Quarterback
Green Bay Packers
PHOTO” Packer website
🏈😎 COURTSIDE SPORTS: JORDAN GETS OFF TO LOVELY START AGAINST BEARS, AS PACK PREVAILS 38-20 — So Far, So Good, As QB Throws 3 TDs, Converts 3rd Downs, No Errors, Shows Poise!
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Courtside Sports Exclusive
September 10, 2023
For the first time in three decades, someone other than Brett Farve or Aaron Rodgers started at quarterback for the Packers in the NFL’s longest rivalry. The results were the same as the Pack downed “da Bears” for the ninth straight time, at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Sunday.
After three years as Rodgers’s understudy, Jordan Love (15-27-245-3-0, rating 123.2) looked much better than someone who had started only one previous NFL game (a loss vs the Chiefs). He threw three TDs, calmly converted key third and fourth downs, committed no turnovers, and looked like a poised veteran in every way.
After a slow start that saw the Pack with a 10-6 halftime lead, Green Bay running back Aaron Jones dominated the third quarter with 105 running and receiving yards and a touchdown that essentially established the visitor’s control of the game. In a cautionary note for the green and gold, however, he left the game with an apparent hamstring injury.
At least in the first game, the oft-maligned Packer defense performed like a unit that justified the large investment of draft picks over the past several years. The highlight was a 37-yard pick 6 by linebacker Quay Walker in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach. (Walker, however, may have sustained a concussion while crossing the goal line for he score.) They basically neutralized Chicago’s athletic quarterback Justin Fields and his supposedly improved offense until the game was all but over.
It’s only one game, and, with due respect, “it’s only the Bears” who appear to be nearly as bad as last year’s league-worst team. But, a W is a W in the standings. Next up for the Pack: the Falcons, 24-10 winners over Carolina, at Atlanta.
Go Pack Go!
