PITTSBURGH — Jordan Love, come on down!
The No. 26 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft had a career game against his mentor on Sunday night as the Packers took down the Steelers 35-25.
The Packers offense had been inconsistent for most of the early season, but things changed in a hurry thanks to the play of Love. The main thing that Love did was get the ball out early, which squelched a Pittsburgh defense that has spent the most money on that of the ball in the entire league.
Most of the pregame coverage was spent gushing about the 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers, his 18 years in Green Bay and the fact that he was only one win shy of beating all 32 NFL teams. Love quieted all that noise by simply outplaying the first ballot Hall of Famer.
“It’s definitely special for me to go out and be able to play well with him watching,” said Love. “I definitely wouldn’t be the player I am today without being able to watch him and learn from him.”
We were all looking for the signature game for Love. The game that stood out and proved why the Packers inked him to a huge $55 million contract.
“He’s him,” said Packers defensive end Rashan Gary, who had four tackles and two sacks. “Everybody in the league, if you all not woke, please wake up. Get the crust out your eyes because he is him and 10 is coming. Period.”
After making 20-straight completions and passing for 360 yards, three touchdowns and no picks, he proved that he is in fact a franchise quarterback in this league. He notched a passer rating of 134.2 after completing 78 percent of his passes in front of the waving Terrible Towels. The 20-straight completions tied Brett Favre’s mark from 2007. Love is completing 70.9 percent of his passes this season with 1,798 yards and 13 touchdowns and only two picks. Favre’s lowest interception total for a season as a Packer was 13 and Rodgers’ lowest pick number was two. Love now has logged 16 games where he has multiple touchdowns and zero touchdowns, which is amazing for 40 games as a starter. According to NFL Research, only Patrick Mahomes has more with 19.
“When you’re talking about the Favre to Rodgers to Love, Jordan has stepped up and fulfilled his end of the bargain,” said Packers tight end Tucker Kraft.
And what’s even more impressive is that Love did all that with a one-dimensional offense. The Packers only tallied 94 rushing yards and their leading rusher was Emanuel Wilson with 61.
Ten Packers caught a pass — including three tight ends. And speaking of tight end, on National Tight Ends Day, Kraft showed that he is one of the best tight ends in the nation by catching seven passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns. Kraft has great hands with a 73 percent catch percentage this season, he’s explosive by getting 15.6 yards per reception and he has proven to a solid blocker. (He’s also a little nuts by head butting a teammate that was wearing a helmet while the only protection on his melon was his buzz cut.)
Love is the guy. I know there are still a faction of people that aren’t sure if Love can play, but the Packers are now 5-1-1 and this team has still not played an entire game of football.
And the frightening thing for Packers opponents is that they are getting better. Most importantly, Love is playing like the guy that general manager Brian Gutekunst envisioned him to be.