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Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love was nearly flawless in his NFL playoff debut, leading the charge in a 48-32 blowout victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
Love will face a significantly more daunting task against the No. 1 seed San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Divisional round, than he did Wild Card weekend when he passed for 272 yards with 3 touchdowns and a nearly perfect 157.3 passer rating in Dallas.
What will Love do for an encore, against San Francisco, just one victory shy of leading the Packers to the NFC Championship Game?
Here are three NFL Divisional game predictions for Love generated by Heavy Sports’ AI-powered projections model, powered by our partners at Quarter 4:
1. Jordan Love’s Multi-Touchdown Pass Streak Will Continue
Love has gone a long way toward solidifying his position as the Packers’ quarterback of the future during a strong second half of the season, perhaps even earning a new contract extension that makes him one of the highest-paid players at the position.
Perhaps most impressive about Love’s finish to the regular season, which carried over into Super Wildcard Weekend against the Cowboys, is that not only has Love tossed just one interception since a Week 14 loss to the New York Giants, but he has at least two touchdown passes in five straight games.
After a three-touchdown outburst against the Cowboys, the Heavy Sports model projects that Love will throw 2.3 touchdown passes against the vaunted 49ers defense.
Love enters Saturday afternoon’s contest averaging 1.68 touchdown passes per game, so outperforming his average against the 49ers would represent another step forward for the 25-year-old signal caller.
2. Jordan Love Will Post His 4th-Highest Completion Percentage of the Season
In a lot of ways, especially over the Packers’ final six games of the regular season, Love has been a model of consistency.
Over that span, Love completed 71% of his passes, and surpassed a 60% completion percentage in each of those contests.
Against the 49ers on Saturday afternoon, the Heavy Sports model projects that Love will complete 75.4% of his passing attempts.
If Love can reach that level of consistency, it will represent his fourth-highest completion percentage in a game this season. It would also mark the fifth time this season that he completed more than 70% of his passing attempts.
3. Jordan Love Will Continue to Strengthen Chemistry With WR Dontayvion Wicks
While Romeo Doubs became the focal point of the Packers’ passing game against the Cowboys, catching all 6 of his targets for 151 yards and a touchdown, it was another young Packers receiver who continued to climb Love’s target hierarchy.
Against the Cowboys, Love connected with fifth-round rookie Dontayvion Wicks for 2 passes for 25 yards and a touchdown. Wicks’ strong outing against the Cowboys came on the heels of a rookie season in which he caught 39 passes for 581 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Our model expects Love to have another strong outing, passing for 266.8 yards. But, it’s Wicks who is the biggest benefactor of Love lighting up the 49ers, as our model predicts Wicks hauls in 3.5 receptions for 46.7 yards and 0.8 touchdowns.
If Wicks reaches those benchmarks, he will exceed his per-game season average from his rookie campaign.
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3 AI-Powered Predictions for Packers QB Jordan Love: Divisional Round