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In a game that could go a long way toward determining the NFC North champion, Jordan Love is optimistic about where the Green Bay Packers stand heading into their Week 14 matchup with the Detroit Lions.
Speaking to reporters after Thursday’s 30-17 win over the Miami Dolphins, Love believes the Packers are “in a good spot” with three straight victories since their loss to the Lions on Nov. 9.
“We know who we got this week coming up is a really good Lions team, and obviously they got us the first game,” Love said. “So we’ll looking at everything, look at all the film, and put our game plan together. But I think just the rhythm we’re finding on offense right now, the way the defense is playing, I think we’re in a good spot.”
Even though the final score of that first game was 24-14 for the Lions, it really wasn’t even that close. Detroit pushed the Packers around, leading by 21 at one point in the third quarter.
Love was in the midst of arguably his worst stretch of the season at that point. He threw for 196 yards with no touchdowns and one interception in a 30-27 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the previous game.
The 26-year-old went 23-of-39 for 273 yards with no touchdowns and an interception that was returned for a touchdown by Kerby Joseph against the Lions.
In three games since that loss, Love is completing 69.1 percent of his attempts for 698 yards with five touchdowns and one interception. The Packers have won their last two games by a combined total of 41 points.
The Lions have won 10 consecutive games, but they are coming off a strange performance against the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day. They dominated the first half, leading 16-0 and holding the Bears to 38 yards of total offense.
Chicago turned things around in the second half with three touchdowns on its first four possessions. The Bears had a chance to at least tie the game late, but woeful clock mismanagement on the final play allowed time to expire before they even had a chance to send their kicking unit out.
If the Lions defense plays against the Packers like it did in the second half on Thursday, they could find themselves in a tie with the Minnesota Vikings for first place in the division and one game ahead of Green Bay in the No. 3 spot.
The Packers’ only shot of winning the division starts with a victory in Week 14. A loss would drop them three games back in the standings, plus Detroit would have the head-to-head tiebreaker by sweeping the regular-season series.
When these two teams met in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day last year, the Packers put up 377 yards in a 29-22 that helped kickstart their second-half surge to make the playoffs.
The Packers and Lions will play at Ford Field on Dec. 5 at 8:15 p.m. ET.
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