The Green Bay Packers narrowly escaped North Texas with a tie Sunday night, and if they had lost to the Dallas Cowboys, quarterback Jordan Love would have had some explaining to do.
Yet, the Packers quarterback opened up about what happened on their final offensive play before kicker Brandon McManus ended the game with a game-tying field goal in their 40-40 draw at AT&T Stadium.
Love went 31 for 43 for 337 yards and three touchdowns to wide receiver Romeo Doubs. He also rushed it three times for 28 yards and did not turn the ball over.
Still, trailing 40-37 in the waning seconds of overtime, Love and the Packers nearly had the clock run out on them when Love’s pass intended for Matthew Golden fell incomplete with one second left.
Packers ‘Didn’t Execute’ In Final Sequence, According to Jordan Love
The Packers won the toss in overtime and elected to kick to the Cowboys, who proceeded to go 76 yards in 10 plays in 5:20 and took the lead on Brandon Aubrey’s 22-yard field goal.
So needing a field goal to tie, and a touchdown to win, Love put Green Bay in a position to win by taking the ball to the Dallas 19-yard line.
Yet, that’s when things got weird for the Packers, since they had consecutive negative plays — the latter of which went to running back Emmanuel Wilson for a minus-1 yards that gave Green Bay a second-and-13 at the Dallas 16 with the clock running and 28 seconds left.
“We didn’t get the look we wanted,” Love said. “I threw it to [Wilson], hoping he could make someone miss. Obviously, [there was] a moving clock situation [with] no timeouts.”
Love appeared to move deliberately, allowing the ball to snap with six seconds left. His incomplete pass hit linebacker Jack Sanborn in the back and fell in the end zone with just one second remaining.
“We had a good call and just didn’t execute,” Love said. “I don’t think everybody was on the same page with what needed to happen, and it’s something that we’ve got to fix, we got to clean up and be better because it ended up being really, really close with only one second left.”
Packers Coach LaFleur: ‘We’re Not Where We Need To Be’
The Packers looked dominant over their first two-and-three-quarters games, but they failed to execute offensively for the second straight week — since they blew a fourth-quarter lead in their three-point loss to the Cleveland Browns.
Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur was frustrated by Love and the offense’s lack of awareness in overtime.
“That just goes to the level of detail where we’re not where we need to be,” LaFleur said. “We had an on-the-ball call to send everyone to the end zone — and we use the term O-zone which means it’s got to go out of bounds or two the end zone, obviously with time remaining — and the operation is just way too slow.
“I don’t know if our guys didn’t know we were in two-minute [offense] or what, but ultimately the communication has got to get better, myself to Jordan, Jordan to the huddle and that’s the bottom line.”
Packers QB Jordan Love Explains His Mindset During Final SNF Play