Matt LaFleur has seen 'night and day' growth from Packers QB Jordan Love recently
Don’t look now, but the Packers’ season suddenly is picking up steam after upsets of the Chargers and Lions. Thank the maturation of Jordan Love.
Love, especially, looked comfortable on Thanksgiving at Ford Field, leading the Packers to a 23-6 lead over the Lions. The Packers won 29-22 in front of a national television audience. The victory upped their record to 5-6. But after losing four games in a row earlier this season, Green Bay now has won three of their last four.
Coach Matt LaFluer bragged on Love, as he should, in his post-game press conference in Detroit. LaFleur said Love, who is in his first year at starter, is “night and day” different from where he began the season.
“It’s given us a lot of confidence to be a little bit more aggressive with some of the calls,” LaFleur told reporters. “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, that 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.”
Love set tone for Packers with his first pass of game
Love completed 22 of his 32 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns. Maybe his biggest pass was the first one he threw. That was a 53-yarder to Christian Watson on the first play of the game. The pass moved the ball to the Lions 22. The Packers scored four plays later with a 10-yard pass to Jayden Reed. The Lions never recovered.
Of course, the Packers defense also was making Jared Goff miserable. The veteran quarterback fumbled three times. That was a career high. Now, consider that Goff threw three interceptions last Sunday in a come-from-behind win versus the Bears. Like Love, he’s an example of how a quarterback’s progression can be so fickle. Except Goff seems to be headed in the wrong direction.
“No rhyme or reason,” Goff said of his six turnovers in five days. “I tend to look at them individually and see what I could have done better and sometimes there’s an answer and sometimes there isn’t. But overall, yeah, it’s my job to take care of the football and I have to do a good job of it.”
Love said he knew the Packers would be formidable on Thanksgiving against one of the top teams in the NFL.
“That’s kind of the makeup of this team, where we don’t flinch,” Love told reporters in post game. “Going through the season so far, the close losses, just the way everyone shows up every week and continues to work … we show up ready to play.”