Love vs The League, Who Actually played better, Jordan Love or Jalon Daniels?

Love vs. The League, Week Four Edition

When I watched this game on the broadcast I saw a pretty inept offense vs an undrafted FA QB who couldn't wait to give this game away. I saw a team that was 0-3 and was ready to implode and was frustrated the Packers didn't completely run them over in a borderline must win get right situation. I saw those things because that is what I wanted to see. I wanted Jalon Daniels to be horrible because history says undrafted rookie QB's are horrible.

When I completed watching the all-22 I left with quite a bit more optimism for the Packers going forward. Make no mistake about it, this team still was undisciplined and tried their hardest to beat themselves, but Jordan Love was absolutely cooking and many of the mistakes seemed a bit flukey. The drops and fumbles were bad. For whatever reason I am not very worried about Tucker Kraft and Matthew Golden being guys who have untrustworthy hands going forward. I am just not. Those guys are excellent football players and the drops were backbreaking but I really think they will figure it out.

I'm a bit more worried about the fumbles. The scouting report on Marshawn Lloyd coming into the league was that he had pretty major ball security issues. Kaleb Johnson didn't have those issues in college but he fumbled in Pittsburgh despite having only 24 carries and now has two fumbles for the Packers already including one particularly soul crushing one in this game. Not great and I don't have enough faith in these guys to hope it'll turn around.

You see 17 points on the scoreboard vs the Bucs and think "why can't this offense get going?" That sentiment feels very far from the truth, this WAS the get right game the offense needed. Matt LaFleur called his best game of the season. All season the route tree was a mess with many long developing plays where everyone was going deep and Love had few short and intermediate options. In this game he did a superb job calling quick hitters, mixing in some deep shots, and always giving Jordan Love options when the Bucs did manage to generate pressure. There were clear adjustments from a play calling perspective and they looked fantastic.

I'm happy with MLF's adjustments but it was still not a perfect game. I counted the Packers running the ball on first down 12 out of 21 times. Despite being that run heavy they only went to play action twice, one went for 25 yards, and the other went for 15 yards. If we're going to be that run heavy on first down teams are going to sell out to stop the run, we need to be running more play action. I think Jordan Love's one INT is entirely on MLF (and a superb defensive play) as well. I'm also not sure what he sees in Skyy Moore at WR3. His skillset seems pretty redundant to Golden's except he is worse at pretty much everything, furthermore him and Love aren't on the same page yet, maybe they will improve together. It's picking nits at this point because MLF called a truly very good game and the offense should have exploded if it weren't for the drops and the fumbles.

Aaron Rodgers used to talk about how every team has to relearn how to win each season. After watching the film, I saw plenty of signs that this Packers offense might have begun to figure it out.

With all that out of the way, on to the QB matchup.

Jordan Love

Jordan Love ended the game going 22/30 for 197 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT. His passer rating was 98.9, and his completion percentage was 73.3%. The stat line, much like the 17 points the offense was able to muster, hardly jumps off the screen. But I promise you, Love played MUCH better than those numbers suggest.

I knew he played a nice game, but I was genuinely shocked when I finished grading the All-22 and realized he had tallied zero negative plays. Zero. That's honestly incredible. There were a few borderline plays where I nearly docked him, but after watching them repeatedly, I ultimately couldn't convince myself that he should have done anything differently.

Now, that doesn't mean he was electric. He wasn't out there making ridiculous throws or putting the entire offense on his back. He mostly just took what the defense gave him. He threw plenty of short passes and screens, checked the ball down when nothing was there, and ran the offense exactly the way it was meant to be run. That's precisely what I've been hoping to see him do all season.

Through the first three weeks, Love had developed a frustrating habit of hunting the deep ball. He would stubbornly keep his eyes downfield, waiting for Golden or Watson to get open, even when there was a perfectly good checkdown sitting underneath. By the time he finally took it, the opportunity for yards after the catch was gone. Other times, he'd end up eating a sack or throwing the ball away entirely.

Against Tampa Bay, Love cleaned that up significantly. He was patient without holding the ball too long. He got through his progressions, took the checkdowns when they were there, and consistently played on time and on schedule. His pass catchers had some absolutely backbreaking drops, the kind that kill entire drives, but Love never seemed fazed. He just kept making the right play.

This was easily his best game of the season.

Now, I know what you're probably thinking. How does a quarterback throw an interception and finish with zero negatively graded plays?

Fair question.

I went back and forth on giving Love a -0.5 for the interception, but ultimately couldn't bring myself to do it. I really think it was a combination of a tremendous heads-up play by the defender and a terrible personnel decision by MLF.

For reasons I still don't understand, MLF lined Jonnu Smith up outside on the deep route, with Golden over the middle. He could have used Sturdivant, Skyy Moore or Christian Watson on that outside route to keep the defense honest, but instead he went with Jonnu.

The cornerback recognized the situation and made a crazy high IQ play. He gambled by abandoning Jonnu early, broke on Golden's route and intercepted the pass.

If the corner doesn't make that heroic play on the ball, it's probably a massive play for the Packers. The throw itself was good. More importantly, I don't think the corner can afford to gamble like that if he's responsible for covering a legitimate deep threat on the outside.

I wrestled with the grade. But I couldn't justify penalizing him for what I thought was a good throw that got beaten by an exceptional defensive play, especially when the offensive personnel made that gamble possible.

At the end of the day, Love could have easily put up significantly more points in this game. The drops were brutal, the fumbles were worse, and the scoreboard did absolutely nothing to reflect how well he actually played.

Make no mistake about it, Jordan Love was excellent. He put this offense in position to explode, and for the first time all season, I felt like Love and MLF were finally on the same page about how this offense should operate.

I'm thrilled with the adjustments we saw against Tampa Bay, and I'm officially excited to see what this unit can accomplish going forward.

Jalon Daniels

Jalon Daniels finished the game 19/27 for 148 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs. His passer rating was 65, and his completion percentage was 70.4%. Much like Love, I honestly think Daniels played better than his numbers suggest.

There's a lot to like about this kid. He certainly played better than I expected from an undrafted rookie QB, and I think there's a good chance he proves to be a high end backup in this league (or better). He showed a surprising amount of promise against the Packers.

Outside of the interceptions, Daniels actually had a pretty nice game. Unfortunately for him, those interceptions happened, and both were entirely avoidable.

Both picks earned a -2 on my grading scale, and he'll need to learn pretty quickly that he simply can't be throwing those balls in the NFL. Neither throw was necessary. He forced both of them into coverage and got maximally punished by some really nice defensive plays. Evan Williams' interception in particular was impressive, but Daniels never should have given him the opportunity in the first place.

What's interesting is that outside of those two plays, Daniels really didn't make many mistakes. He finished with just four other negatively graded plays, all -0.5s. On my scale, those are usually pretty minor mistakes. A slightly inaccurate throw, a decent decision that wasn't executed particularly well, or choosing the second-most-open receiver instead of the best option. Nothing especially concerning on its own.

One thing I did notice was his tendency to pass up checkdowns in favor of calling his own number and taking off with the football.

And look, I get it. His legs are absolutely electric. There were several plays where he made something out of nothing, escaped pressure and picked up yards that most quarterbacks wouldn't have a prayer of getting. It's hard to criticize a guy too much for trusting an ability that clearly makes him dangerous.

But there were also a few occasions where he had an easy checkdown available and decided to run instead, ultimately picking up fewer yards than he probably would have gotten by simply throwing the ball. Other times, the decision worked out beautifully and he gained more than the passing option likely would have.

My concern isn't really the decision to scramble itself. It's how often he's willing to put himself in harm's way when there's a perfectly good option underneath. I would like to see him trust his skill-position players a little more and avoid taking so much unnecessary punishment over the course of a game.

That's something I imagine he'll get better at with experience. Right now, his athleticism is such a weapon that it's probably tempting to rely on it whenever things aren't developing the way he wants.

Overall, I liked what I saw from Daniels. He made some good throws, showed real athleticism and generally made sound decisions outside of the two interceptions. Those picks were bad, and they dragged down what otherwise would have been a good performance.

He looked like a solid NFL quarterback for long stretches of this game, which is a very encouraging sign for an undrafted rookie making his way in the league. I'm not ready to declare him a future starter or anything, but I came away thinking there's a legitimate NFL player here.

For a guy with his draft pedigree, that's a pretty good place to be at this stage of his career.

So Who Actually Played Better?

This one is easy. It was Love.

This was the highest grade I've given any QB so far this season. Now, it hasn't exactly been a who's who of NFL quarterbacks we've faced. In fact, it's been pretty much the opposite. But that doesn't take away from what Love did against Tampa Bay.

This was the best quarterback performance I've graded this year, and I genuinely believe Love played well enough for the Packers to run the Buccaneers out of their own stadium. He consistently made the right decisions, took what the defense gave him and put the offense in position to score far more than 17 points.

Unfortunately, the rest of the offense didn't hold up its end of the bargain.

Hopefully, against the Bears, they do. Because if Love keeps playing like this, there's no reason this offense shouldn't be lighting up the scoreboard.

Winner: Jordan Love
Love vs. The League Record: 2-2