Whereas the pregame hype was centered round Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love stole the present on Sunday night time whereas main the Packers to a 35-25 win over the Steelers and his former teammate.
In a twist of irony, Love’s sensible night time included him tying a franchise report with Brett Favre, the Packers’ Corridor of Fame quarterback whom Rodgers succeeded as Inexperienced Bay’s QB1 in 2008. In the course of the recreation, Love tied Favre’s 18-year-old franchise report by finishing 20 consecutive passes. Paradoxically, Rodgers was Favre’s teammate when Favre accomplished 20 straight passes through the 2007 season.
“It is undoubtedly particular,” Love advised NBC Sports activities afterward. “Clearly, I feel we confronted a bit adversity within the first half and bounced again. We knew it was gonna be a hyped-up recreation all week going in opposition to A-Rod. Glad we got here in right here dealt with enterprise.”
Love’s scorching streak helped the Packers flip a 16-7 halftime deficit right into a 35-19 lead with just below 4 minutes to play. He had a number of success throwing to tight finish Tucker Kraft, who caught seven passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns on Nationwide Tight Ends Day.
“We knew we simply needed to give attention to the small print,” Love stated of Inexperienced Bay’s halftime changes. “All people’s obtained to go on the market, do their job and simply lock in and go on the market and make the performs we weren’t making within the first half. And we did.”
They definitely did. And whereas it was a whole group effort, the Packers’ dominant second-half efficiency was keyed by Love, who completed the sport with 360 yards on 29 of 37 passing whereas changing into the primary Packers quarterback since Corridor of Famer Bart Starr to get a win in Pittsburgh.
Like Rodgers and Favre, Love spent three years as Rodgers’ teammate earlier than getting an opportunity to steer the Packers’ offense. However in contrast to Rodgers, Love led the Packers to the playoffs throughout his first season because the group’s QB1 that included a surprising upset win over Dallas within the NFC wild-card spherical.
Love and the Packers had been unable to duplicate that stage of success in 2024, nevertheless. Whereas they made the playoffs, the Packers had been shortly dismissed by the eventual champion Eagles within the first spherical. Love particularly took a step again that was largely the byproduct of accidents that began throughout Inexperienced Bay’s season-opening loss to the Eagles.
The 2024 season was additionally a tough one for Rodgers, who signed with Pittsburgh this offsason after a tumultuous two seasons with the Jets. Rodgers has discovered new life in Pittsburgh as he appears to be like to cap off his future Corridor of Fame profession on a optimistic observe.
Love is trying to be part of Rodgers, Favre and Starr as Packers quarterbacks who received the Tremendous Bowl throughout their age 27 season. Whereas he is nonetheless a methods a method from doing that, Love helped that trigger on Sunday night time because the 5-1-1 Packers maintained their spot atop the NFC North.
Within the course of, Love tied Favre within the historical past books whereas denying Rodgers the excellence of changing into the fifth quarterback in historical past to defeat all 32 groups.
