The Green Bay Packers' season ended with arguably their worst offensive showing in Sunday’s 22-10 wild-card loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Jordan Love threw three interceptions, and the Packers’ offense was stuck in neutral until after halftime when they connected on a field goal and scored a touchdown on their first two possessions of the second half.
Green Bay cut their deficit to 16-10, early in the fourth quarter after Josh Jacobs' touchdown run, but the Eagles answered with a field goal and Love and Malik Heath couldn’t connect on a key fourth down with five minutes remaining to seal the loss.
It was Love’s first playoff game since he signed a massive $220 million extension this past offseason, and it was a tough showing all around. Head coach Matt LaFleur offered up some tough love after the game when asked about his quarterback’s play against the Eagles.
“I love Jordan Love and how he competes and the work he puts in, and I think he's gonna get better and better and better,” LaFleur told reporters. “Certainly, there's some lessons along the way, some tough lessons anytime you end up in defeat, that's hard to deal with. He is very critical of himself, and I think he does such a great job of learning from every experience.
“So, I think, through this, we'll all be better for it … I think there's going to be a lot of learning over the course in the next however many months before next (season) arises."
It didn’t help that the Packers fumbled the opening kickoff, which the Eagles converted into a quick 7-0 lead. But Love and the offense punted on their first two drives before he underthrew Dontayvion Wicks, resulting in a Darius Slay interception.
Slow offensive starts had been an issue throughout the Packers' season.
“That's gonna be a great reflection point this offseason,” LaFleur said. “Because, obviously, if we had the answers, it wouldn't have been a problem, and for it to come up multiple times, that’s disappointing.”
Love’s second pick -- right to Eagles linebacker Zack Baun, without a Packers receiver nearby -- cost the Packers a promising drive before halftime. The Packers also had several costly offensive penalties throughout the game.
“I think that's really the thing that hurt us in a lot of games,” Love said of their self-inflicted offensive mistakes. “I feel like a lot of the times this season, it felt like we're not getting beat by the other team, we're kind of beating ourselves.
“So, whether it's penalties, turnovers, stalled drives, things like that, I think it all comes back down to just the details and execution."
The Packers played “winning football” defensively, LaFleur said, keeping the game close most of the second half, but they paid for their many offensive sins.
"You're not gonna win many games when you're minus-four in the turnover battle," LaFleur said.
Three of those were via Love, who was nursing an elbow injury he suffered in Week 18 against the Bears. He also took several hits behind an offensive line that lost left guard Elgton Jenkinsearly to injury and center Josh Myers late in the game. Love was also throwing to a shorthanded receiver group. Christian Watson suffered a torn ACL last week, and Jayden Reed and Romeo Doubs both left Sunday’s game due to injury.
LaFleur said the Packers can look at every element of the team for the loss.
"I think it's collectively,” he said. “I think we all share our part of blame."
Now they have to learn how to beat quality opponents. Six of the Packers’ seven losses this season came against their best competition -- the Eagles, Lions and Vikings -- this season.
“We lost to some really good teams and we'll look at those games, but we gotta find ways to just execute and win those big-time games,” Love said. “Obviously, this year we weren't able to do that.
"It just wasn't good enough against the really good teams in this league, and it will be something that we'll focus on this off season."