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    • Packers offense, Jordan Love battles inconsistency
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    Packers offense, Jordan Love battles inconsistency

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    INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Green Bay Packers did what they had to against the undermanned Los Angeles Rams.

    The Packers took advantage of a Rams team missing its two standout receivers, Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, and made a big defensive play in the final minutes of the game to leave SoFi Stadium with a 24-19 victory on Sunday.

    But coach Matt LaFleur’s team is a far cry from the team that finished last season playing as well as anyone in the NFL.

    Even with this win, there is still a sense that the young Packers are struggling to adapt to the higher expectations of 2024 after their surprising turnaround in the second half of last season, which was unencumbered by such weight. That’s especially true for quarterback Jordan Love, who carries the added weight of a new contract.

    Of course, Love’s MCL injury, which cost him the second and third weeks of this young season, is a factor in his uneven play early in the season. He’s getting closer to full strength, if not quite there.

    But regardless, even with all of his 2023 receivers and tight ends, LaFleur is still looking for the mix of personnel and play-calling, plus good decision-making from his quarterback, that will cause Love to do something like he did later. last year.

    “I talked to Jordan about this in the locker room,” LaFleur said after the game. “It seems like we’re kind of feast or famine offensively, in terms of whether we’re getting the big plays and going to score, or there’s no big plays and we’re punting. We’ve got to get a little more consistency, I would say, just making sure we’re getting positive plays, staying ahead of the sticks and staying out of (long) third downs as best we can.”

    Of course, the win is the most important, and there are no style points. Just ask the undefeated Minnesota Vikings, who nearly blew a big lead against the New York Jets in the final minutes in London on Sunday, just a week after nearly taking a 28-point lead against the Packers. However they got there, the Vikings are 5-0 atop the NFC.

    Jordan Love, the Packers offense lives and dies by the big play

    But the Packers’ offense will have to be better than this to score points and keep the ball away from the likes of Detroit, San Francisco and the Vikings as the season progresses. The Packers were outrebounded by the short Rams from 370 yards to 323, and Love lived and died by the big play — a risky 53-yard bomb to Jayden Reed that yielded one touchdown, and a 66-yard catch-and-drop. run by Tucker Kraft who scored again.

    It’s looking more and more like LaFleur will have to put his Malik Willis game plans into action to get the most out of Love. It’s certainly no coincidence that Love was at his best late last season, when Aaron Jones was healthy and threatening defenses in the run game. Love’s life will be a lot easier if the Packers lean a little more on Josh Jacobs, Emanuel Wilson and the versatile Reed in the run game, especially early in the game.

    As Love gets healthier, he will also be able to take more shots from under center, rather than with the pistol or shotgun, which will help the action game. But even in this game, without much time under center, the Packers’ offense ramped up in the second half as Jacobs, Wilson and Reed combined for 15 carries, and Jacobs added a whopping 21 yards on a screen pass.

    “Something we can lean on a lot more going forward is the run game,” Love said. “(Jacobs) is a great player.”

    Love has been a riskier player this season than he was in the second half of last year. He threw five interceptions in three games, after throwing just three in the last ten games (including the playoffs) in ’23.

    His interception Sunday was a doozy and looked like vintage young Brett Favre. Love was about to be sacked for a safety near the end line and tried to throw the ball blindly out of bounds towards Kraft. But the ball didn’t go out of bounds, and safety Jaylen McCullough intercepted the ball and returned it four yards for the pick-six that put the Packers behind 13-7 in the second quarter.

    “I’m falling and I don’t have enough strength,” Love said of the play. “Honestly, just throw it in the ground. Don’t put air on that ball, throw it up. I couldn’t see where anyone was. Just throw it on the ground and don’t give any chance for a bad play to happen.

    “Try to get it past the line of scrimmage. But don’t compromise it or try to make a bad game even worse. Looking back, a safety is definitely better than a pick-six.”

    Still, the Packers took advantage of the other side of Love’s higher risk tolerance earlier in the game, when he launched a deep shot at Reed, who had three defenders around him when he somehow got down to the Rams with the ball ‘2. the Packers’ first touchdown.

    “That’s not necessarily an encouragement,” LaFleur said of the throw, “but he also has a lot of confidence in the guys around him.”

    Tight end Tucker Kraft is going to be a problem for the defense

    LaFleur also finds that Kraft can play an increasingly important role in the Packers’ offense. Kraft’s blocking is a boon to the run game, but his run-after-the-catch has also become a real problem for defenses. On the 66-yard touchdown, he stiff-armed cornerback Darious Williams’ tackle and then corralled down the sideline with the help of Dontayvion Wicks’ block. Kraft had a second touchdown catch as he made his way into the end zone on a 7-yard screen, putting the Packers up 24-19.

    “Every time he touches the ball, he has the mentality that he’s trying to score,” Love said of Kraft, “and he’s not going to go down lightly. He’s going to run people over and stay standing. He does really good things when he gets the ball has in his hands, so I will definitely continue to try to find ways to get him the ball.”

    LaFleur should be encouraged that Love looked more mobile than he has the past two weeks — he had a big 12-yard scramble that set up a third down in the fourth quarter on a clock-eating drive. It is a sign that love is actually getting closer to its full strength.

    The coach must also feel good that while Love makes the mistakes of a young quarterback, he also led the Packers back to within one score from a 28-point deficit against the Vikings last week, then answered his pick six with haste . -up drive at the end of the half that brought the Packers within 13-10, even after mostly struggling up until that point.

    “That’s one of his superpowers,” LaFleur said of Love’s resilience. “We’ve seen it since the day he was drafted. He just doesn’t blink when the pressure comes. Last year was pretty indicative of that, the struggles we had and his ability to overcome. That drive, you’re obviously throwing a pick-six, that’s never fun. To be able to take us there on a two-minute drive and get us some critical points when it was really hard to get points, I think that’s what he’s all about.”

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