'We're a mess': Packers' struggles extend beyond Jordan Love

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Here’s the start to the Jordan Love era all wrapped up in one play Sunday from the Green Bay Packers‘ 24-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field:

It’s the Packers’ first possession of the third quarter, and they’re trailing 17-3 after another abysmal start. On third-and-8 from his own 27-yard line, Love takes a deep shot down the middle of the field, underthrows rookie receiver Jayden Reed and watches as a veteran player, fourth-year safety Josh Metellus, rips it away from Reed at the Vikings’ 37 for an interception that he returns to the Packers’ 20, where the Vikings score on the next play.

Not that one play would have changed things on Sunday, but if someone asked for one play to sum up the start to the post-Aaron Rodgers era, that might be it.

Throw all of it — another early deficit, Love’s underthrow, the rookie mistake by Reed and the turnover — into a cauldron, and it makes one foul-tasting witch’s brew that the Packers keep serving up week after week, loss after loss, on their way to a four-game losing streak and a 2-5 record.

“Those are the things that we can look back and say, ‘I wish I could have thrown this ball a little bit farther,”’ Love said. “But it comes down to execution, making those plays, me making better throws, and guys just going out there and competing and winning when the ball’s in the air. But it’s a great play by [Metellus].”

Thanks for the treat 🎃@NoExcuses_23

📺: @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/2JHlCgZR3O

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 29, 2023

What looked like a promising start for Love, who led the Packers to a 2-1 start and had seven touchdowns and just one interception through three games, has turned into a weekly slog. Three of the teams the Packers have lost to during this four-game streak came into that contest with a losing record.

Their problems run deeper than just Love. Throw in 11 penalties for 99 yards Sunday, the most in Matt LaFleur’s five seasons as coach, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

But for a team that is used to having a field-tilting quarterback in Rodgers, this is a new experience.

Love completed just 5 of 16 passes on throws that traveled 10 or more yards downfield. That includes the interception. Love has thrown eight interceptions this season, with all of them coming on such throws — the most in the NFL — and he ranks 31st in the league in completion rate (36%) on throws of 10 or more yards, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

That’s not the only measure by which to judge Love, but it’s an important one.

“I think, obviously, not good enough,” Love said when asked to assess his season to date. “It’s been, I think, pretty average to start. We got highs and lows. Myself, it’s too bumpy right now. I need to find consistency in my play, where I’m able to make every play, go to the right place with the ball on every play. And it’s gotta be more consistent from me, and I think that’s where I’m lacking right now.”

LaFleur, however, suggested Love hasn’t gotten much help.

“We’ve got to make some plays for him too,” LaFleur said. “I think we had like six dropped balls. That’s going to be tough to overcome. We’ve got to catch it, we’ve got to throw better, we’ve got to catch it better. We’ve got to block better. We’ve got to stop having penalties that knock us back and put us in these obvious pass situations.”

LaFleur must be a tougher grader than ESPN Stats & Info, which credited the Packers with just two drops — one by running back Aaron Jones in the first quarter and another by receiver Dontayvion Wicks in the fourth.

Whether or not it was a drop, Packers tight end Luke Musgrave said he should have caught the third-and-6 pass Love threw his way on the second drive, which contributed to another miserable start for a Packers team that has been outscored 73-9 in the first halves of their past five games.

“We’ve got to start fast,” Musgrave said. “And I’m looking at myself for that.”

And perhaps general manager Brian Gutekunst should be looking at himself for not surrounding Love with a more veteran roster, as the Packers are the youngest team in the NFL.

LaFleur also might have been counting Quay Walker‘s near interception among the Packers’ drops. Kirk Cousins threw one right to the Packers’ linebacker on the second play of the Vikings’ first drive, and Walker couldn’t haul it in. It could have set the Packers up with prime field position, at worst, and possibly with points if Walker could’ve scored.

“Defense wins games,” Walker said. “Just got to come down with that play. We can sit right here and we can blame the offense all we want to, but we’re a team and I hold myself accountable for the play that I did not make. That’s one of them I wish I could get back, but I can’t.”

After the preceding two losses at the Las Vegas Raiders and Denver Broncos, LaFleur said the defense did enough — holding those teams to 17 and 19 points, respectively — to win those games. On Sunday, he couldn’t even say that. Cousins picked apart the Packers on third downs. He completed 12 of 13 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown on third downs before exiting with an Achilles injury, and the Vikings converted 10 of 18 third downs (plus their lone fourth down) into first downs.

It all led LaFleur to end his postgame interview on the team’s radio network with this: “It’s just like, you know, we’re a mess right now.”