Even In Defeat, First Start Was ‘Huge’ For Love

Jordan Love talked about his first NFL start and much more in a Sports Illustrated exclusive.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – There’s no greater teacher than experience.

For Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love, that experience came on Nov. 7, 2021, at the Kansas City Chiefs. The teacher was Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

With reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers out with COVID, Love made his first NFL start. The venue: one of the loudest stadiums in the NFL. The opponent: the defending AFC champs. The matchup: the mastermind of what was a surging unit.

Love got crushed that day. The Packers lost 13-7 despite a masterful performance by Joe Barry’s Packers defense. Patrick Mahomes threw for only 166 yards, Tyreek Hill caught just 4-of-11 targeted throws and the Chiefs averaged just 3.1 yards per carry.

The Packers should have won. And they would have won had Love made more than a couple plays (or the special teams hadn’t delivered a performance that foreshadowed the disaster that was to come in the NFC Championship Game two-and-a-half months later).

Love completed 19-of-34 passes for 190 yards. Spagnuolo attacked relentlessly and Love had no answers. Against the blitz, Love was 7-of-18 passing for 40 yards. “They were eating us up,” he said a few times after the game. Half of those yards came on his final pass of the day, a 20-yard touchdown to Allen Lazard.

Jordan Love at the Chiefs. (Jay Biggerstaf/USA Today Sports Images)

“That game was huge,” Love told Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame. “Really, any time I was able to get on the field in a live-action game was huge and I love that, but that game particularly, you get a chance to learn and see what the game is actually like, see what it’s like when you’re getting all-out [blitzed] a lot. See what it’s like when you have a close game, you’re on the road, the stadium is loud, just the environment.

“It’s different when you’re watching on the sideline versus actually being in the game, just getting that feel for it.”

That game was Love’s first and only NFL start. Exactly 672 days later, with the offseason trade of Rodgers to the New York Jets, Love will make his debut as the Packers’ full-time starter at the Chicago Bears on Sept. 10.

Love had less than a week to get ready for the Chiefs. After three years watching Rodgers from the sideline, Love will have had a full offseason and training camp to get ready for the Bears and everything that’s to come over the next four-plus months.

“It’s definitely what I’ve kind of been waiting for,” Love told Verderame. “It’s one of those things, and he [Rodgers] talked about it, too, everybody kind of knew it was going to happen. It was just a matter of when and what kind of happens with it, so it was just that waiting game. I was happy it’s finally my time, and I’m grateful for that.”

Click here for the full Sports Illustrated exclusive.

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