The Packers need quarterback Jordan Love and prove that he can be the consistent superstar they saw last season. That needs to start against the Jaguars in Week 8.
The Green Bay Packers need Jordan Love to become the Jordan Love of the end of the 2023 season in Week 8 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Simply put, it's time for Love to put it all together.
So far this season, he's had one truly all-around game. That was in Week 6 against the Arizona Cardinal when he completed 22-of-32 passes for 248 yards and four touchdowns (one interception) with a passer rating of 119.5. It's not shocking that the Arizona win was Green Bay's best of the season. The Packers took care of the Cardinals, 34-13, and looked like a Super Bowl contender in the process.
That's not to say the Pack looked bad in their other six games. This is a 5-2 team, after all, and they are coming off a win over another Super Bowl contender, the Houston Texans.
It's just that through seven games, this is a Packers offense that's still clearly not all put together. Much of that is because Love was hurt at the end of Week 1 against the Eagles and he missed the next two games. Head coach Matt LaFleur had to completely remake the offense into a run-heavy scheme in order to cater to backup Malik Willis and to the Packers' credit, they went 2-0 in those games.
From Love's offense to Willis' offense, back to Love's, though, the Packers have barely had any opportunity to develop consistency.
In Love's first game back, against the Los Angeles Rams, he was still clearly a bit hobbled.
He looked much better against the Cardinals and the expectation was that he'd keep flying against the Texans. Yes, he threw three for touchdowns and led a game-winning drive against Houston but he also threw two more interceptions.
We're about to hit November and Love has already thrown eight interceptions, when all of last season he threw just 11. He's been underwhelming in that regard, and underwhelming is not going to get it done in an NFC North that also features the 5-1 Detroit Lions, 5-1 Minnesota Vikings, and 4-2 Chicago Bears.
The Packers need Love, the potential superstar, to actually realize that potential for the rest of this season to win the North and make the playoffs. Keep in mind, in a division like this, a Wild Card spot is no guarantee either.
Packers' Jordan Love can do better
The thing is, Love has proven to be more than capable of taking care of the football. Last season's tremendous run to the playoffs saw him go through a stretch in which he threw 18 touchdowns compared to just one interception. He then followed that up by dropping 272 yards and three touchdowns with no picks in the Wildcard Round against the Dallas Cowboys in a stunning 48-32 win on the road.
Perhaps not ironically, Love's final pass of that playoff run was an interception in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers, and he's not yet gotten rid of that bad habit from that moment on.
Some of it is his mindset. He's proven unflappable and for a franchise that has seen the back-to-back transition of Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers, Love certainly has a bit more Favre in him than he does the latter.
He's a gunslinger and mistakes don't bother him. For him, taking chances in order to make big plays is part of football at the highest level.
“You just gotta play the game,” Love told the Packers website after the win over the Texans. “You've gotta go out there and play it. You can't try and not be aggressive and take checkdowns all day. You've got to be out there and be aggressive and go win those games. I'm always going to play the way I play, and learn from mistakes, and grow from them.”
“It's the NFL,” Love continued. “There's not always going to be wide-open guys. You've got to fit the ball in there sometimes.
The beautiful thing about Love's game is that he can fit the ball into some unbelievable windows. There are few quarterbacks alive who can throw the ball like he does. Now the Pack just need him to do so consistently while limiting the turnovers.
He can do it, and he must do it for the Packers to be legitimate Super Bowl contenders. It also must start in Week 8 against a Jaguars team that's amongst the worst in the league defensively, giving up 376.4 yards per game.
The time is now for Love to dominate because it's not going to get any easier this season.
