroit Lions is annoying, too.

The Packers lost 24-14 on Sunday. It was death by a million self-inflicted cuts, but Love’s pick-six late in the first half was the slash across the throat.

With Monday night’s game between the Buccaneers and Chiefs yet to be played, Love has thrown a league-high 10 interceptions. Seattle’s Geno Smith has thrown 10 interceptions, as well, but Love missed two-and-a-half games due to injuries and Smith has thrown 102 more passes.

Love has thrown at least one interception in every game. He’s thrown an interception in all seven games, tied for the longest current streak in the NFL and longer than any streak in Aaron Rodgers’ career. He’s thrown two pick-sixes – as many as Rodgers in his first dozen years as Green Bay’s starter.

Late in the first half, with the Packers trailing 10-3, Love faced pressure from Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone. Maybe a healthy Love could have gotten out of the pocket. Maybe if it wasn’t raining, Love would have had better control over the ball.

Regardless, neither the injury nor the elements impacted the decision of floating the pass to Josh Jacobs. Lions safety Kerby Joseph was there for the interception and 27-yard return for a touchdown. Just like that, it was 17-3.

“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,” Love said. “It was a checkdown to him and the ball did not go where I wanted it to. They made a good play on it.”

With Detroit set to get the ball to start the second half, the game essentially was over.

“He was trying to make a play,” LaFleur said. “He was under duress there. I think he saw Josh. Obviously, Joseph picked it off. He’s one of the best safeties in the league. … You can’t do that against those guys. Joseph made a great play and that was a big-time play in the game.”

Love said he never saw Joseph.

“Yeah, critical error,” Love said.

The Packers made a bunch of critical errors. They failed to catch the ball. They failed to play with discipline. They failed in the red zone.

And yet they might have had a chance had Love done the sensible thing and thrown the ball into a puddle. It was a mistake reminiscent of the pick-six at the Rams and on the heels of three interceptions in the NFC North loss to the Vikings and two interceptions in the home win ove the Texans.

“I understand [the questions],” LaFleur said. “It’s really annoying up here, though. Obviously, he’s fighting, he’s competing and we know that we’ve got to take care of the football. But I don’t question anything about what he’s trying to do. We just got to do it better.”

On the risk-reward spectrum, LaFleur and Love seem comfortable pressing the issue. Of course, there’s a sweep spot between being aggressive and overaggressive that Love and LaFleur are having trouble finding.

“I think that’s a fine line,” LaFleur said. “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.”

Love has thrown 10 interceptions this season compared to 11 last season even while throwing 339 fewer passes.

Quarterback growth isn’t a linear process, but the presumptive Year 1 to Year 2 jump as a starter has been more backward than forward. Love was exceptional down the stretch last year, when he was as good as any quarterback in the NFL. With those heightened expectations, he’s been one of the big disappointments to start this season, though.

Perhaps the upcoming bye will provide the reset Love needs to turn his season around and maximize the team’s potential.

“It’s definitely disappointing,” Love said. “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 got to learn from these mistakes and clean it up. Definitely something that I’m going to make a big focus on going forward, of just finding ways to take care of the ball better.”

More Green Bay Packers News 

Call Chicken Little because the sky is falling.

Ok, not really, but this stock report is not kind - and that starts with the $220 million dollar man. https://t.co/6eIEQbBHAJ

— Jacob Westendorf (@JacobWestendorf) November 4, 2024

Packers-Lions: Stock report | Packers-Lions: Game story | Packers-Lions: Live updates | Packers-Lions: Highlights | Packers-Lions inactives | Packers wary of Lions’ trickery | Packers-Lions in a monsoon | Three reasons why Packers will beat the Lions | Three reasons why Packers will lose to Lions | Q&A with Salute to Service nominee, Lukas Van Ness