Assessing Jordan Love’s Bear Beatdown To Start The New Era In Green Bay
Packers Week 1 Offensive Breakdown
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The Packers are 1-0 after whooping the Chicago Bears. I don’t know about you, but my week got a lot better witnessing a Bear beat down yesterday afternoon. I’m fired up. All off-season we looked forward to this game. The Bears were supposed to be better this year, but yesterday they struggled mightily.
With Aaron Rodgers out of the picture it was Jordan Love’s opportunity to show the world that the Packers made the right decision by drafting him in 2020. For years Love witnessed Rodgers manhandle the Chicago Bears, and now it was his turn.
The Packers got off to a hot start after feeding Aaron Jones on the first drive. It ended with a dime from Jordan Love to Romeo Doubs in the back of the endzone. 7-0. Boom.
For the next few drives Matt LaFleur seemed to forget that Aaron Jones was still on the roster. Jones didn’t touch the ball on the next 3 drives and the Packers punted all 3 times. You would think that if something worked on the first drive the Packers would keep doing it, but for whatever reason that was not the case.
Here is the simple formula for success on offense that I shared yesterday on twitter (x).
At halftime everyone and their mother was clamoring for Matt LaFleur to get the ball back into Aaron Jones’ hands. The Packers got the ball to start the 2nd half up 10-6 and right away you could tell that LaFleur checked twitter at half time. (kidding)
But clearly LaFleur knew that he needed to get back to Jones. Love completed a 51 yard screen pass to Aaron Jones and Jones followed it up with a rushing touchdown to end the drive.
The Packers forced a 3&out on the Bears ensuing drive. Then Jordan Loven led another touchdown drive ending with a 35 yard touchdown pass to Aaron Jones, putting the Packers up 24-6 with 6:00 left in the 3rd quarter. While the first half was somewhat close, the 2nd half was another story. The defense was flying around all game. The Bears had their hands full all day with the Packers pass rush.
With Aaron Jones out after injuring his hamstring, the Packers still had one more touchdown drive in them. Love threw a beautiful back shoulder throw to Romeo Doubs in the endzone putting the Packers up 31-14 in the 4th quarter. Quay Walker then picked off a horribly inaccurate throw by Justin Fields and took it to the house to get the Packers to 38 points. The game ended with the Packers crushing the Bears 38-20.
Assessing Jordan Love’s first performance of the year
What a way for Jordan Love to make his entrance as the starting QB of the Green Bay Packers. He finished the day 15/27 for 245 yards and 3 TDs and no INTs. With only the Jets vs Bills monday night game remaining, Love has the highest passer rating among QBs in week 1.
One of the most promising stats of Love’s debut was what he was able to do on 3rd and 4th down.
You don’t face any more pressure mentally than on 3rd and 4th down. It’s the make or break down in the NFL, and Jordan Love dominated. That shows the kind of player that he is. When he needs to make a play, he doesn’t fall to the pressure. He’s dialed in.
Another eye opening stat from his first start was his willingness to push the ball down the field. He averaged 9.1 yards per attempt vs the Bears which ranked 3rd in the NFL in week 1. While he’s willing to hit the checkdown, he’s not afraid to push the ball down the field. In today’s NFL hitting checkdowns all day long is not a recipe for success. You need those big plays.
Another very telling stat comes from NFL next gen stats. It’s called aggressiveness percentage.
Here’s the definition: “Aggressiveness tracks the amount of passing attempts a quarterback makes that are into tight coverage, where there is a defender within 1 yard or less of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion. AGG is shown as a % of attempts into tight windows over all passing attempts.”
Jordan Love ranked 3rd with an aggressiveness % of 22.2%. This is key along with the fact that he never really put the ball in harm's way. There may have been a time or two, but overall he was placing the ball where only his receiver could catch it.
Jordan Love proved in week 1 that he is willing to push the ball down the field and into tight windows. He trusts his arm and knows that he can make almost any throw. And he did all of this without Christian Watson. Guys, it looks like we have a great quarterback. Yes, it’s only one game, but if you’re not excited about what Love put on tape yesterday you must be a Bears fan.
The play of the Packers pass catchers
Love spread the ball around with no one having more than 4 catches. He targeted 8 different players. Aaron Jones was the most important piece on this offense on Sunday. With Jones on the field the Packers consistently moved the ball down the field. Without Jones it was much tougher for the offense. Let’s hope his hamstring injury doesn’t force him to miss anytime.
Luke Musgrave had two separate plays where he was wide open. Each time he seemed to back peddle instead of continuing to run. Maybe Love could have thrown a slightly better ball, but in my opinion those weren’t touchdowns because of Musgrave. I’m confident that those two will start to get more synced up and on the same page. The fact that Musgrave was finding ways to get wide open is what’s important. As the weeks go by that connection should get more and more dangerous.
Even though Romeo Doubs finished with 26 receiving yards you could see the connection that he and Love have already built. Love trusts Doubs more than any receiver out there on the field. When Watson returns from injury defenses will be forced to give more attention to Watson allowing Doubs to have even more opportunities.
The Backfield
The Packers need to move away from a 50/50 split between Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon. The Packers couldn’t get anything going with Dillon carrying the ball. Jones has much more juice and explosiveness which Dillon didn’t show in week 1.
The reason the Packers likely split carries is to keep Jones fresh. The Packers need him to stay healthy.
I would be interested for the Packers to try undrafted rookie Emanuel Wilson as the 2nd back and see how it goes. He was inactive yesterday. This preseason he showed elite speed and vision. Why not give him an opportunity. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an AJ Dillon fan, but when Aaron Jones is off the field the lack of speed in the backfield is wildly evident.
The Offensive Line DOMINATED
You know the offensive line played great when almost no one is talking about them. That means that they held up nicely in pass protection. Only 2 pressures allowed! (I’ll touch on the defensive dominance in another newsletter later today).
Jordan Love had all day to throw. For years the Packers have been one of the best in the league in developing offensive line talent. The Packers strength and depth on the offensive line is the team's greatest asset.
Without a top tier Oline, good luck. Just ask the Giants. Daniel Jones got destroyed by the Cowboys defensive line on nearly every play last night. While acquiring offensive lineman isn’t the flashiest move a GM can make, it’s the most impactful. Thank you Brian Gutekunst for continually investing in the offensive line.
The question now is whether or not the Packers can put up 30+ points on top tier defenses. The Bears were one of the worst in the league last year. They did make improvements on the defensive side of the ball, but the Packers will face much tougher competition as the season continues.
All in all this was an incredible start for the Packers offense. Now it wasn’t perfect. There are things to clean up. But this team showed that they shouldn't be taken lightly. Jordan Love proved in this first game that he can ball. This pre-season we witnessed glimpses of greatness, and that was on full display yesterday in Chicago.
This newsletter has become very long so I will be sending out a separate one later today doing a deep dive on the defensive performance. If you’d like to receive it feel free to subscribe below.
Love also well overthrew a wide open tighten that would have led to another TD, that you did mention. La Fleur forgot about using Jones because he is a bad whiny coach. There is a lot of firing Guntekunst has to do when the time comes. He knew he has enough to beat the lowly Bears.