Matt LaFleur wasn’t going to let a couple of miscues by Jordan Love ruin what he saw over the past two months: a young quarterback who proved to be a worthy replacement for Aaron Rodgers.
Love’s two interceptions — including the backbreaker while trying to lead a game-tying or game-winning drive in the final minute of Saturday’s 24-21 NFC divisional playoff loss at the San Francisco 49ers — will linger in everyone’s mind, Love’s included, for the short term.
But when LaFleur, his coaching staff, general manager Brian Gutekunst and the rest of the Packers’ front office look at things from a 10,000-foot view, what they likely will see is what LaFleur said after the loss.
“He’s had an outstanding season,” LaFleur said. “I know it didn’t end the way we wanted it to. I couldn’t be more proud of just who he is as a man, first and foremost, as a leader of this team. I know this one’s going to hurt him. I’m sure he’ll be really hard on himself. He’s just got to use it as fuel to continue to get better.
“But I think you saw so much growth throughout the course of the season, not only from just his ability to go out there and play consistent winning football, but also I think he grew as a leader. And I think that’s very important, obviously, to be the franchise quarterback that I expect him to be for a long time around here.”
The Packers couldn’t say that for sure 2½ months ago. At 2-5 in early November, Gutekunst said he needed more time to evaluate Love and hoped the final stretch of the season would answer any questions.
“I think we’ve got 10 games left,” Gutekunst said. “These are going to be a very important 10 games.”
At that point, Love ranked last in completion rate (57.7%) among the 32 qualifying quarterbacks, and the Packers were 25th in total yards per game and 21st in passing yards per game.
Things began to look up just two weeks later. From the Week 11 win over the Chargers to the end of the regular season, Love threw 18 touchdowns and just one interception while completing 70.3% of his passes. He won the NFC’s Offensive Player of the Week for each of the final two games, victories the Packers had to have to finish 9-8 and make the playoffs.
If the rest of the league hadn’t noticed at that point, they did in the wild-card round against the Cowboys — Love threw for 272 yards and three touchdowns in the 48-32 win.
Despite two touchdowns against the 49ers, Love’s accuracy dipped and his two interceptions were reminiscent of mistakes he made during the early portion of the season.
Leading 21-14 late in the third quarter, Love threw high and behind tight end Tucker Kraft, who tried to get a hand on the ball but deflected it right to linebacker Dre Greenlaw. His second interception was the fatal blow to this game. On first down from his own 36 yard line with 52 seconds left, Love rolled to his right to buy time and then threw off his back foot, across his body and over the middle of the field, where Greenlaw had an easy pick.
Love admitted afterward that everything he did on that play fell into quarterback coach Tom Clements’ list of mortal sins for a passer.
“It’ll sting for a while,” Love said. “Watching all the games going forward, it will sting just knowing that we had an opportunity to win and we dropped the ball on that one. It’ll sting for a while, but we’ll be able to look back on it and see some good things we did.
“Obviously during the offseason, trying to work on the things we didn’t do as well and the things we need to get better at. But definitely going to get to it and attack it, but it will sting for a while.”
In some ways, Love is already ahead of where Rodgers and Brett Favre were at this point in their careers as starters. Neither made the playoffs in his first season as the starter. Rodgers didn’t win a playoff game until his third season as the starter — when he and the Packers won Super Bowl XLV.
“We got us a great quarterback,” running back Aaron Jones said. “He’s shown it over 21 weeks. I think he’s just going to continue to get better with the reps he gets. His time with the guys up front, it’s my job to make his job easier as well. He’s a real deal quarterback.”
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