Josh Jacobs hobbled off the field early and didn't return. The offensive line again struggled in pass protection and left Jordan Love scrambling out of the pocket for his life. The pass catchers kept dropping the ball.
Despite all of it, in a gotta-have-it spot for the Green Bay Packers, Love showed he could carry the offense when he had to.
The Packers looked like they had wiped away the drop issues that plagued them in 2024. After a brief flurry of drops two weeks ago against the Philadelphia Eagles, they came back in force against the New York Giants.
Green Bay receivers racked up a whopping six drops, three from the normally sure-handed Romeo Doubs. It was too reminiscent of the 2024 receiving corps that left people pulling their hair out. But Love didn't waver in his confidence in Doubs and kept going back to him in big moments.
Christian Watson bucked the trend and had a standout game. Watson was a primary target early in his career and dealt with the yips when the ball came his way. However, that hasn't been a problem for Watson in the last couple of years. On Sunday, he made a couple of clutch grabs, including a go-ahead touchdown that ended up being the game-winning score.
While the drops are a relatively new issue this year, the pass protection -- or lack thereof -- is not something that has come to the surface for the first time.
Love was sacked twice against New York and was pressured immediately on plenty of other plays. All-in-all, the Giants registered eight quarterback hits of Green Bay's signal caller.
A quarterback who didn't use his legs often last year due to preference or injuries or both had to use them a lot on Sunday to scramble out of the pocket and extend plays.
It's become apparent that Jordan Morgan doesn't look the part of a right guard, and at some point (probably next season) needs to be put back at tackle to give that a go. The Elgton Jenkins experiment at center wasn't working swimmingly, and now he's likely out for the year anyway. Zach Tom exited the game due to injury, then came back later for the Packers on Sunday.
It's a group in disarray with no clear path to resolving the imminent issues. While it's blatantly obvious this is not a sustainable product, especially for a team with big goals and aspirations, Love still flourished in a grand way.
Remember how brilliant Love was in the playoff win in Dallas a couple of seasons ago? In his first playoff start, Love threw for 273 yards and three touchdowns in a blowout over the Cowboys in Jerry World. While Pro Football Focus is never to be taken as the gospel, and instead as a valuable tool that can help paint a picture, Love's highest-graded game ever was that playoff game against the Cowboys.
That was until Sunday's victory.
PFF graded Love at a 93.6, or in their terms, "elite" status. It surpassed the grade Love received in the postseason win over Dallas. It's a perfect example of why you can't go box score hunting to come up with a conclusion on what must've happened in a game you didn't watch.
The numbers don't jump off the page for Love against the Giants. He was 13-for-24 for 174 yards and two touchdowns. That doesn't do his performance any justice. Time and again, Love zipped one bullet after another after another right on the money. PFF doesn't count it against the quarterback when his receivers drop passes. They don't downgrade the quarterback when the offensive line looks like a revolving door.
Amid constant chaos against the Giants, Matt LaFleur highlighted that Love has
It wasn't a performance that will have many believing that the Packers have turned things around. It wasn't a performance that made many people think things are perfectly back on the straight and narrow. There's still a lot to improve upon, especially on the offensive side.
Love is
Green Bay put up 27 points, and if not for all the miscues, it could've been 40 or more. It was still a performance good enough to hang on against a 2-9 Giants team. Would that sort of performance on offense -- outside of what Love did -- be good enough against a playoff team?
Probably not.
The good thing for the Packers is there's still time to sort all of that out. The other bit of optimistic news coming from this game is that Green Bay saw it has a quarterback that can weather a storm and virtually do it himself (again, credit to Watson's performance, too) every once in a while.
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