Packers' Jordan Love Enters Playoffs as Hot as ‘Run-the-Table’ Aaron Rodgers
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Aaron Rodgers authored two of the greatest season-ending stretches of quarterback play in NFL history. Heading into the Green Bay Packers’ NFC wild card game at the Dallas Cowboys, Jordan Love isn’t too far behind.
With a 4-6 record in 2016, Rodgers proclaimed the struggling team could run the table. And it did. In the six-game sweep of the Eagles, Texans, Seahawks, Bears, Vikings and Lions, Rodgers threw 15 touchdown passes vs. zero interceptions. He completed 71.0 percent of his passes and compiled a league-best 121.0 passer rating.
Including the game before “run the table,” a loss at Washington, and the three playoff games, Rodgers over his final 10 games threw 27 touchdown passes and two interceptions. It was quarterbacking at its highest level.
It 2021, Rodgers during the final eight games of the season threw 20 touchdown passes and one interception. He completed 70.7 percent of his passes and fashioned a passer rating of 117.8. It was quarterbacking as art, and it helped him win his fourth MVP.
Love’s play down the stretch in 2023 will give the Packers a chance to beat the Cowboys in Sunday’s NFC wild card game and potentially make a playoff run.
Starting with the Packers’ 23-20 victory over the Chargers, Love over his final eight games threw 18 touchdown passes and only one interception. He completed 70.3 percent of his passes and compiled a third-ranked passer rating of 112.7. Sixteen quarterbacks threw at least 10 touchdown passes; of that group, only Love had fewer than three interceptions.
With Love making one big play after another while avoiding big mistakes – the calculus mastered by Rodgers for so many years – Green Bay rallied to an unexpected playoff spot in his debut season.
“It’s everyone around me,” Love said on Wednesday, deflecting the praise better than any defensive back has deflected his passes. “We talk about it in here, just that flow state we try to get to every game, where you’re feeling like you can do anything, you’re flowing, the game’s coming natural to you and you’re able to limit mistakes.
“So, that’s definitely the mode I try to get to, try and find ways to get in that flow state. Like (I) said, it’s not just me. It’s everybody around me making plays. They’re stepping up, guys are making big-time catches right now. I think everyone on the offense is just playing at a high level.”
After watching and learning from Rodgers for his first three seasons, Love struggled through the first half of this season before catching fire down the stretch to cement his status as the team’s next quarterback.
Of 33 quarterbacks to throw at least 100 passes during the final eight games, Love ranked first in passing yards (2,150), second in passer rating (112.7) and touchdown passes (18), and third in completion percentage (70.3).
Love finished the season ranked second with 32 touchdown passes, seventh with 4,159 passing yards and 11th with a 96.0 passer rating.
In the process, among quarterbacks in their first season with multiple starts, Love joined Kurt Warner (1999) and Patrick Mahomes (2018) as the only quarterbacks with 4,000-plus passing yards and 32-plus touchdown passes.
Love had a league-high nine games of two-plus touchdown passes and zero interceptions. He and the 49ers’ Brock Purdy were the only quarterbacks with five games of three-plus touchdown passes and zero interceptions.
“I think the sky’s the limit for him,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “I think it all starts with how he approaches the game and how he approaches life. He’s awesome to come to work with each and every day. He puts the time and effort in (and) he’s got laser focus.
“I’ve said it many times, I think Tom [Clements, the quarterbacks coach, has] done a hell of a job with him. It’s a great room, the other guys in the room, and it’s been really cool to watch him grow, develop, not only on the football field but just as a man, as well.”
