Jordan Love Obliterated The Patriots And Staked His Claim As A True MVP Candidate
Michael Owens. Getty Images.Sunday's game in Foxboro represented a massive opportunity for both the Packers and Patriots. With a win you solidify yourself as a legitimate contender in your conference, whereas a loss leaves you a bit fraudulent. Every loss for the Pack means so much with the gauntlet NFC playoff picture shaping up. New England welcomed Gronk back, enshrining him into the team's HOF. The atmosphere was electric, Brady was in the building, and it had all the feels of a big game vibe.
Now that the dust has fallen we're left to believe one thing—Jordan Love is a real deal Holyfield bonafide MVP candidate. There's no hiding it anymore. He's playing the best football of his career, which is saying something with the inept offensive line and running game he's had to overcome. How's 23 for 29, 372 yards, three touchdowns, one more rushing, and zero turnovers. Oh and he did that in three quarters basically. You really can't play better than this.
Some of these throws man. The arm talent is crazy. The ball placement. All of it is effortless.
I mean good lord.
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This ball ends up past the 50, leading Watson down the field away from his defender. There's zero play on this ball if you're Gonzalez. You can't do it better than Love here.
And the silencer. What happens when Love has a clean pocket? You lose every single time if you're on defense.
There are a bunch of QBs who get a chunk of their passing yards with screens and quick hitter short yardage that gets plenty of YAC COUGH COUGH Bo Nix COUGH COUGH *, but not Jordan Love. If you tune in for a Packers you will watch this man relentlessly sling the football down the field. Look at this passing chart, it's beautiful. This, my friends, is real hoops.
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If I present to you a true gunslinger who only wants to throw it down the field paired with a bad offensive line, you'd try to dial up blitzes left and right to take away his time, right? Well bad news, Love doesn't need time. When you do this you get Watson and Golden single covered and you're gonna have a bad time with that.
The scariest part of this Packers team that really makes them a team to fear is the defense. I was terrified of Hafley leaving for Miami, but Gannon has come in here and hasn't skipped a beat. Green Bay features the best safety tandem in the NFL with X and E-Will hawking balls. They made Drake Maye's life a nightmare yesterday.
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There have been plenty of Packers defenses in the past where you can see that will be their eventual doom. It's the opposite here. You've got a unit that can flip the game on its head, and oh by the way Micah Parsons is back in a few weeks. Last year when Parsons was on the field this team was a true Super Bowl contender. I'm not expecting him to be in prime form right off the bat here, but his presence will make everyone else on that front seven even better. That's the beauty of Micah.
Here's the problem. No one loses in the NFC. The fucking North and West are gauntlets.
Seriously, who is missing the playoffs here? The Bears don't lose, the Lions play nobody, Minnesota wins with seven points, Seattle is the defending SB champs, and even with their injuries the Rams are scary. Is it really going to be Seattle? I know they have big injuries and maybe another with Puka, but with Garrett back the Rams are gonna miss? If that's not true then who drops out? I think the Lions are the weakest team, but their schedule is pretty soft. A Vikings loss tonight helps paint that picture a bit better, but now Kyler is on the bench so they've got some offense coming here with Wentz.
Green Bay's next two games will be extremely telling. Minnesota next Sunday followed by Thanksgiving Eve against the Rams, a game that's expected to be Parsons' return date. If the Packers go 2-0 in that stretch they'll be in a prime position to avoid the chopping block. Get tripped up and things become very tricky very fast. Who knows.
What I do know is that Jordan Love is a true MVP candidate through nine weeks. MVP odds and totem pole spot this early mean relatively nothing, it's more to just say he's playing the QB position just about better than anyone else. For the most part opposing defenses know Love is throwing the ball a large majority of the game, and throwing it down the field at that. It hasn't mattered. This offense made Christian Gonzalez look ordinary yesterday.
Golden goes 10 catches on 10 targets for 164 yards and a touchdown. Watson 7 for 171 with a score himself. Love has helped these guys become one of the best WR duos in the league. Lot of hard games coming up here, but this shit looked so bad three weeks in. The fact they've turned this around with a makeshift o-line on the fly is a fucking miracle. That's what Jordan Love is though, a miracle worker.
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P.S. Was nice to see Zeitler get in a game finally. Immediately made plays. Get Aaron Banks gone and just go with Zeitler and Tomlinson. You finally had an ounce of a running game yesterday with Kaleb Johnson hitting some holes. As great as Love has been, you will need some sort of running game to win games in January. Play Zeitler.