Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) threw two touchdowns — including the game-winner — in the Packers’ win over the New York Giants.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The fantasy football crowd will look at the final numbers and thumb their noses at what they saw.
Statistics tell only a small part of the story, though, in Jordan Love’s performance on Sunday.
Love, the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback, went 13-of-24 for 173 yards and two touchdown passes against the New York Giants. But Love overcame a left shoulder injury that sent him to the locker room for a series, and seven dropped passes by his pass “catchers” and still led the Packers to a 27-20 win over the Giants.
“I think overall, he’s always been a resilient dude,” Packers defensive end Micah Parsons said of Love. “Fighting through whatever. Even when I wasn’t here, he was battling through injuries and still playing. That’s the type of quarterback that we have.”
Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur agreed.
“It was so gritty and tough,” LaFleur said of Love’s performance. “He was under duress, it felt like, quite a bit, and I thought he did a really nice job of giving guys opportunities to make plays.
“Certainly, had a lot of drops today that we were able to obviously overcome, but just the mentality because when you hear your quarterback’s in the locker room, that’s not a great feeling. For his ability to come back and play the way he did, I was really proud of him.”
With good reason.
On Green Bay’s second possession, Love made the ill-advised decision of taking on defensive back Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles while scrambling and suffered a left shoulder injury. Love went to the locker room, underwent X-rays and returned to produce a terrific afternoon.
“It was definitely manageable,” Love said of the pain. “I’d say that. Something I was able to play through. It definitely was there, but it was manageable.”
What Love couldn’t manage was the dropped passes by Green Bay’s wide receivers and tight ends.
Wideout Romeo Doubs dropped three passes, while Christian Watson, Dontayvion Wicks, Luke Musgrave and John FitzPatrick all had drops, as well.
“I tell guys all the time, ‘Next play,’ ” Love said. “Sometimes it’s not going to be perfect, so it’s just that mindset of the next play. Stay confident, the ball’s going to keep coming your way, and if you move on and go make that next play, it’ll be easy to forget about it.”
Love led the Packers on a six-play, 66-yard touchdown drive to begin the second half that he capped with a 2-yard TD pass to tight end Josh Whyle that gave Green Bay a 19-13 lead.
After the Giants took a 20-19 lead midway through the second half, Love engineered a 7-play, 65-yard game-winning drive.
Love hit Savion Williams for 33 yards on a third and 10 to the Giants’ 20. Then two plays later, Love threw a gorgeous jump ball that Christian Watson high-pointed for a 17-yard game-winning TD.
“Another play we had one-on-one coverage,” Love said. “Christian kind of running a slot-fade right there and gave him another jump ball. He went up and made a big time catch right there. A big time play.”
Love’s play was big time, as well, helping Green Bay (6-3-1) snap a two-game losing streak and get back on track.
“He’s a soldier. I already told him,” Green Bay No. 2 quarterback Malik Willis said of Love. “He’s going to do what he can to be out there, and I respect that.
“Like I told him, I hate having the only way I can be in there is he goes down, obviously, but just super excited for him the way he finished this game, the way he tried to fight through everything he can to be out there and play his balls off. So I’m just excited for him.”
