Jordan Love arrived at Lambeau Field wearing a Brett Favre Packers jersey. He then had a performance that reminded fans of the kind Favre often delivered at home.
Love completed 32 of 54 passes for 389 yards and nearly led Green Bay back from a 28-point deficit on Sunday. This was his return after missing two games due to an injured left medial collateral ligament.
However, he also threw three interceptions in Green Bay’s 31-29 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Love set career highs in completions, passing yards, touchdown passes, and interceptions.
“I think ball placement was a little all over the place today, kind of throughout the whole game,” Love said. “I think it picked up later, but yeah, I think early on I just missed a couple of throws and was a little bit off and made it hard on some of the receivers on some of those plays.”
Love admitted after the game that his knee still bothered him at times.
“I hope it’ll continue to heal and get better, but at this moment, yeah, it’s definitely something that’s there,” Love said. “It’s one of those things. It’s football. We play a physical sport and there’s injuries and you got to fight through some stuff.”
Love hadn’t played since getting hurt in the last series of the Packers’ 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on September 6 in Brazil. Malik Willis took over for Love the past two weeks and helped Green Bay win against the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans with a more run-focused strategy.
The lack of playing time showed early on as Green Bay fell behind, forcing Love to throw the ball often.
Love completed 10 of 22 passes for 101 yards with two interceptions in the first 29 minutes of the game, as the Packers fell behind 28-0. Both interceptions led to touchdowns for Minnesota.
Green Bay (2-2) finally scored in the last minute of the first half when a fumbled punt by the Vikings (4-0) allowed Love to throw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Reed.
In the fourth quarter, Love began to show the skills he had late last season during a surprising playoff run.
“We knew he was out for a couple weeks, so we were going to put some pressure on him,” said Shaq Griffin, who had one of the Vikings’ three interceptions.
“He also did a good job just kind of figuring it around the kind of defense that we were in. A lot of quarterbacks haven’t done that yet, so he did. I definitely tip my hat off to him.”
In that last quarter, Love completed 13 of 17 passes for 202 yards, with three touchdown passes and one interception.
After the Packers stopped Minnesota’s Jalen Nailor for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Green Bay 4 with less than 2 and a half minutes remaining, Love led a five-play, 96-yard drive. His 17-yard touchdown pass to Dontayvion Wicks brought the score to 31-29 with 56 seconds left, but the Vikings managed to secure the victory.
That fourth-quarter performance showed why the Packers believe he can eventually lead them to a championship. “Jordan is Jordan, man,” Reed said. “He’s ‘him,’ in my opinion. I’ve never had a different opinion.”
Love’s teammates remember how he threw 21 touchdown passes with only one interception during a nine-game stretch last season, which ended with a 48-32 upset of the Dallas Cowboys in a wild-card playoff game.
The Packers showed their trust in him by signing Love to a four-year, $220 million contract extension last summer.
“I think he’s a hell of a competitor,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “We’ve got a lot of trust, belief and faith in him, and I love how he battles. That’s one of the things that you absolutely love about him is his composure.
He’s never too high, never too low and he keeps competing and he keeps battling. I’m super proud of his effort.” Even after Love’s strong fourth quarter, the Packers still came up short. They are now two games behind the surprising Vikings in the NFC North.
As the Packers face some early challenges again, Love can look back at last season’s run for confidence as his knee continues to improve.
“We started off in a hole last year as well, so it’s one of those things, we’re going to come back next week, keep working, learn, watch the tape, grow from this game and we’ll see these guys again later on in the year,” Love said.
“So just learn from it, keep going. But it’s definitely a long season, and I definitely like where we’re at as a team. You know, we didn’t make plays, but (with) the playmakers we have and team we have, I definitely like where we’re at.”
