Highlights from Packers' 38-20 Week 1 win over the Bears, breaking down Jordan Love's debut

Sep 11, 2023

Hello Packers fans, welcome to

packers

news.com. I'm Cassidy Hill and Pete Doherty is here from Soldier Field where Pete the Jordan

love

era officially opened and did it with a 38-20 victory and what you can see is very clearly the windy city here in Chicago

week

one win so the Packers not only advanced to 1-0 but advanced to 1-0 in the division from there um let's start with your overview of this game how important was it this game? establishing what this Packers team could be under the

love

of Jordan and in the NFC North, you know, I came in, you know, you don't put too much one way or the other end of these games, I mean, just a couple of years, the Packers were gone. even jacksonville got kicked off the field by the saints uh and you know they won the division they had first seed in the conference so if love had been bad it wouldn't have been the end of the world but he was just he was solid no He was great, he missed a few shots, he got a bad sack, you know, there were a few, you know, he made his share of mistakes, but he didn't turn the ball over, which is huge, he obviously outclassed Justin Fields by a lot.

I mean, if you're the Packers, you've got to feel like you know pretty well about him compared to the Bears and how things are with Fields, so you just got a solid, you know, pretty decent performance and the Packers played a good Jordan generally loves the final stats where 15 of 27 are passing only, not including what he did on the ground 15 or 27,245 yards, three touchdowns and a 123.2 passer rating as far as what he he did on the ground he said he told his agent this morning I'm ready to hit someone and his agent said please slide over and he said I'm not going to do that yeah no you know but I get what I was thinking because when it ran fine I think. at least one and a couple of them could have been on third downs and you know he's trying to get first down.

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highlights from packers 38 20 week 1 win over the bears breaking down jordan love s debut...

I mean, you have to be careful because you can't take too many shots, but I understand what he was doing and you know, for a young guy like him and his in his first real outing, you know, his first outing, where he's the guy who does that's not the worst, you know, your teammates see that you're putting your body on the line. So, you know, as the

week

s go by, less of it because you can't hurt the guy, but I get what he was thinking and you know he's obviously a much better running back than Aaron Rodgers the last two years, he would say. which is comparable to how Rogers was at the beginning of Roger's career not a bad place to be if you're a young quarterback you mentioned a 3rd place with another stout very quickly and this may have ended up being different because I went down to the locker space with about four minutes remaining in the game, but at that point the love on just third and fourth Downs went eight-for-ten for 141 yards, two touchdowns and five first downs.

He's pretty awesome on those money downs and a great quarterback day when they needed him. To get started, let's hear from Matt Leflore and Jordan, the love, and what they thought about quarterbacks day. Overall, I couldn't be more proud of his performance, his poise, there's a great faith in that. room for Jordan love and I think the guys are going to join him they're excited for him if they love them they respect them he comes to work every day great attitude great energy and I think you saw that today just being unlock with the guys, they're amazing, man.

In fact, he was having a ball game today and those guys were going crazy in there, so it's an amazing feeling to me, but I mean, we've got a great team. I love those guys, he feels great. To have everyone behind you, for sure you have to be resilient and you can't let one play affect the next and we always talk about having a one play mentality and I think he's a resilient guy. He was very proud of his effort. it's just his composure, his competitiveness, although I don't want him to take a lot of shots when he runs the ball, you know, that fight allowed us to go for it on fourth down and I mean, I'm a competitor, I told my game agent I was going to try run over someone and told me not to do that tell me to slide so but you never know a couple of those races were third down races and you know you're trying to get it. that first one down I'm trying to find a way but sliding is always an option but when it's like that when it's closed I'm a competitor I'll try and go get it Pete like we said overall it was a pretty good day for Jordan, love, but one.

One of the most confusing moments was at the end of the first half, when they seemed to have problems, like even getting a two-minute drive and at one point, on third down, they were going to run one more play and kick. a field goal or they needed to spot the ball, they had a time out, they had a timeout left and we're just a day away, so to get to the line, I think they let like 15 seconds run on the clock, that's enough time for one maybe even two plays, what did Michael say about that after the game?

Yes, it might even have been more than that now I'm trying, if I remember correctly. Love takes a sack on the second down, which you can't do, um, I have to throw it, he had a lot of time, it was a covered sack, so you throw the ball, but then LaFleur took the blame for making the play late because I think they were down. between 28 and 29 seconds when they sacked it and there was only like four seconds left and they had to call timeout to kick the field goal so they let a lot of time go by.

I think that sounds like he's on the court for not playing fast enough. He even said that love was a little. angry at him when he crossed the sideline he said it rightly, so that was the coach's fault, in fact, after the sack, it seemed that he was not rushing the offense to the line. I think he thought timeout was coming and then it wasn't but Anders Carlson showed leg kick a 57 yard field goal to go to halftime with Ali to lead the Packers would never give up uh speaking of That, let's move on to the defensive side that everyone has talked about. season about wanting to play more aggressively, but to be fair, Pete, last offseason we thought this Packers defense was going to be awesome and then they came out and we don't really know what was on the field, but it wasn't what I thought. it was going to be today, although at least it seemed like they were a lot more physical and then I spoke to Russell Douglas in the dressing room and I said we thought it was more physical defense and he said we could just today I mean how much What difference does that make in a defensive mentality when, I guess, you can just line up and act like a missile right at the guy?

Well I wonder if it helped a lot they made a lot more rotating guys on defensive line and outside linebackers uh all those guys played more Preston Smith I can't I'm really curious to see the play counts tomorrow she looked to me like he just played I don't know 60 of the snaps go over um you I know last year it was probably around 80 I think they were rotating those guys which might have contributed because then the guys are fresher the two rookies than the lineman defensive selected, yes, they, you know, didn't play much, but they came in.

There's a lot more that Wyatt played early last year and it's two guys, so I think that probably helped make them a little bit more physical because guys are fresher in the second half of the game when they rotate like that and then having Rashawn Gary back. God what? a difference that makes, yeah that's right, he looked exactly like he looked in camp when he came back in those early practices like wow this guy looks really explosive and he showed it today let's hear from Kenny Clark and a few others. Defenders as well on what it was like to take on the Bears as a more aggressive defense today, you know, our style of play really showed how we ran to the ball, you know how we flew around even if we did. you know take a drop step or make a mistake uh you know we were right and you know that's what you want to see and you know we got to be plus two with the turnovers uh you know that's all credit to how he you know that came out when we worked on how we got on the ball um you know what the coaches preach the coach is preaching to us about putting our hand on the ball uh you know getting the ball off we work on it every day so it was It's great to see us go down, hit , flying, trying to get into Reflections, interceptions, turnovers, all that, it's a completely different style of football than we played last year, Pete, we can't go home yet, next we're going to Atlanta.

This weekend they will face the Falcons. I think the Falcons won today. I'm trying to remember that these 325 games make it a little harder to keep up with all the other games that are happening. But they will face the Falcons in Atlanta next week. Falcons and the young team too, if it's the Packers, what's the one step forward they'll continue to take after this performance? Well, we can go home, because we're not going straight to Atlanta, but yeah, I can get your plans the first home game, the Antics remember a couple of weeks, um, is this league, you know, one of the big takeaways, Like I can watch in this league for as long as we do it.

I mean, this is a really nice win, in a great way. To start the season, it's the first game. Strange things happen during the first two or three weeks. The teams are very different in November and December than in September and early October, so this does not guarantee anything for the rest of the season. I've got to put it to bed and as long as this young quarterback can take care of the ball like he did today, you know they're going to be in games, they're going to have a chance to win a lot of games, I think.

Their defense looks pretty solid and they have a really good player at number 33. And also in Romeo Dobbs, who made a couple of incredible catches today. As for your point about Aaron Jones, I believe he scored or was directly involved in the drive that he scored. The Packers' first three touchdowns, so I think there's something to be said about the fact that you put the ball in their hands. Good things happen. He left the game with a hamstring. We saw him on the bench working on it. It didn't come back as As far as I can remember, the right thing didn't come back.

So something to monitor of course, Christian Watson also missed today with a hamstring. Romeo Dobbs was able to play, what a difference he made with those two touchdowns, but it's something we'll continue to monitor. week with Christian Watson and Aaron Jones and then also with Quay Walker who left the game with a concussion, we didn't even talk about Clay Walker's pick six, but he left the game with a concussion because he was shaken in celebration after get in. the end zone, so we'll be keeping an eye on all things this week before we head to Atlanta.

Just one last thing, Pete, you said you know what they're going to do next. The teams look different in November when Russell Douglas walked off the field through the tunnel. You know, he had that weird math problem earlier this week where he said Brett Favre was here 30 years Aaron Rodgers was here 30 years, that's 60 years, he came off the field, he saw us, he said we were about to be 30 more years old. , so, like you. Although only the first week we will see where they go from here, at least for now they will go to Atlanta. Be sure to follow