Jordan Love Delivers First Legendary Moment as Packers Beat Saints

With the Green Bay Packers facing a 17-0 deficit in the fourth quarter, Jordan Love led three consecutive scoring drives to stun the New Orleans Saints.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In the hallway connecting the Green Bay Packers’ locker room to the Lambeau Field playing surface, there is a series of photos hanging on each wall. They commemorate some of the legendary moments in the stadium’s history.

One of them is from 2018. Playing against the Chicago Bears to kick off the season, Aaron Rodgers was sacked midway through the second quarter. Rodgers went down and stayed down. He limped off the field and was driven to the locker room.

On the final play of the first half, Rodgers’ backup, DeShone Kizer, threw a pick-six to Khalil Mack that gave the Bears a 17-0 lead.

Chicago got the ball to open the second half and extended the lead to 20-0. Out came Rodgers, despite having sustained a tibial plateau fracture and sprained MCL, to lead a legendary comeback. His four second-half possessions ended with a field goal, touchdown, touchdown and touchdown. Rodgers threw for 273 yards and three touchdowns during the second half.

On Sunday, Jordan Love led a historic comeback that also might hang among Lambeau’s legendary moments.

With the Packers trailing 17-0 through three quarters, Love led the Packers to a shocking 18-17 victory over the New Orleans Saints. Facing one of the best defenses in the NFL and playing without four starters, Love’s final three possessions ended in a field goal, touchdown (with two-point conversion) and touchdown.

“I think it’s just confidence for our whole team, the way we were able to stick together,” Love said. “Nobody flinched. To be able to put up a comeback win like that, down 17, I think that’s just a huge confidence booster for our whole team. More importantly to bounce back off the loss we had last week, I think that’s a huge confidence booster. It brought us all together a little bit closer today.”

The numbers weren’t quite as mind-blowing as Rodgers in 2018. In fact, during those three consecutive scoring drives, he completed only 7-of-16 passes for 104 yards. But the clutch play, which he lacked last week at Atlanta, came through again and again.

Packers QB Jordan Love throws a pass against the Saints :: Photo by Tork Mason/USA Today Sports Images

With the Packers on life support, Love ripped back-to-back completions to Jayden Reed and Romeo Doubs for a total of 39 yards. While the drive stalled, Anders Carlson’s 38-yard field goal made it 17-3.

Next, Love needed just 89 seconds to get the Packers a touchdown. Back-to-back interference penalties gained 67 yards – yards that don’t show up in his passing total. On third-and-10 from the 13, he found Reed for 11 to the 2. Three plays gained about a foot, setting up a do-or-die fourth-and-goal from the 1.

Love faked the handoff and kept it on a zone read. It was Love against All-Pro linebacker Demario Davis, one-on-one, at about the 2. Love evaded Davis for the critical touchdown.

“It’s 1-on-1. It’s really who wants it more,” Love said. “I saw him right there kind of late, he was flying over and I just knew I had to make him miss. I really wanted to get in the end zone right there and I just knew I wasn’t going to be stopped.”

At the urging of assistant quarterbacks coach Connor Lewis, coach Matt LaFleur’s right-hand man on game-management issues, the Packers went for two.

“I have a lot of belief in the way our quarterback was playing,” LaFleur said. “He was making off-schedule plays. … The way they were pass protecting, I thought if the initial read isn’t there, we’ve got a guy that can go off-schedule. That’s what happened, it went off schedule.”

Love went through his progressions. With things breaking down, Samori Toure got open on the left side for the deuce that made it 17-11.

From there, the momentum was like an avalanche. After the defense forced a three-and-out punt, the Packers took over at their 20 with 5:23 remaining.

For their all-or-nothing final drive last week at Atlanta, the Packers couldn’t get a first down. Against the Saints, a quick 9-yard completion to Dontayvion Wicks set up a third-down conversion by AJ Dillon. Up next, Love scrambled for 24. Just when it appeared he was headed out of bounds near the first-down marker, Love kept going up the sideline.

“I was able to get out of the pocket and took off and was running down the sideline,” Love said. “I’m not sure exactly who it was, but one of the receivers was able to get a block on the DB and kind of pinned him inside, so I was able to stay in bounds and tip-toe down the sideline and get some extra yards. So, credit to, I’m not sure exactly who it was on the sideline, but he made a good play for us.”

Jordan Love celebrates the Packers' win over the Saints :: Jordan Love (Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images)

That someone was Doubs, who would make another good play later. But first, on second-and-10, Reed – who dropped a pass earlier in the series – made an incredible, head-long, diving catch for a gain of 30 to the 15. Moments later, on third-and-3, Love threw a back-shoulder touchdown pass to Doubs, who made a superb catch against tight coverage by Isaac Yiadom for the deciding touchdown.

It was Doubs’ 12th target of the day. He caught only five but made the play that mattered.

“Romeo makes plays all the time down there,” Love said. “That’s kind of our bread and butter. He’s a great receiver who’s going to go up and he has super-strong hands and he’s going to come down with it.

“So, it wasn’t working for us a couple times, but that’s something we’ve just got to keep going at it. I feel like if we keep going, one of them’s going to hit, and that’s what we did. I’ve got all the faith and trust in the world in Romeo that he’s going to go up and make that play, so I’m going to keep feeding him.”

The extra point gave the Packers the 18-17 lead, and they survived when Blake Grupe missed a 46-yard field goal with 1:10 to play.

It was a milestone win for Love, even if nobody seemed particularly surprised.

“Man, we’ve always had belief,” outside linebacker Rashan Gary said. “That’s really the outside noise that don’t believe J-Love. We see him. We come to work every day and we see what he puts in. He’s a guy that keeps doing it. He’s got everybody’s support in this building from top down.”

Love finished the day 22-of-44 passing. His passer rating of 66.4 was about 50 points less than the first two games. Nobody cares about 22 incompletions, though. When it mattered, Love delivered his first signature moment.

Who knows. If Love progresses into the next great quarterback, perhaps a photo from his magical performance will hang alongside other legendary Lambeau Field moments.

“It’s always a great learning experience, the highs and the lows, but it’s a complete [180] off last week – blowing a lead and then, obviously, this week just sticking together and coming back from being down a lot. It’s a credit to the whole team sticking together. But there’s a lot of things we can learn from, clean up, go watch the film and bounce back for next week.”

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