It's the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings. It's a classic rivalry with no love lost between both sides, but ironically, the status of Green Bay's "Love" is still up in the air.
Despite seemingly being well ahead of schedule in his recovery from an injured MCL in Week 1 and being oh-so-close to playing this past weekend against the Tennessee Titans, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur still doesn't seem ready to give starting quarterback Jordan Love the all-clear to play in Week 4.
“I’m sure he’ll be limited. Then work it day-by-day," LaFleur said, via Dominique Yates of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel when asked about Love's status after the win over Tennessee. “We’ll see. I think anybody that saw what happened to him, that’s a legitimate injury. He’s working through it. He’s doing everything in his power to be out there. We want him out there."
Of course, he was saying these things on Monday and the time between then and Sunday is an eternity in the NFL universe.
Keep in mind, Love did pregame drills as well as conditioning this past Sunday before the game, and he was only ruled inactive against Tennessee just before the contest began.
It's worth noting that the Packers may not even necessarily need Love in order to beat the Vikings.
Minnesota is great right now thanks to the resurgence of Sam Darnold at quarterback, but the Packers have been experiencing career resurgence of their own at quarterback with the play of Malik Willis, who joined the team in late August via a trade with the Titans — the team he just beat.
Willis is no Love, and LaFleur alluded to that is his comment that the Packers do want Love to play against the Vikings. The Pack are 2-0 under Willis, though, and he's proved to be more than capable of running LaFleur's offense efficiently.
Willis' ability to hit the passes he's asked to throw — combined with a strong running game and a defense that leads the league in turnovers through three weeks — should keep the Packers competitive against Minnesota if Love can't go.
In that situation, Willis will also have some help from the quarterback he's replacing.
“Jordan has been awesome. He’s always been a good teammate from the day he got here,” LaFleur explained. “I thought throughout the course of the week, helping Malik out, giving him little pointers and coaching points, I think he’s done a phenomenal job with the communication. He stands right by me on game day. If he sees something, he tells me. If Malik needed a play call, he’s standing right there to let me know. He’s been excellent on the sideline. I can’t say enough about him.”
