Packers shake off sloppy first half, Jordan Love's YOLO balls to escape from LA with win
Aside from two drives, it was not pretty for the Green Bay Packers, but winning against a team trying to save its season on the road is worth celebrating even if flaws persist.
Good morning!
The Green Bay Packers, thanks to Tucker Kraft and Xavier McKinney, outlasted the Los Angeles Rams in a mostly ugly game. Jordan Love’s uneven play from his first two starts carried over, but he looked more comfortable moving around and making throws on Sunday. Still, at 3-2, the Packers are back where they need to be in a crowded NFC.
Today's edition of The Leap assesses Love’s mercurial play, wonders what is missing up front, and praises Kraft ascension toward stardom.
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Jordan Love YOLO balls
Peter Bukowski: In his three starts this season, the Packers’ QB1 has leaned into being the variance king. He has made some outstanding throws and created explosive plays, though he has also been too reckless. After Sunday’s game, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur joked that Love’s 53-yard connection with Jayden Reed wasn’t exactly teach tape, but it shows the signal-caller’s faith in his receivers.
“We’re not necessarily encouraging that one, but he also has a lot of faith and confidence in guys around him,” LaFleur said in his postgame press conference, adding protecting the ball is the No. 1 job of the quarterback.
According to Pro Football FOcus, Love had the second highest turnover-worthy play (TWP) rate, coming in at 4.8%. That places him ahead of Will Levis (but also just ahead of Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes who are near the top of the league as well).
Last year, Love was eighth best among qualifying QBs in TWP rate despite some early season turnover struggles. It was nearly half (2.5%) of what it’s been this year so far, albeit a small sample size. He threw a Levis-level pick-six, had a 9-yard loss on a backward pass that also cost the team a 10-second runoff, and the aforementioned 53-yarder to Reed was an all-time luck throw — in fact, the least likely completion of his NFL career at 18.4% on a throw more than 60 yards in the air.
“It was a bad decision and it’s tough, but it’s all about how you respond,” Love said of of the pick-six. He added that he wasn’t trying to throw it to Kraft who was in the area, but he wanted to get enough air on the throw to not be called for intentional grounding in the end zone.
Love said he was trying not to make a bad play worse, but he did.
“It’s just understanding how critical each position is, it just came to a lack of execution early on and leading up to that pick,” Love said. “We know what time of team we are. We know what we have to do to go win games and it’s execute at a high level. It’s just focusing on getting that completion, taking it one play at a time.”
Part of the issue of forcing the ball could stem from a relative lack of under-center play-action throws, a bread-and-butter concept in the offense. Love dismissed his knee as a reason for not being under center more in this game but did admit the injury contributed last week to playing so much from shotgun.
If Love continues to put the ball in harm’s way when he has the full availability of the playbook, then we can start to be worried. For now, he, his teammates, and his coach are not concerned about the turnovers.
Pass rush
PB: The stats will say the Packers pass rush did their job: 10 quarterback hits, four tackles for loss, and three sacks says the Packers defensive front did its job. Who are you going to believe, the stats or your lying eyes?
For long stretches of this game, Matthew Stafford made throws unperturbed in the backfield despite throwing being one of the least effective pass-blocking offensive lines in the league no matter what metric you like or tape you watch. This is not a good group is pass protection.
Green Bay came out of Week 3 against a similarly bad Tennessee Titans O-line with eight sacks, but couldn’t corral or affect Stafford consistently. He’s a tricky quarterback in that way because he’s not going to take sacks, preferring instead to make a hero throw because his arm tells him he’s capable of making it. He’s usually right.
Packers DC Jeff Hafley and his unit deserve credit for holding Stafford to 5.8 yards per play regardless of who is catching passes out there. It’s still an elite quarterback running a Sean McVay offense that pulled out plenty of stops including a very cool variation on Y Leak in the second half.
Green Bay defensive tackle Karl Brooks showed up with his first extended playing time of the season, leading the team in quarterback hits with three to go with 1.5 sacks. Defensive end Rashan Gary still cannot get off the schneid with no pass-rush productivity to show for his efforts in the stat sheet.
One league coaching source told The Leap he believes the Packers were running too many games upfront rather than letting the guys rush one on one. One play in particular featured the interior defensive linemen each crashing into each other on a stunt and defensive end Kingsley Enagbare running into the pileup like an icy night on I-43.
We saw the pass rush come alive a bit in the second half when they’re able to embrace the attack mentality of getting upfield and Hafley schemes up some designer blitz looks. Getting linebacker Edgerrin Cooper more opportunities would benefit this group, as evidence by his one-armed takedown of Stafford for his first NFL sack.
Tucker Kraft has arrived
PB: That’s future All-Pro Tucker Kraft to you, sonny.
For the second week in a row, Kraft made his bid as -- are you ready for this? -- the best tight end in the NFC not named George Kittle, and we aren’t far away from removing all caveats. Kraft brings hellacious attitude as a blocker, while tapping into his estimable ability as a yards-after-catch monster this season. On his 66-yard touchdown, he reached the fastest speed of any tight end this season. According to Next Gen Stats, he leads tight ends in YAC above expected this season and the Kittle comparisons can start there.
In his prime, Kittle blocked like a lineman, caught it like a receiver, and moved like a running back with the ball in his hands. Well, Kraft’s blocking already resembles a lineman, he catches almost everything thrown at him, and he was a running back in eight-man football back in high school.
Kraft recorded two touchdowns that did not look like touchdowns when he caught it, turning them into scores because of his superlative ability to make a play. He got one like that last week too. His ability to turn nothing into something may not be matched on the team currently, even by Reed who once again shined for the Packers.
Parting Shot
PB: Who needs help with a headline?
Loved the plays to Kraft and hope that trend continues. Also seems that Cooper needs more playing time, along with Evan Williams. Agree?