Green Bay’s Jordan Love could have felt discouraged after throwing the first pick-6 of his career in the second quarter against the Los Angeles Rams. Instead, it motivated him and his teammates.
After the interception, Love completed nine straight passes, including two touchdown throws to Tucker Kraft in the second half, helping the Packers come back for a 24-19 win on Sunday.
“The pick, it was a bad decision and it’s tough. But it’s all about how you respond and bounce back,” said Love, who completed 15 of 26 passes for 224 yards in his second start after missing two games due to a knee injury.
The Packers were down 13-7 late in the second quarter when Jaylen McCollough intercepted Love’s off-balance throw and scored from 4 yards out.
However, Love, a California native from Bakersfield, led Green Bay (3-2) to score on its next three drives and took advantage of two turnovers to defeat the Rams (1-4) for the ninth time in their last ten regular-season matchups.
“I think that drive, when you throw a pick-6, that’s never fun. But to be able to take us down there in the 2-minute drive and get some critical points when points were really tough to come by, I just think that’s what he’s all about,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said.
“And when you get a bunch of tough-minded guys I think that kind of just manifests itself and it’s contagious.”
Kraft had four catches for a career-high 88 yards. Just two plays after Xavier McKinney recovered a fumble by Rams running back Kyren Williams and returned it 7 yards to the Green Bay 30, Love connected with Kraft for a 66-yard touchdown that put the Packers ahead 17-13.
Kraft caught the ball at the Rams’ 49-yard line, stiff-armed cornerback Darious Williams at the 30, avoided a diving tackle attempt by Quentin Lake at the 20, and made it into the end zone.
“Excellent play call. We had that set up when we were coming in for our second-half adjustments,” Kraft said. “We liked the defense they were giving us in second-and-medium. We dialed it up and we executed.”
After McKinney became the first player since the 1970 merger to have an interception in each of his first five games with a team, Kraft finished a seven-play drive by scoring from 7 yards out for his first two-touchdown game.
“Those were plays that we need and that’s complementary football. And we did that very well today. I’m glad the offense went down and was able to score,” McKinney said about the turnovers.
Josh Jacobs had 19 carries for 73 yards and scored his first touchdown with the Packers on a 2-yard run around the right end in the first quarter.
The Rams are having their worst start since moving to Los Angeles in 2016. The last time they lost four of their first five games was in St. Louis in 2014.
“I think we’ve got to be able to finish games and play consistently throughout. I mean, you look at it, we’re a 1-4 football team,” coach Sean McVay said. “Three of those four losses come down to one-possession games. … But this is football, this is where we’re at.”
Kyren Williams rushed for 102 yards on 22 carries and scored for the eighth straight game when he pushed in from 1 yard in the second quarter to tie the game at 7. Williams now has the longest touchdown streak by a Rams running back since Greg Bell scored in 10 straight during the 1988 and ’89 seasons.
Matthew Stafford threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Demarcus Robinson — the 2-point conversion attempt failed — with 3:30 left, bringing the Rams within 24-19.
Los Angeles forced Green Bay to punt on the next possession and took over at their own 29 with 2:57 remaining. The Rams advanced to the Packers’ 38, but Stafford was unable to connect with Colby Parkinson on fourth-and-5 with 1:01 left.
“I thought our defense did a great job stepping up in the second half, made some plays to give us chances to get the ball back late in the game. We just didn’t do quite enough with it,” said Stafford, who was 29 of 45 for 260 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
