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Carmen Vitali
NFC North Reporter
The Green Bay Packers were playing with house money and against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in the divisional round of the NFC Playoffs. Ultimately, it ran out. Green Bay lost 24-21.
It really was that close. In a game in which the Packers were the overwhelming underdogs, there were six lead changes. Green Bay kept pace with one of the NFL’s best teams. Head coach Matt LaFleur dueled admirably with his mentor, Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan.
But Jordan Love’s penchant for throwing his chips up and letting them fall where they may finally caught up with him. With 52 seconds left in the game, two timeouts left and 25-30 yards to go to give rookie kicker Anders Carlson a shot at a game-tying field goal, Love threw a ball downfield across his body, off his back foot, while on the run. It was picked off.
Call it the arrogance of youth.
To be fair, that sort of play has mostly worked out for Love this season — and Carlson had missed a 41-yard kick on the previous drive. I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to see Love step into a throw. He’s still getting experience, figuring out when he’s got a chance or when the house is stacked against him.
“Part of the reason it stings so bad is we fully believed and fully expected to win,” said LaFleur after the game. “Felt like we had plenty of opportunities to put the game out of reach and unfortunately didn’t do enough.”
It almost worked out. It’s a tease that the Packers came so painfully close to pulling off an almost unfathomable upset, but any takeaways from this game, or this season as a whole, should be positive.
Green Bay wasn’t supposed to be here. This is the first post-Rodgers season with a first-year starter with all first- and second-year weapons. First, first, first. Who could have expected this? The primary thing that was supposed to come out of this season was figuring out if Green Bay’s hunch was true about a 2020…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/jordan-love-packers-are-just-getting-started-green-bays-future-is-very-bright
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Publish date : 2024-01-21 14:22:51
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