How Jordan Love performed in his first game as QB1 in the post-Aaron Rodgers era
The Green Bay Packers gave new QB1 Jordan Love the chance to captain the first-team offense for a pair of drives during the team’s preseason opener against the Cincinnati Bengals on Friday night. Yes, it’s preseason, but overall Love made a solid impression, leading a scoring drive before heading to the bench for the night. Love, who’s finally getting his chance in Green Bay after the team traded four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers this offseason, started for the Packers and played two first-quarter drives with the first-team offense.
He finished with 46 passing yards and a touchdown while completing 7 of 10 passes. Love ended the night with a 112. 9 QB rating in the Packers’ 36-19 win.
His best play of the game was his last, when Love capped a 43-yard scoring drive with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Romeo Doubs. Facing second-and-goal, Love faked a handoff, was patient in the pocket and showed nice touch in dropping a dime to Doubs, who reeled in the pass from the former Utah State quarterback for the game’s first score. While Love’s first drive stalled after he had a long pass knocked away by a Cincinnati defender and the quarterback overshot his rookie tight end Luke Musgrave on a third-and-7, he took advantage of good field position on Green Bay’s second position, which started in Bengals territory after a Cincinnati three-and-out and a short punt.
On the Packers’ first touchdown drive, Love kept the possession going with a 7-yard completion to Christian Watson on third-and-5, and four plays laters, he connected with Doubs for the score. Love completed 5 of 6 passes for 32 yards on the seven-play drive. The Packers quarterback impressed the Bengals earlier this week when the two teams held joint practices.
“I thought he was solid, to be honest,” Cincinnati linebacker Germaine Pratt told ESPN. “I didn’t really know what to expect because I was always thinking of A-Rod, but I think he’s solid. He did some great things to me.
” Love’s first touchdown pass of the season got people talking on social media and caught the attention of Aggie nation. .