By Eric Goska
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| 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.”
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| 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).
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.
Cecil Isbell being there is cool
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