Packer Central

For Love To Be Great, This Is Where He Must Improve

Including last year’s playoff loss at San Francisco, Jordan Love made too many big mistakes in critical moments. 

Bill Huber

The Packers' season died on this interception by Jordan Love.
The Packers' season died on this interception by Jordan Love. / Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin /
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – With a trip to the NFC Championship Game on the line, Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love did what he did too often last season.

He threw an interception.

Great teams have great quarterbacks. Great quarterbacks are great when it matters most.

In order for the Packers to become a great team and to finally win their fifth Super Bowl championship, they’ll need Love to make more big-time plays and fewer big-time mistakes in the big-time moments.

In last year’s divisional playoffs at San Francisco, the Packers trailed 24-21 when they took possession at their 25-yard line with 1:07 to play. With three timeouts at his disposal, Love had an opportunity to deliver a signature moment. A legendary moment. Instead, he forced a pass over the middle to Christian Watson that was intercepted by Dre Greenlaw.

“It’s something that’s always with you but, at the end of the day, what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to learn from it, be able to watch it, break it down, see what went wrong, learn from it and grow and move on,” Love said during Packers OTAs last week.

“But that’s all my mistakes that I made throughout the season. I had a good amount of interceptions where you go back and see what you did wrong, see what you could have done better and learn from it and grow and try and just move on to the next play, move on to the next season. It’s something that is always there.”

Thanks to a sensational second half of the season and a dominating performance at Dallas in the wild-card playoffs, Love looked like the NFL’s next great quarterback. During the final eight games of the regular season, Love threw 18 touchdown passes vs. one interception. Then, he torched the Cowboys for three more touchdowns and a near-perfect passer rating.

Thanks to those nine games, the Packers are going to pay Love like he’s a great quarterback – a four-year deal that probably will top $200 million.

The Packers are betting that money won’t be intercepted on the way to the bank.

During regular-season play, only Sam Howell threw more fourth-quarter interceptions than Love. Trailing by one at Atlanta, Love went 0-for-4 on the final drive. Trailing 17-13 at Las Vegas, he was intercepted. Trailing 19-17 at Denver, he was intercepted. Trailing 23-19 at Pittsburgh, he was intercepted.

Of the 29 quarterbacks who threw at least 80 passes in the fourth quarter, Love ranked:

- 28th with six interceptions.

- 26th with a 54.3 percent completion rate.

- 13th (tied) with 6.9 yards per attempt.

- 21st with a 75.9 passer rating.

It wasn’t all bad, obviously. Love rallied the Packers from a 17-0 deficit in the fourth quarter to shock the Saints 18-17 in Week 3. He threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Romeo Doubs with 2:33 remaining to beat the Chargers 23-20. He drove the team to back-to-back insurance field goals to upset the Chiefs 27-19. And after two consecutive three-and-outs allowed Carolina to rally from a 14-point deficit, Love drove the Packers to a field goal for the 33-30 win.

Great quarterbacks have the uncanny ability to deliver in those do-or-die moments. When the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes got the ball at the end of the fourth quarter and in overtime in the Super Bowl, there was an air of inevitability.

The next step in Love’s evolution is obvious and imperative. When it’s time to deliver in those win-or-else moments, Love must rise to the occasion. If not, the franchise will be crushed by his contract.

The loss at San Francisco, and how it happened, added to Love’s hunger.

“You make it to the playoffs, it’s going to be a tough loss or you’re winning the whole thing,” Love said. “Last year, obviously, that 49ers game, being that close, a game we had right there and kind of let slip away from us, it’s tough. It definitely fueled us. Everybody was hungry in the locker room after and ready to get back to work and ready to get back here. 

“Everybody being here, you can see how hungry guys are to get back to work and get ready for this season.”

More Green Bay Packers News

Packers OTAs: Anders Carlson on competition | ‘Elite’ Rasheed Walker? | Why did AJ Dillon re-sign? | Injury updates | Christian Watson’s asymmetry | Big goals but torn pectorals 

Latest news: PFF’s OT rankings | Tom Brady on Jordan Love | Top 10 plays | Bounce-back Alexander? | Fifth-year options | An athletic roster | A complete roster | Help at cornerback? 

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, 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.