Green Bay Packers

Jordan Love provides hope for Packers' present, future in emphatic Thanksgiving win

Updated Nov. 23, 2023 6:38 p.m. ET

Carmen Vitali

NFC North Reporter

"Where did this Jordan Love kid come from?"

"Aren't the Detroit Lions supposed to be good this year?"

"I can't name a single player in Green Bay's secondary."

"Did you know Dan Campbell loves going for it on fourth down?"

These conversations and more were undoubtedly echoing through living rooms all across the country as the Packers and Lions kicked off the holiday slate of games on Thanksgiving. It's the NFL's most-played matchup in its 100-plus-year history. It almost always goes in the Packers' favor and Thursday's 29-22 Green Bay win was no exception.

The moon was in a waxing gibbous phase, after all.

That wasn't the expectation coming in, however. Detroit was 8-2. Green Bay is the youngest team in the league with a new quarterback under center. These aren't your father's Lions; they're competing for the NFC's top seed! Things were supposed to have changed.

But while everyone was busy marveling about Detroit, the Packers were quietly getting better… and better. And so was their young signal caller.

Love finished the afternoon 22-of-32 for 268 yards and three touchdowns against no interceptions. He had a passer rating of 125.5 — a career-high in a full game. It comes as Love has shown steady signs of improvement over the past few weeks. The Packers have now won three of their last four following a four-game losing skid. What's more is that Love has shown leadership and poise through it all, looking every bit the franchise quarterback Green Bay hoped he'd be.

"He's honestly the most confident guy I've played with just in terms of his ability to stay in it regardless of the circumstances," said wide receiver Christian Watson, who had his best game of the season with five catches for 94 yards and a touchdown. "He's doing his thing out here. I'm proud of him."

It's made more impressive by the fact that Love is surrounded by youth everywhere he turns. He's been thrust into a leadership role among players who need it. Every non-running back who caught a pass from Love on Thursday is in his first or second season in the NFL.

There have predictably been growing pains. Not only did Love have to learn about his receivers, his receivers had to figure him out — even those like Watson, who worked out with Love over the summer separately from team activities.

"You really only get that stuff out of playing real football," said Watson. "You don't really get that stuff outside of the games […] You find different ways to grow and different ways to come together as a team."

Just past the halfway mark of the season, it seems like they are. When Love scrambled, his receivers scrambled with him. On Love's first pass to Heath, the original play broke down and Love scrambled. Heath doubled back to create separation from his defender and Love was able to track him down and get the ball to him for a 16-yard gain and the first down.

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"That play to Malik (Heath) was kind of an off-schedule play," said Love. "But I think it's all part of this that the receivers are starting to understand exactly the timing of plays, I'm having a better feel of the time of plays, when they're getting open versus certain looks and just when and where they need to be. The off-schedule play to Malik, that's something we've been working all season on, going into scramble mode and trying to ways to get open and create some separation."

The offensive line seemed to be in sync with Love, too. The Lions failed to record a sack and for most of the first half, couldn't get pressure on Love at all. Even when that changed a little bit in the second half, Love was able to evade defenders on his own or get the ball out quickly. He never looked rattled.

It showed against the Los Angeles Chargers at home last week: the experience the team has together is leading to more trust. That trust makes head coach Matt LaFleur more comfortable. We saw many fun things from the Green Bay offense in Detroit: side-arm throws by Love, impossible-looking tight-window throws (even if some of them are on accident), run-pass options that let Love show off his wheels.

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"It's given us a lot of confidence to be a little more aggressive with some of the calls," said LaFleur. "When you trust in your offensive line and when you trust in your quarterback to facilitate and get the ball where it needs to go and throw on rhythm, it allows you to do that. We had a lot of deeper developing plays and hit a lot of intermediate throws for some chunk plays that ended up being big for us."

One of those came on the first play of the game. Love hit Watson on a 53-yard pass down the field after the Packers won the coin toss and elected to start with the ball. The team had decided that was going to be the first play on Wednesday. LaFleur tried to change it this morning. But Love wouldn't let him.

"He said he wanted this call," LaFleur said. The Packers scored four plays later and never gave up the lead.

The country got its formal introduction to Jordan Love on Thanksgiving. From the looks of it, he's going to be around for a while.

Carmen Vitali covers the NFC North for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.