Jordan Love's development is turning Packers' season around
Let's be real, there weren't many people that thought the Green Bay Packers' 2023 would have this bright of an outlook after the Thanksgiving matchup with the Detroit Lions.Things were in a really, really bad place after Week 8's loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The Packers were showing zero signs of improvement and there were […]
Let's be real, there weren't many people that thought the Green Bay Packers' 2023 would have this bright of an outlook after the Thanksgiving matchup with the Detroit Lions.
Things were in a really, really bad place after Week 8's loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The Packers were showing zero signs of improvement and there were plenty of repeated mistakes that provided more than enough doubt of whether or not things would get any better.
Flash forward nearly a month later and the Packers are 3-1 over their last four games and it can be argued the one loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers came way of a bad no-call that took six points away from the Packers (who lost by four points).
The last two wins have been especially exciting: a comeback win against the Los Angeles Chargers and a wire-to-wire victory over the rival Detroit Lions. And while the win against the Chargers came with some caveats, the win over the Lions was a flat-out trouncing by the Packers.
One of the Chargers caveats was Matt LaFleur's conservative play-calling toward the end of the game. The Packers were trying to run out the clock and he called three straight runs, instead of giving Jordan Love a shot to end the game with his arm – or even his legs. Los Angeles forced a three-and-out and the Packers had to punt the ball back, giving them a chance to either tie or win the game.
"I shouldn't put our quarterback in that situation," LaFleur said after the game. "… I shouldn't put them in that situation. That's on me. I'm not proud of that. Quite frankly, I'm embarrassed by it – just the conservativeness of that."
Well, LaFleur was anything but conservative on Sunday and it propelled the Packers to what could be a season-saving win.
Jordan Love's development keyed LaFleur's aggressiveness
The Packers head coach talked about carrying things over week-to-week a while back, which made some sense for a young team learning the ropes. At the same time, however, it was clear the process wasn't working well enough. The win over the Chargers showed the offense is capable of making plays when given the chance. And sure enough, they took advantage of their chances against the Lions.
The key to all of it, though, is Love's development over the last few weeks and LaFleur even said as much after the game.
"I think it's night and day," LaFleur said when asked about Love's improved command of the offense and the speed in which he's playing. "… And it's given us a lot of confidence to be a little bit more aggressive with some of the calls. When you're trusting your offensive line when you're trusting your quarterback to facilitate and get the ball where it needs to go and throw on rhythm, it allows you to do that.
"We had a lot of, I would say, deeper-developing plays and hit a lot of intermediate throws for some chunk plays that ended up being big for us."
The correlation is pretty obvious: when the quarterback is in rhythm, so is the rest of the offense – for the most part. And that's exactly what we've seen from the Packers offense, even going back to the Steelers game.
"Things are just clicking now," Reed told reporters. "I don't think there's a difference. I think we work hard every week in practice [and] we give it all we got. We've been together the whole year, as a team [and] as a group. There were a few meetings that we added on Tuesdays, we'll come in as a skill group and watch the film on our own. I think that's been a huge deal for us.
"Other than that, I just think stuff is starting to click and we are starting to get it more."
If there's ever a time to start clicking during an NFL season, it's now. The timing is even more important when considering the Packers' next opponent in the Super Bowl defending Kansas City Chiefs. After that, the Packers play the New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings, and Chicago Bears.
Even if the Packers fall to the Chiefs, their last five matchups are winnable games. And they'll become even more so if the team continues to click and maybe even get a little healthy.
In other words: The Packers are far from dead.
