Packers’ season hinges on health of Jordan Love’s left leg: Schneidman

SÃO PAULO — The Packers’ season hung in the balance and their first game wasn’t even over.

Quarterback Jordan Love writhed in pain on the field, throwing his right leg in the air. His left just got jammed under Eagles defensive lineman Jalen Carter and bent awkwardly on the third-to-last play of the game as edge rusher Josh Sweat hit him over the top. Love prepared to throw a Hail Mary, but the opportunity wasn’t there and he took the hits when he managed to throw the ball to running back Josh Jacobs behind him.

The $220 million man from Green Bay, tied for the highest-paid player in NFL history and the new face of the franchise, was helped off the field by team doctor Patrick McKenzie and trainer Nate Weir. On the final two plays of the game with Love on the sideline, backup quarterback Malik Willis threw out of bounds and was sacked. The Eagles won, 34-29, starting 1-0 while the Packers started 0-1. But one win or one loss seemed so insignificant compared to the health of a Green Bay player’s Super Bowl hopes — playoff hopes, even — so much depends on it.

Love also appeared to need help leaving the field after the final whistle. Jacobs and Weir flanked him. After the game, Love was seen walking out of the locker room under his own power without too noticeable of a limp. If anything, he slightly favored his right side, which would make sense considering what happened on the play. He wore a white sweatshirt with the hood over his head and did not make himself available to reporters, as he normally is after every game when healthy. Head coach Matt LaFleur was asked two consecutive questions about Love, one about what he knew about Love’s injury and one about what happened to Love. He replied, “I don’t know” to both.

“I mean, obviously, you don’t want to see any of your teammates get hurt, but obviously you don’t want to see the leader of your team get hurt,” Jacobs said. “So we don’t know the severity of his injury, but hopefully he’s OK.”

Jalen Hurts made sure to find Jordan Love after the game.

Respect 💚 #GBvsPHI pic.twitter.com/kTkekdoKnU

— NFL (@NFL) 7 September 2024

There may be many Packers fans and even those within the organization going to sleep on Friday night and into Saturday morning praying that Love will be good. They should, because it’s no exaggeration to say the Packers’ season depends on his health. That is a statement of the obvious. If he’s out for the season or even an extended stretch, what started as a season filled with promise for the Packers would take a major hit. When clicking, and he wasn’t quite on his game Friday night, Love can be one of the league’s best quarterbacks. He showed as much in the second half of last season, when from Week 11 through the wild-card round he threw 21 touchdowns and just one interception in leading the Packers to a surprising Divisional Round appearance. The removal of his reserve, Willis, as is the case with many other teams in the league, seems significant.

Sure, Love only played half a season worthy of his $55 million a year payday, but that’s the cost of doing business in the NFL when a quarterback of his caliber enters a contract year. It would be difficult to repeat his production from late last season in his second year as a starter, a thought I put to cornerback Keisean Nixon a few weeks ago while reporting a story on Love’s journey to becoming the franchise quarterback.

“Huh?” Nixon asked, implying that Love was primed to pick up right where he left off. Those inside Lambeau Field apparently had every belief that he could.

Against the Eagles, Love threw an interception when he tried to fit a pass down the middle into an overly tight slot to tight end Luke Musgrave. Safety Reed Blankenship picked him off and the Eagles scored a touchdown four plays later to take a 31-26 lead late in the third quarter. Love also short-armed a throw over the middle to wide receiver Jayden Reed, who probably would have gone for an explosive gain and threw slightly behind wideout Romeo Doubs on what would have been another nice gain over the middle. He slipped on the field in Brazil — he was far from the only one — and should have thrown a pick-six when he checked the ball down to Jacobs, but linebacker Nakobe Dean somehow dropped the ball after jumping on the pass.

Love had his fair share of plays we expect from him, too, namely the 70-yard touchdown pass to Reed, on which Love quickly stepped into the pocket and threw on the run to a wide-open Reed, who did the rest on a breakaway. gear But there wasn’t much, if anything, that dropped jaws like Love’s play late in his first season starting. Even if Love wasn’t the player on Friday night that we saw for the majority of the second half of last season, there’s no reason to believe before his injury that he couldn’t be that guy with more playing time this year. He still could be, depending on the official results of his injury, but we just don’t know what those results have yet. It will be a tense few hours and maybe even days before a collective sigh of relief from the Packers and their fans or a certain amount of greatness forming in their stomachs.

“That’s the franchise right there,” defensive tackle Kenny Clark said of Love. “Hopefully he can come back next week and he can be OK.”

The Packers have about 10 hours on the flight back to Green Bay to reflect on everything that went wrong in their season-opening loss — struggling to get Jacobs going early, the litany of costly penalties, Brayden Narveson’s missed 43-yard field goal, the bunch. of missed tackles – but only one thing really matters going out on Friday night. If Love is good – and by good, I mean not out for an extended period – then all is well. If the news is what some fear, then brace yourself for a long, miserable winter in the Frozen Tundra.

“Whatever it is, we’re going to support him 100 percent,” wide receiver Christian Watson said. “We know what kind of guy he is, how he approaches everything. Whatever it is, I know he’ll get through it. We will get through it. God take care of the rest. I’m not sure now.”

(Photo: Andre Penner / Associated Press)