Love Hits Fifty in Win Over Texans

 By Eric Goska

Jordan Love (shown here during training camp) threw the
50th regular-season TD pass of his career Sunday.
(photos by Eric Goska)

In a fast-paced world of bigger-better-bolder, Jordan Love delivers.

Love threw his 50th regular-season touchdown pass Sunday. The scoring throw was one of three he launched as the Packers nipped the Texans 24-22 at Lambeau Field.

In getting his hat trick, Love connected with Tucker Kraft and Dontayvion Wicks in the second quarter and Josh Jacobs in the third. Each score put Green Bay ahead in a game in which the lead changed hands seven times.

Considerable bandwidth has been afforded Love and his penchant for finding the end zone. Whether it be the Dope Sheet put out by the Packers ahead of the game or play-by-play man Jim Nantz of CBS during the broadcast, Love is getting his due.

One can expect the Dope Sheet, the team’s weekly media information packet, to be in Love’s corner. Here are a couple of nuggets put to paper before Green Bay and Houston tangled for the sixth time.

• Love now has posted 15 straight games with 200-plus passing yards and at least one passing TD, which is the second-longest streak in franchise history behind only QB Aaron Rodgers’ 19-game streak from 2010-12.
• Love has thrown multiple TD passes in each of his last eight games, the second-longest streak in team history behind only Rodgers’ 13-game streak in 2011.

After Love struck gold with Kraft on the fourth play of the second quarter, Nantz reported that Love had thrown a touchdown pass in 17 consecutive games. After No. 10 did the same with Wicks, Nantz let the viewing audience know that Love had thrown multiple touchdown passes in nine straight games.

With just over four minutes remaining until halftime, CBS put up a graphic that showed how many TD passes Love (45), Aaron Rodgers (39), Brett Favre (28) and Bart Starr (15) had thrown in their first 22 starts.

Said Nantz: “And now, look, Jordan Love has more than all of those three legends.”

Johnny Jolly (2006-09, 2013) signed autographs.

Games started is one way to look at how quickly and often a player rings the bell. Examining the number of attempts needed to reach a particular milestone is another.

Nine passers have thrown 50 or more TD passes for the Packers during the regular season. Four, including Love, needed fewer than 1,000 attempts to get there.

Love secured No. 50 on a safety-valve pass to Jacobs from the Houston 8 midway through the third quarter. After securing the ball at the 11, the running back did the rest, eluding linebacker Jake Hanson on his way to the end zone.

Nantz noted that the score was the first receiving TD by Jacobs in his 6-year career. He did not mention Love having hit 50.

For Love, the throw was the 829th of his regular-season career. Only Cecil Isbell (666) and Arnie Herber (768) – two-way players from a bygone era – required fewer attempts to get there.

Of course, Love had help in reaching this latest benchmark. Five of his teammates have caught two or more TD passes thrown by him: Jayden Reed (11), Romeo Doubs (10), Christian Watson (8), Wicks (7) and Kraft (6). Eight others have grabbed one each.

Next up for the Packers is Jacksonville where Love could add to his haul. No team has surrendered more touchdowns through the air than have the Jaguars (16).

Getting Up To Speed
Packers passers and the attempt on which they threw their 50th regular-season TD pass.

        Att.        Passer                          Stat Line at 50 TD Passes
         666        Cecil Isbell                           666-330-5032-50-45
         768        Arnie Herber*                      768-309-5003-50-73
         829        Jordan Love                        829-524-6055-50-22
         969        Aaron Rodgers                  969-620-7448-50-19
       1,016       Tobin Rote                          1016-431-6178-50-76
       1,270       Bart Starr                             1270-721-9670-50-65
       1,307       Brett Favre                         1307-809-8507-50-44
       1,310       Don Majkowski                 1310-724-9074-50-45
       1,431       Lynn Dickey                        1431-781-9823-50-74

Numbers used for Arnie Herber's first two seasons (1930-31) are those of historian David Neff.