Game One of the official start of the Jordan Love Era—however long that will last—began in what one has to admit was an impressive 38-20 victory, insofar as the Packers seemed well-prepared to play against an ill-prepared Bears for their ninth-straight win in the “greatest rivalry” in the NFL in Matt LaFleur’s coaching tenure. I was only able to take in the game via the Bears Radio Network, and on some of the postgame commentary we could hear language referencing the Bears’ performance that one might say the FCC might frown upon on the public airwaves.
To be honest, after the Packers scored an early short-field touchdown after the Bears botched a fourth-down play, I started to have my doubts following three punts and rookie Anders Carlson bailing Love out by kicking a 52-yard field goal on the last play of the first half after the Packers failed to take advantage of another short field opportunity. Love played as I feared he would in the first half, generally speaking. It was noted repeatedly by the game commentators that Love was not effective on deep throws because of his tendency to just airmail the ball hoping someone would run under it, and frequently on short throws where Love would fire-breath uncatchable balls.
The Packers were also largely unable to run the ball early, with AJ Dillon in particular having trouble getting past the line of scrimmage; whether this could be an issue with the offensive line remains to be seen. That the Packers managed to enter halftime with a 10-6 lead was largely the result of a Packer defense that read Bears’ quarterback Justin Fields like a book. While Fields is clearly the Bears best offensive weapon, that really doesn’t say much for an offense that even in practice, we were told, was having a hard time scoring touchdowns.
The second half was a bit different, and as we often saw with Aaron Rodgers, it was a tale of two halfs. On the Packers first drive of the third quarter, Love managed to get the ball on a screen pass to the Packers’ best playmaker, Aaron Jones, who rumbled 51-yards downfield for the longest play of the game, followed by a Jones 1-yard run for a touchdown. Jones followed this with 35-yard TD catch-and-run on fourth down for a 24-6 lead. After the Bears cut the lead to 10, Love made the play of the day when after dropping the snap, picked up the ball and caught the Bears secondary napping as TE Luke Musgrave stood all alone 37 yards downfield waiting for the ball, which if it had been better thrown would have resulted in a touchdown.
As it happened Romeo Doubs caught his second TD pass of the game to make 31-14, and that was quickly followed by Fields throwing a pick-6 to Quay Walker to make it 38-14 and the rout was on. The Bears managed to score a late touchdown and backup QB Sean Clifford got in a few snaps at the end of the game.
The final score suggested an impressive win and good performance by Love, who after a slow start finished with 245 yards, three TD passes and a 123 QB rating. Of course the Bears did their part, showing no improvement over their 3-14 record last season. Fields just isn’t that good, and he has no real playmakers around him. As for the Packers, Jones limped off the field after his 35-yard touchdown catch, so that could be a problem if he isn’t available going forward for the Packers offense, which can’t expect the defense to always keep things tight if the offense struggles until it gets its act together.
Next week it is against the Falcons team led by second-year quarterback Desmond Ridder, who I’m sure most people never heard of. Although the Falcons beat the Panthers 24-10, the Falcons only gained 221 yards of total offense, half of that on two TD drives in the fourth quarter following turnovers. This is another road game, but this is the kind of opponent that Packers in normal times should be expected to beat, and they should if Love is for real.
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