Special. Surgical. Home run.
All of those terms applied to Packers quarterback Jordan Love in his first playoff start, a stunning 48-point effort at Dallas on Sunday that is shifting the trajectory for Green Bay in real time.
Love completed 76.2 of his attempts with three touchdowns and narrowly missed a perfect quarterback rating with a late incompletion. He posted the highest QBR, a metric created by ESPN to measure QB play, in playoff history and no opponent has ever scored more points in a postseason game against Dallas.
“We believed in him from the beginning,” Packers running back Aaron Jones said. “We know it’s a process. It wasn’t all on him when we couldn’t pick up a first down. All 11 across the board have to be on the same page. We knew it would take time. You heard it from me and other players, ‘We were right there, right there, right there,’ and we’ve been able to get over that hump.”
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur also said he believed in Love when the franchise decided to dump Aaron Rodgers in an offseason trade with the Jets that cleared the stage and spotlight for Love.
Even LaFleur seemed shocked by what Love did in Dallas on Sunday.
“He’s a dude. He’s a real dude,” he said.
Love put the Packers in the end zone on six of their first seven drives.
Jones said he can sense defenses aren’t able to anticipate what’s coming and felt a shift that started with Love against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 17.
“From then on, teams who tried to pressure him, he’s not exposed them, but had a good day against them,” said Jones. “We have dogs at receiver waiting to get one-on-one matchups. All we have to do up front is give Jordan a little bit of time and he’ll find an open receiver.”
Dallas didn’t record a sack or pressure for the first time this season and Love averaged 13.0 yards per attempt and 17.0 yards per completion. Those numbers put him in the top 10 in playoff history in both categories.
Love and the Packers, the youngest team to win in the playoffs in 50 years according to NFL Research, are on the road again in the divisional round. The NFC’s No. 7 seed goes to Santa Clara, Calif., on Saturday night to measure up with the No. 1 seed San Francisco 49ers, who are rested after a bye week.
“We’ve been counted out a lot of the season, but everybody keeps battling, keeps competing,” said Love, whose team started 2-5. “I think it’s just noise on the outside. We’re not worried about it. We keep coming out here and showing what we’re about, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
