Heir Jordan Love Arrived And Saved The Green Bay Packers Season

In his biggest moment yet, Jordan Love piloted the Green Bay Packers toward a playoff berth in his first season as a starting quarterback.

The 2023 Green Bay Packers are playoff bound. After beating their long-standing rival the Chicago Bears 17-9 Sunday afternoon, the Packers reached the playoffs in the exact moment where they had faltered a season earlier against a division rival.

They did so on the backs of their young franchise quarterback who took all of Sunday afternoon to paint a season-defining performance and cap off a year defined by growth, development, and a changing of the guard.

In Jordan Love, the Packers reached the postseason as the first-year starter finished the night going 27-for-32, 316 passing yards, 2 touchdowns and with a season-high 128.6 passer rating. He averaged an astounding 9.9 passing yards per play as he found and hit his passing targets in a variety of ways all game long.

With all eyes on him and everything to play for in order to keep their season alive, Love only did what he has increasingly done over the latter half of year. In his last nine regular season games, Love finished with 2,439 passing yards (271 yards per game), 20 touchdowns, 3 interceptions and suffered just 12 sacks. All the while the Packers rebounded from a 3-5 start to finish 9-8 and lock up the 7th seed in the NFC.

In the end, it has been Love who has been the catalyst to help turn the Packers season around as Green Bay faced numerous injuries all along the roster and especially with their skill players. The more reps he gained, Love found chemistry in a pair of electric rookie wideouts in Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks, respectively. Bo Melton, a late-season unsung hero who had only made the Packers’ 53-man roster days before their regular season finale, emerged as someone Love could trust in big 3rd down throws in their final three wins of the season.

Not mentioned was the likes of Christian Watson, who has been snakebitten by a thorny hamstring injury that kept him out of nine games this season, and Romeo Doubs, who, while had a solid sophomore year, is still plagued by shaky hands and inconsistent production. Same goes for Luke Musgrave, who returned against the Bears after having missed six games with a lacerated kidney.

Love, and really, the Packers as a whole, had a revolving door of players in and out of action on both sides of the ball and very few position groups went unscathed. That’s football, of course, but to expect a first-year starting quarterback to assert himself, put the team on his back, and pull everything together with very little margin for error could have easily sunk this young Packers team.

All of that is to say that Love’s play in the Packers’ biggest game of the year was hardly surprising if you have watched him progress throughout the season. He’s mastering the art of making big time throws all over the field, and no kind of pressures or coverages can truly disrupt his rhythm as it once did. Love has elevated himself by finding instant rapport with players who were just as inexperienced as he was at start of the season. And as important is the fearlessness he has exhibited to keep making plays, even in the face of making mistakes.

Sunday was more than about Love playing and resetting the standard with each passing week. It was also about how reassuring it has been to have Aaron Jones back in the fold for this Packers offense, as evidenced by his three straight games of 100-plus rushing yards to close out a injury-riddled regular season for him. It was also about a disruptive defensive front line that both terrorized Justin Fields for five sacks and limited the Bears offense in check to hold them to 3 field goals and zero touchdowns.

But these are the Green Bay Packers, a franchise who is defined by the legendary quarterbacks who have been at the center of glory over many decades and in many championships. And Love took Sunday to finish off a campaign that coronated himself as the next franchise quarterback that will give the Packers’ biggest rivals many fits in the years to come.

Now, Love follows the line of those legendary Packers quarterbacks, Bart Starr, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, who have all had memorable run-ins with the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs, whom the Packers will face next Sunday. Love passed the test that all first-year play callers have to face, and now, he gets a chance to achieve extra credit with a Packers team that very few saw being in this position in the first place.