Packer Central

Love Injures Leg Against Eagles; Status Uncertain

Green Bay Packers QB Jordan Love sustained a leg injury during the closing moments of Friday night’s loss to the Eagles. Coach Matt LaFleur had no update while online speculation varied.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) is assisted off the field after an injury during the fourth quarter in Brazil.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) is assisted off the field after an injury during the fourth quarter in Brazil. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – In a case of adding injury to insult, Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love suffered a leg injury during the closing moments of the team’s 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday night.

The severity of the injury was unknown after the game. In his postgame radio interview with Larry McCarren, coach Matt LaFleur said: “I don’t know. We’re waiting. Obviously, very concerned about it. We’ll wait to find out when we do more tests.”

The fate of a season filled with Super Bowl aspirations will hinge on those tests, though there was a feeling on Saturday morning that Love avoided a catastrophic injury.

Until an MRI, X-rays and the like are complete, speculation filled the void.

UPDATE: Here is the latest on Jordan Love, including some good news

Dr. David Chao, a former team physician for the Chargers and the man behind Sports Injury Central, thought Love had suffered a high-ankle sprain.

In an article on SIC, Chao via his video analysis thought the ankle injury is the “bigger deal” than a potential knee injury that happened simultaneously. He said there is “no worry” of a torn ACL.

“The injury appears less severe since it affects his front leg, which is not as crucial for pushing off as his back leg,” Chao wrote. “This detail could play an important role in determining his availability for future games.”

Other physicians making an online diagnosis, such as Dr. Jesse Morse, feared an ACL injury.

“If you slow it down, I believe you can see a pop or a shift (in Love’s knee),” Morse said. “At the minimum, this is an MCL sprain. My primary concern, unfortunately, is ACL.”

According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the ankle is not the biggest issue.

LaFleur had nothing to offer during his postgame news conference. Asked twice about Love, all he said was, “I don’t know.”

With the Packers in the air overnight and with the planes, obviously, not including an MRI machine, there were no updates on Love's status as of Saturday morning. ACL injuries, for what it's worth, typically are diagnosed on the field.

The Packers trailed 34-29 when they started at their 16-yard line with 22 seconds remaining. On the first play, Love booted hard to his left and hit Jayden Reed for a gain of 33. Suddenly, the Packers had life.

However, on first down, Love stepped up in the pocket and was grabbed by defensive tackle Jalen Carter. Love wriggled free but was met immediately by defensive end Josh Sweat.

Lying on the ground, Carter grabbed Love by the left shin. Love lateraled the ball backward to running back Josh Jacobs as Carter had Love by the leg and Sweat took Love to the turf. The injury happened with Love’s ankle trapped under Carter.

Love was in obvious pain as the training staff came to his aid.

With the game complete, Love walked off the field with the help of a trainer and running back Josh Jacobs.

“Obviously, you don’t want to see any of your teammates get hurt (and), obviously, you don’t want to see the leader of your team get hurt,” Jacobs said. “We don’t know the severity of his injury but, hopefully, he’s OK.”

Chao, who had the more optimistic diagnosis, thought there was a chance Love will play in next week’s home opener against the Indianapolis Colts, though with limited mobility.

Love started all 17 games last season plus both playoff contests.

“We know what kind of guy he is, how he approaches everything,” receiver Christian Watson said. “Whatever it is, I know he’s going to get through it. We’re going to get through it. Let God take care of the rest. I’m not sure right now.”

Coming off a superb second half of last season, Love looked much more like an ordinary quarterback than a future MVP worthy of being the highest-paid player in the history of the sport.

Having played just three snaps in the preseason – way back on Aug. 10 in Cleveland – Love finished 17-of-34 passing for 260 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. It was an all-or-nothing sort of night for Love. Of his 17 completions, five gained 177 yards and the other 12 gained 83.

The Packers gained 414 yards but were a dreadful 3-of-11 on third down and 1-of-4 in the red zone.

The red-zone woes were especially damning. The defense started the game with an interception by Xavier McKinney and a fumble recovery by Devonte Wyatt, which set up the offense at the Eagles’ 19 and 13. The Packers managed only two field goals out of those possessions.

The third red-zone failure came midway through the fourth quarter, with the Packers settling for a 26-yard field goal that cut the margin to 31-29 with 7:52 remaining.

“We were pretty damned good in that area and we got destroyed in that area tonight,” a frustrated LaFleur said, adding emphasis to the word “destroyed.”

And yet, for all off that, Love would have had a chance to walk off the field a hero rather than limping off the field in agony if the defense could have gotten a stop.

Instead, the Eagles burned 7:25 off the clock and Love was injured.

“That was tough to see,” defensive tackle Kenny Clark said. “That’s the franchise right there. Hopefully, he can be back next week and he can be all right.”

The Packers have played two games outside the country. In both – 2022 against the Giants and Friday against the Eagles – the Packers lost and the starting quarterback was injured.

In 2022, with Aaron Rodgers suffering a broken thumb, the Packers lost five in a row. Given how poorly the Packers played on Friday and yet still had a chance to win, there’s a decent chance this game will be just a blip on the radar.

So long as Love can play.

“There were too many times that we shot ourselves in the foo,” Watson said. “Pre-snap penalties, execution in the red zone. We know what we’re capable of. We’re going to be critical of ourselves in the film room. Got to move on and try to go win next week. We knew we were capable of winning that game. We just had to execute better.”

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Bill Huber

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packer Central, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.