Sitting at 4-6, with questions and injuries across their roster, Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers rolled into Detroit facing an impossible, must win game. With their backs against the wall, on primetime, Love and the Packers delivered a master class performance to come away with a much needed 29-22 win on the road.
Speaking after the game, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said "I hope we gave Packers fans a lot to cheer about today," recognizing the rough start to the season. For the first time in 2023, the Packers played a complete game and showed up on the national stage.
The most important aspect of the Packers win was the resurgence of Love and the Matt LaFleur offense. Even without All-Pro running back Aaron Jones, LaFleur mixed in enough of the running game from AJ Dillon and Patrick Taylor to make Love effective in play-action concepts.
Without Dontavyion Wicks or Luke Musgrave on offense, Love relied on his "veterans" Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson. After having a rough beginning to the season, Watson played like the 6'4 star that he is on Thursday. Watson made three contested catches on the opening touchdown drive, including a 53 yard bomb on the opening play.
Once the offense got rolling with a beautiful touchdown pass to Jayden Reed on the opening drive, the Green Bay defense terrorized Jared Goff all afternoon. Rashan Gary had three sacks, two forced fumbles and more pressures than we could count. After tearing his ACL at Ford Field in Detroit almost exactly a year ago, Gary played with reckless abandon that made life very difficult for Goff and the Lions offense.
Other than having. a Detroit Lions engraved turkey prepared by the NFL, Jordan Love seemed to gain plenty of national recognition for his first Thanksgiving game. Love joins Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre as Packers' quarterbacks to throw for 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in their first start on the holiday.
After the Packers took down their divisional rival, they were aided in the playoff hunt by a San Francisco 49ers win, which put both the 6th seeded Seahawks and 7th seeded Minnesota Vikings within one game of Green Bay. With a very easy remaining schedule, outside of next Sunday's matchup with the Chiefs, the Packers have a real chance of sneaking into the playoffs with 9 or 10 wins.
Next up, the Packers welcome Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs to Lambeau Field for Sunday Night Football next week. Love's first NFL start was at Arrowhead Stadium against the Chiefs, and he will be looking to make a second straight primetime statement against one of the top teams in the league. The Packers are 13-0 in Matt LaFleur's tenure while playing in the month of December, and Green Bay will need another winter run to make some noise in the NFC playoff picture.
Will Love do it again? Will Taylor Swift be at Lambeau? Find out next week, at TDT Media.
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