Packers-49ers Playoffs: Comparing Quarterbacks Jordan Love, Brock Purdy
GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 1995, the Green Bay Packers upset the San Francisco 49ers in a divisional-round playoff game at Candlestick Park. The quarterbacks? Future Hall of Famers Brett Favre vs. Steve Young.
On Saturday night at Levi’s Stadium, it will be Jordan Love vs. Brock Purdy.
While the names might not hold the same cache, the statistics suggest a matchup of elite-level quarterbacks.
Starting with the Packers’ Week 10 victory over the Chargers, here are the league rankings with Love playing in eight games and Purdy in seven:
Passer rating: Purdy, first, 117.0. Love, second, 112.7.
Completion percentage: Love, third, 70.3. Purdy, fourth, 70.1.
Passing yards per game: Purdy, first, 278.7. Love, fourth, 268.8.
100 rating games: Love, first, seven. Purdy, tied for second, five.
Love had only one bad game, the late-season loss at the Giants. Purdy had only one bad game, the four-interception loss to the Ravens.
Love raised his game another notch in the playoff massacre at Dallas. He finished 16-of-21 passing for 272 yards and three touchdowns. His 157.2 passer rating was the fourth-best in playoffs history. If not for a late incompletion, he would have joined Hall of Famers Peyton Manning and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterbacks in playoff history with a perfect 158.3.
“My only advice to him – and it’s been this way, I would say, once we hit a certain spot during the season – is just go out there and be aggressive,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday. “Trust what you see and let it rip. We’re here now. You can’t hold anything back. I think he went out there and played exactly like that.
“That cover-zero play that he ripped that post to (Dontayvion) Wicks [for a touchdown], that was one of those plays that you could sit there and watch that all day long.”
How many times did LaFleur watch it?
“A lot.”
Love was magnificent. By the official stats, he was hit three times. All three passes resulted in completions to Romeo Doubs totaling 94 yards. When pressured, according to Pro Football Focus, he was 5-of-7 for 152 yards and two touchdowns. When he was blitzed, he was 6-of-8 for 129 yards and two touchdowns.
Purdy has been sensational for most of the season. Yards per attempt is a great measure of quarterbacking efficiency. Purdy finished the season at 9.6. That’s the best since Kurt Warner’s 9.9 for “The Greatest Show on Turf” Rams in 2000 and third-best in the Super Bowl era.
Being the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft is probably being held against him in the whole conversation of elite quarterback vs. game manager.
“I think it comes down to, if you're in the NFL playing quarterback, there's little room for error,” Purdy told NBC Sports Bay Area recently. “And so if you're getting criticized for making the right decisions and not making a lot of flashy plays but winning, I feel like you really have to start looking at your judgment on football and stuff.”
At home, Purdy finished second this season with a 115.0 rating. And that’s even with the four interceptions against the Ravens. His 11.0 yards per attempt in home games ranks No. 2 in NFL history among all quarterbacks with at least 125 attempts.
“You look at the greats, [such as] Tom Brady and [Peyton] Manning, there's so many games where they've made consistent plays and decisions,” Purdy said. “And it may not be flashy but, at the end of the day, they protect the ball, they allow their defense to play and they win games. So, it's a team sport for a reason, and that's part of our position.”
