SI:AM | The Best Game of Jordan Love’s Career

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I can’t believe J.J. McCarthy returned to the game yesterday after that brutal hit to his torso.

In today’s SI:AM:
🧀 Packers win in New England
🤠 Cowboys still in trouble despite win
🐅 Bengals pick up steam in Spain

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Packers torch Pats

The Packers are in last place in their division, but they’re also serious Super Bowl contenders.

Green Bay blew out the Patriots yesterday in Foxborough, 45–27, to improve to 6–3. That’s only good enough for fourth place in the stacked NFC North, but don’t underestimate how good this team is.

The Packers can beat anybody when quarterback Jordan Love plays like he did yesterday. Love finished with 372 yards on 23-for-29 passing with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He also had a 13-yard rushing touchdown.

Love has been on a heater this season. He’s averaging 290.9 yards per game, second in the NFL behind Joe Burrow (298.3), and he already has 19 touchdown passes after throwing 23 in 15 games last season.

Love has been critical to the Packers’ success from the moment he took over as the starting quarterback in 2023. He’s won 33 games over that period, the seventh most in the NFL. But yesterday’s game was the best of Love’s career. He pushed the ball downfield as the Packers quickly built a lead that would prove insurmountable. He was efficient without being cautious and took calculated risks that didn’t turn into mistakes.

The thing that should scare other NFL teams is that it wasn’t Love’s first game like that this season. Back in Green Bay’s 31–7 win over the Bears in Week 5, Love threw for 367 yards and two touchdowns while completing 25 of his 31 passes.

Yesterday’s performance makes Love just the sixth different player in NFL history to have multiple games in a single season with at least 350 passing yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions while completing at least 75% of his passes. The rest of the list is a who’s who of some of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game: Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow.

It was also a standout game for Love’s top two receivers, Christian Watson and Matthew Golden. They combined for 335 of Love’s 372 passing yards. Watson had seven catches for 171 yards, while Golden caught all 10 of his targets for 164 yards. Both players hauled in a touchdown as well. They’re just the sixth pair of teammates in the past 20 years to have at least 150 receiving yards in the same game.

Golden and Watson did most of their damage while being defended by New England cornerback Christian Gonzalez. According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Golden had seven catches for 105 yards and Watson had three catches for 82 yards against the 2025 Pro Bowler. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel called out Gonzalez’s poor performance after the game.

“Again, when your best players don’t play good, you don’t have much of a chance in this league,” Vrabel told reporters. “So, we expect a lot more. He expects a lot more. We need more from him and everybody else. It wasn’t just him. Again, we got to be able to coach and be prepared, and then we have to execute. Just like it is every single week when we don’t win, it’s all of us, and it starts with me.”

Gonzalez didn’t play well, but you also have to give Love credit for identifying that weak point and making good throws to hit his receivers when they burned Gonzalez. Considering how tough the NFC North has been this season, the Packers are going to need more games like that from Love if they want to maintain their playoff position.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Conor Orr: Cowboys’ Narrow Win Shouldn’t Quiet the Conversation Around Jerry Jones and Brian Schottenheimer
Albert Breer: Week 9 NFL Takeaways: Why the Packers Are Looking Like Super Bowl Contenders
Matt Verderame: NFL Week 9 Good, Bad and Ugly: Bengals Ascending As Trade Deadline Looms
Gilberto Manzano: NFL Week 9 Lessons: Browns Should Stand Pat With Shedeur Sanders at QB
Tom Verducci: Tom Verducci’s Awards Week Predictions
Pat Forde: Forde-Yard Dash: Seven College Football Teams Whose Seasons Are Dying—or Already Dead
Bryan Fischer: College Football Playoff and Bowl Projections After Week 10: Notre Dame Leaves No Doubt

The top five…

Harold Fannin Jr. breaks a tackle — Harold Fannin Jr. rumbled into the end zone for a critical touchdown, but the Browns still lost. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

… things I saw yesterday:
5. Not one but two stoppage-time goals for Manchester United to salvage a 4–4 draw against Aston Villa.
4. Quentin Johnston’s 58-yard touchdown catch, the Chargers’ first touchdown since Oct. 11.
3. Trey McBride’s spinning toe-tap catch on fourth down.
2. Harold Fannin Jr.’s physical run after the catch to score a touchdown in overtime. (The Browns lost to the Saints after the ensuing two-point conversion attempt failed.)
1. Joe Burrow’s perfect touchdown bomb to Ja’Marr Chase. The ball traveled 50 yards in the air and landed right in Chase’s hands.

📺 What we’re watching today …

NFL

Bills at Vikings, 8:15 p.m. ET, ABC
With quarterback Josh Allen at the helm, Buffalo has led the league in scoring (33.3 points per game) and total offense (393.1 yards per game). Minnesota will hope Brian Flores’s vaunted defense can slow the Bills down as the Vikings turn to Carson Wentz at quarterback with Kyler Murray sidelined by a hamstring injury.

NBA

Wizards at Pistons, 7 p.m. ET, Peacock
Pelicans at Warriors, 10 p.m. ET, NBA TV

Men’s college basketball

Syracuse at Indiana, 6:30 p.m. ET, FS1

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