Immediately after suffering a terrible collapse to the Chicago Bears in the NFC wild card round, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur didn’t appear to have a lot of positive things on his mind. Even still, LaFleur didn’t have anything negative to say about Packers quarterback Jordan Love.
Love completed under 50% of his passes while the Packers offense struggled in the second half of the 31-27 loss to the Bears on Saturday. But Love still threw for 323 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
“I thought he played his [expletive] off; I really did. I thought he was out there competing,” LaFleur told reporters. “We obviously didn’t do enough around him. There were a couple situations, whether it’s a bad play-call or bad protection.
“But I can’t say enough great things about Jordan Love.”
Love’s completion percentage dropped in the second half for a variety of reasons, including the pressure the Bears defense was able to generate. But when Love connected with his pass-catchers in the second half, it was usually for a big gain.
The Packers quarterback averaged 12.3 yards per attempt after halftime versus Chicago.
Despite the loss, Love became the fourth Packers quarterback with four passing touchdowns in a playoff game according to Amazon Prime.
Packers’ Jordan Love Suffers Loss Despite 4 Touchdowns
Saturday’s wild card contest should have been a legacy-building win for Love. He became the first Packers quarterback since Aaron Rodgers to throw for four touchdowns in a postseason game, and he did it against the hated Bears on the road.
Four passing touchdowns in a playoff game is something Brett Favre never did.
At halftime, it appeared the Packers would cruise to the legacy-building win. They led at the break by 18 points.
Instead, the Bears won by four, outscoring the Packers 25-6 in the second half.
Chicago’s defense flipped the script immediately in the third quarter. Love and the Packers went three-and-out on their first two second-half possessions.
With about 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Green Bay had 10 offensive yards in the second half.
LaFleur, though, insisted to reporters that he didn’t change the team’s offensive approach at halftime.
“No [we didn’t change our play-calling], what they did was they brought more pressure,” LaFleur said. “So we started to go more to our drop-back protections because they were firing corner blitzes and safety blitzes.
“Unfortunately, there were multiple occasions where they should have been picked up, and they weren’t.”
Matt LaFleur Calls out ‘Inexcusable’ Penalty
The Bears had opportunities to close the gap more in the third quarter. But the Packers escaped a couple near disasters.
Green Bay left the door open, though, with a pair of missed kicks in the fourth quarter.
First, Brandon McManus missed an extra point after Love threw his fourth touchdown. The miss kept the Packers lead at 11 points.
Then while leading by three on their next possession, McManus missed a field goal.
Had McManus made either kick, the Packers could have tied the game to force overtime or won with a field goal at the end of regulation. But down four points, the Packers needed a touchdown on their final drive.
The last Green Bay possession stalled just before the red zone.
LaFleur avoided throwing McManus completely under the bus. To that point, LaFleur’s criticism for himself and his team was mostly general in his postgame press conference.
But when asked about a specific delay of game penalty in the fourth quarter, the Packers head coach didn’t hold back.
“That’s a great question. That’s inexcusable,” said LaFleur on how the delay of game happened.
Despite coming out of a timeout, the Packers took a delay of game penalty on third-and-10 at the Bears 21-yard line with 3:02 remaining. Then on third-and-15, Love delivered an incomplete pass.
Five yards further back, McManus then missed a 44-yard field goal attempt.
Although LaFleur didn’t say it, the delay of game penalty was likely Love’s fault. So, it’s possible the “inexcusable” comment was indirectly intended for the Packers quarterback.
But that’s the closest LaFleur came to saying anything negative about his signal-caller after Saturday’s loss.
Packers’ Matt LaFleur Speaks out on Jordan Love After Playoff Collapse vs. Bears