The Green Bay Packers‘ magical season came to a crushing end on Saturday night, as Jordan Love threw a late interception that clinched the San Francisco 49ers’ win in their Divisional Round playoff matchup.
Afterward, Love spoke on the critical mistake.
“Looking back on it, yeah, throw it away,” Love said of the pick that occurred with 52 seconds remaining, via the Packers’ official YouTube account. “I don’t know if I had an opportunity to be able to run, maybe get out of bounds. But force it across the middle late, which is a mortal sin, and it cost us. So it’s something I’ll look at, but that’s an area right there where I’ll be able to look at, grow from and get better in the future.”
Green Bay was trailing 24-21 at the time, so all it needed was a field goal to force overtime. But Love threw back across the field and into the arms of 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw, sealing the win for San Francisco.
Love went 21-for-34 with 194 yards, a couple of touchdowns and a pair of interceptions on the day overall, putting a period at the end of what was an overall fantastic 2023-24 campaign for the youngster.
On the season as a whole, Love threw for 4,159 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 picks while completing 64.2 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 96.1.
The 25-year-old particularly caught fire during the back half of the year, totaling 18 touchdowns and just one interception over his last eight regular-season games. He then went 16-for-21 with 272 yards and three touchdowns in the Packers’ Wild Card Round victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
Love, who played his collegiate football at Utah State, was selected by Green Bay with the 26th overall pick of the 2020 NFL Draft. He spent his first three seasons as Aaron Rodgers’ backup before finally getting the chance to start this year.
In spite of the heartbreaking loss, the future looks bright for Jordan Love and the Packers.
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