Jordan Love Week 1 QB Grade: Packers vs. Lions

I'm going to be honest, Jordan Love is one of my favorite QB's to review because his peaks and valleys are so extreme it's a rollercoaster. He might be one of the biggest "boom or bust" QB's in the league. Which kind of encapsulated his week 1 start as well. Of the QB's I graded from week 1 he lead all of them in Big Play Rate (19.2%) and total big plays (5) while also being responsible for 4 Poor Plays (15.4%). So what did we learn? Let's take a look at the breakdown.

Basics

C/A: 16/22 (72.2%)

Yards: 188

Touchdowns: 2

Turnovers: 0

QB at Fault Sacks: 0

Passer Rating: 128.6

True Passer Rating: 179.0

Time to Throw: 2.56s

Time to Pressure: 2.97s

Pressure Rate: 16.67%

15.4% Poor Play Rate vs. 19.2% Big Play Rate

Breakdown

• Let's start with the big time throws, the first being the Love's first touchdown pass to Tucker Kraft. A fantastically placed ball over the back of a of a LB who was in pursuit. Kraft just had to go up and get it and he's pretty money in the redzone for that. The throw was graded "Elite" for accuracy, placement, and depth of throw.

• His next 2 Elite throws come on the back to back throws on the same drive. The 48 yard bomb to Romeo Doubs followed by the 17 yard touchdown to Jayden Reed from the far hash over a defender into the breadbasket of Reed. Both throws showcasing the art talent Love has when his mechanics are clean.

• His last Elite throw comes in the 4th Quarter a drop by Jayden Reed, this is graded as a drop because Reed both unnecessarily slows down on the route, but still gets 2 hands on the ball. If he continues on the route I believe this gets dropped into his breadbasket as well.

• On to the poorer throws, his first coming on the first drive, a deep shot to Tucker Kraft who is wide open on the Corner route. So open he throws up the mailbox, and Love obliges, unfortunately over throwing him by 5 yards, missing out a huge, open, chunk play.

• The next two bad throws come on back to back plays, the first 100% SHOULD have been a pick, with Jordan Love drifting backwards, he tries to hit Tucker Kraft out on the flat but misses him badly. Alex Anzalone has a gift that he just drops. The following play is less of a poor throw and more of a good play made by the defense, however that play was aided by Love staring down his man and being late on his decision to throw to Kraft. Brian Branch makes a fantastic break on the ball and undercuts the route, fortunately a holding call away from the play negates the turnover. But since the holding call did not impact the play in question we still grade the play.

• The Green Bay OL handled the Detroit pass rush very well, of all QB's graded this week they gave up by far the lowest Pressure Rate (16.67%) this week, this was a common theme from last season and they normal lead pressure rate numbers from the QB's I graded last year.

• Jordan Love was a lot of fun to watch this week, and unfortunately that fun was limited but pure lack of snaps in a game the Packers handled the Lions in. He scored a 3.20/-1.55/1.65 charting as an higher end "Average" game. In all honesty he wasn't on the field all too much which definitely effects his overall grade. I personally would call this game an overall "Good" outing.