The Jordan Love-led Green Bay Packers got a taste of playoff success this season. That taste left them hungry for more.
“We’ve been there. We’ve seen what it feels like to lose and be that close,” Love told Sports Illustrated at the Super Bowl. “We’re excited. We’re fueled up going into this next season.”
Love is coming off a sensational first season as the team’s starting quarterback, during which he threw for more than 4,000 yards and finished second in the NFL with 32 touchdown passes. More importantly, the Packers won. They overcame a 2-5 start and back-to-back losses in December to clinch a playoff berth. Once in the postseason, they routed the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round and had the San Francisco 49ers on the ropes in the divisional round.
“The vibe on the team never changed,” Love said on The Jim Rome Show. “We always knew that we were a great team. We just got to find ways to win those games and limit the mistakes and just find a way to win. But everybody stuck together. There was nobody complaining, pointing fingers. Guys came in and found ways to get better. So, I’m most proud of that.”
A big part of that was the play of Love.
For a big chunk of the first half of the season, he was last in the NFL in completion percentage. During the seven-game stretch from New Orleans to Pittsburgh, Love threw eight touchdown passes vs. 10 interceptions, had one game with a 100-plus rating and two games with at least 7.0 yards per attempt.
With a 3-6 record after he threw two late interceptions in the loss to the Steelers, it was fair to wonder if the Packers might be looking to the 2024 NFL Draft to get their next great quarterback.
However, Love down the stretch showed that he is the next great quarterback. During the nine games spanning Game 10 vs. the Chargers through the playoff win at Dallas, Love threw 21 touchdowns vs. one interception, had eight games with a 100-plus rating and eight games with at least 7.3 yards per attempt.
“That’s all a credit to our coaching staff and who we got around us in the facility every day,” Love told Rome. “They’re making sure we’re doing the right things every day of practice. My coaches make sure I know what I’m doing, my reads, and keep me honest with those. I’m always trying to go through my progressions and just make the right reads and not try and do too much and force the ball downfield.
“So, it’s a credit to the coaching staff, for sure, and then, obviously, the players around me. They make it easy to play quarterback when they’re creating a lot of separation, getting open and making plays when the ball’s in the air. The O-line give me plenty of time back there to make my reads.”
With Love and the offense firing, the Packers got over the hump. Love fell short in one-score losses at Atlanta, Las Vegas, Denver and Pittsburgh during their 3-6 start. They found a way to win those close games down the stretch, though, whether it was holding off the Kansas City Chiefs at Lambeau Field or winning a shootout at the woeful Carolina Panthers.
“I think I’m most impressed with myself is just staying the course,” Love told SI. “We went through some tough games, tough couple weeks, losing four in a row. And that’s hard. Right here, man, (with) three picks [in a loss at the Raiders].
“Outside the locker room, there’s a lot of pressure on us. You know, a lot of people saying we’re not this, we’re not that. But we stayed the course. We found ways to get better and turned it around, made it to the playoffs and made a little bit of a run. I’m most impressed with that, myself and the whole team, how we stood together.”
The tough times – including the season-ending loss at San Francisco in which the Packers took the lead into the fourth quarter – will make the team better in the long run, Love said.
“It was definitely a lot of lessons learned this year,” Love told Rome. “As a team, just getting through the season, battling through some adversity, I think it made it better, came out the other end better because of it. But I think it was probably just the way the team stuck together, was able to bond and come closer and get over that hump of losing a couple games and make it to the playoffs.
“It was definitely learning a lot of lessons about ourselves as we are, but it made us better in the end.”
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