While the Chicago Bears got their revenge on Matt Eberflus in their 31-14 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, things were considerably worse for that team up north. The Green Bay Packers have been cruising through the season's first two weeks. Riding a great defense, they thumped the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders. Everybody was booking their Super Bowl plans. Jordan Love was playing really good football, too, extending a streak of regular season games without an interception to nine. All expected him and the team to crush a struggling Cleveland Browns team in week three.
What followed was one of the ugliest collapses in recent memory. Green Bay struggled all game against Cleveland's tough defense. Still, they built a 10-0 lead in the 3rd quarter and were on track to get out with an ugly win. Then, with 3:45 left in the game, the Browns kicked a field goal to make it a one-score deficit. All Love had to do was get a couple of first downs to burn the clock. What came next will live in the nightmares of Packer fans for weeks.
- Love throws a horrendous pass into double coverage and is picked off
- Cleveland scores two plays later to tie the game
- Packers drive into field goal range on next series. The kick is blocked.
- Cleveland gets into Green Bay territory and boots a 55-yard field goal to win as time expires.
The meltdown from Packer fans was predictably epic, and their ire was mostly directed at Love.
Jordan Love will decide whether this team can win a Super Bowl.
That is what terrifies Green Bay more than anything. They're starting to realize that while he isn't a bad quarterback, Jordan Love is not elite. He's not in the same tier as Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. He is a competent player capable of really strong performances, but is also capable of absolute clunkers. Worst of all, he delivers some awful turnovers at the worst possible times. For all the celebrating of that streak of games without an interception, people conveniently forgot that he threw three in the playoff loss to Philadelphia in January. He's thrown five in his last two playoff games.
The Packers will likely get back to winning in the coming weeks. That is what they do. However, this loss to Cleveland was a major red flag. It is an uncomfortable reminder that their weakest link might be the quarterback, which is unfamiliar territory.
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