When Packers head coach Matt LaFleur started to put together the plan for Thursday’s game against the Lions, he liked the idea of dialing up a deep ball on the first play of the game.
After Thursday’s 29-22 win, LaFleur said he had second thoughts about that call on Wednesday night and called quarterback Jordan Love to tell him. Love told him he “wanted this call,” though, and LaFleur left it in.
That decision paid off with a 53-yard strike to Christian Watson that set up a touchdown pass to Jayden Reed and kicked off an excellent day for Love. He was 22-of-32 for 268 yards and three touchdowns to continue a run of good play that reflects what LaFleur called a “night and day” difference in the quarterback’s command of the offense. That shift played into the opening play call and a lot of the other things the Packers did on Thursday.
“It’s given us a lot of confidence to be a little bit more aggressive with some of the calls,” LaFleur said at his postgame press conference. “When you’re trusting your offensive line, when you’re trusting your quarterback to facilitate and get the ball where it needs to go and throw on rhythm, that allows you to do that. We had a lot of I would say deeper developing plays and hit a lot of intermediate throws for some chunk plays that ended up being big for us.”
The win moved the Packers to 5-6 and Love’s play has provided some hope that they can make a late charge for a playoff spot. Next weekend’s game against the Chiefs will provide more evidence on that front, but, no matter the result, Green Bay is feeling a lot better about their quarterback than they were a few weeks ago.
