GREEN BAY – A dimension of Jordan Love's game that was missing last year has returned, and the Packers' offense is better for it.
But he's still got to remove the one regrettable play each game that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Love's mobility, which was compromised last year as he played through two lower-body injuries, is back and was on display in Sunday's 27-18 victory over Cincinnati at Lambeau Field.
He escaped trouble in the pocket, scrambled for multiple first downs and made something out of busted plays, the very things he couldn't do often enough last season. One piece of statistical proof is his 88 rushing yards through five games this season.
That's not a ton, but it's already five more rushing yards than he had all of last season.
Head Coach Matt LaFleur called this "one of his better games" with his legs, typified on a third-and-1 midway through the fourth quarter, when a short bootleg pass was "gloved" by Cincinnati's coverage. Love stopped his rollout, cut back through the pass-rush traffic, and dove forward for the necessary yardage to move the sticks.
The next two plays were a 16-yard run by Josh Jacobs and a 19-yard TD catch-and-run by Tucker Kraft to put the Packers up 14 points.
"It puts that extra layer of pressure on the defense," Love said of deploying his mobility. "That's something that I had to focus on coming into the season was trying to use my legs more and extend some of these plays."
The game's other big third-down conversion, a 31-yard strike to rookie Matthew Golden with just over two minutes left, also required those legs as the pocket shifted to Love's left. He flowed with it and kept his balance enough to let it rip downfield to effectively seal the win.
"That was a big-time play to hit MG right there," LaFleur said. "It was a helluva throw and catch."
It was a gotta-have-it moment, with the Bengals down by just six points and looking for a third-down stop to get the ball back in crunch time.
The problem is Love also acted like a third-and-5 from the Cincinnati 19-yard line on the game's opening drive was just as much do-or-die, when it wasn't.
He scrambled to his right and thought he saw an opening to fit in a difficult throw along the sideline to Romeo Doubs, so he tried it. But the pass was slightly behind Doubs, and it got tipped and intercepted, keeping points off the board early.
"We're in field-goal range, we have points, so if it feels like it's going to be a tight window or I'm not very confident in it, just throw it away, live to fight another day," Love said, explaining what his thought process should've been. "Tried to make it happen, didn't work and it came back to bite us on that play.
"That was the message from the coaches. Just be smart right there."
Love knows better, and he knows he knows better. Trying to force something that wasn't there, when the envelope didn't need to be pushed just six minutes into the game, was a big reason the Packers racked up 240 total yards in the first half but scored just 10 points.
"Certainly when you're in scoring position and you come away with nothing, that's tough to deal with," LaFleur said.
"Outside of that, I thought he played his ass off."
That's Love in a nutshell right now. Even with the INT, just his second of the season to go with the fateful one in Cleveland three weeks ago, he still put up a 101.3 passer rating, his fourth in triple digits out of five games so far.
In just 26 pass attempts (with 19 completions), he threw for 259 yards. Averaging 10 yards per attempt is off-the-charts good. It's the sign of an explosive offense that can keep opposing defenses on their heels.
What would be even better? Turning Sunday's interception into an incomplete pass, so his passer rating jumps 16 points to 117.3 and the Packers have 30 points at the end of a good day instead of 27. Coincidentally, it's the third time in five games the Packers have scored exactly 27 points.
It's a fine line in so many respects. Nobody wants to take away Love's moxie or make him hesitant. Otherwise the 31-yarder to Golden doesn't happen with the game on the line. That throw took some serious guts.
But playing every third down like the game's in the balance doesn't work either. Nobody's that good.
One of Love's best attributes is he's never bothered or thrown off-kilter by a mistake. Without that, he's not recovering from the strip-sack late in the first half in Dallas to engineer five straight scoring drives with the Packers trailing. He can flush it and move on with the best of them.
But the hope is at some point he'll have less and less to flush. Because his miscues are often avoidable, and therefore within his control.
"Quarterbacks, every play is under a microscope and certainly we never want to give the ball up, but I thought he played his ass off," LaFleur reiterated.
"None of these guys in this league are perfect, but I think he's playing a pretty high level."
