Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love continues to do some great things in his second season as a starter. He threw three touchdown passes against the Houston Texans last Sunday to give him 15 touchdown passes on the season. That ties him for second in the league despite the fact that he missed two complete games due to injury. Love set an impressive mark against the Texans, but he still needs to clean up a few things to take his game to a truly elite level.
Packers QB Jordan Love Sets Impressive Mark: The Consistency
With his three-touchdown performance against Houston, Love has now thrown two or more touchdown passes in nine consecutive regular season games. That makes him only the fourth player in NFL history age 25 or younger to throw two or more touchdown passes in nine straight games.
Love is in pretty good company. The three previous players who did it are all either in the Pro Football Hall of Fame or expected to get there after they retire. Dan Marino accomplished it twice, once in 1984 and again late in 1986 through the start of the 1987 campaign.
Former Packers quarterback Brett Favre also threw two or more touchdown passes in 12 straight games from late 1994 into early 1995.
Current Chiefs signal caller Patrick Mahomes is the third quarterback to do it. Mahomes threw two or more touchdowns in 14 straight games from 2018 into 2019.
A Little Extra for Love
Love’s record actually extends beyond nine games. Love also threw three touchdowns in the Packers playoff win over the Cowboys last January. He also threw two more scoring passes in the team’s loss the following week to San Francisco.
That means that Love has thrown two or more touchdown passes thus far in 11 consecutive games that count for the Packers.
Of course, the record only counts regular season games, but Love’s personal streak also includes the two postseason games.
Packers QB Jordan Love Sets Impressive Mark: Still Work to be Done
While Love has thrown 15 touchdown passes in five games, he also has thrown eight interceptions. That ties him with Mahomes and Gardner Minshew for the most in the league. Love has played one fewer game than both of those players.
Too many of those interceptions have come on ill-advised throws into double coverage or when he attempted to force the ball downfield. On some of those plays, there have been outlet receivers available for a short gain which could have helped keep drives alive.
Looking Ahead
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur likes what he’s seen this season from Love, especially after he recovered from his knee injury. Still, LaFleur feels there is room for improvement.
“It’s always a fine line,” LaFleur explained to reporters. “Obviously, the quarterback’s number one job is to take care of the football. But I also don’t think, especially today [vs Houston], we didn’t put him in the best positions to throw the football. So, again, we’ll take a look at it and evaluate it, and be critical of ourselves, [and] myself more than anybody.”
Love is also trying to find the line between being aggressive and making dangerous throws that can result in turnovers.
“You’ve just got to play the game,” Love said after the win over Houston. “You’ve got to 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.”
If Love can find the sweet spot and try to make big plays but limit the high danger passes, he can firmly establish himself as one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL. He’s already close to that point.
How quickly he learns from his mistakes and finds that sweet spot will go a long way towards determining how successful the 2024 Packers will be.
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