GLENDALE, Ariz. – Jordan Love convinced his coach with a look.
Coming off the field on fourth-and-2 as the field-goal unit came on to try to tie Sunday’s game with 2½ minutes left, the Packers quarterback was, in a word, bummed.
Head Coach Matt LaFleur noticed the “disdain on his face,” saw how much time the Cardinals would have to go win the game with a field goal of their own, and reconsidered.
He chose to go for it, moments after the Cardinals had failed on a fourth down of their own. He put the game in Love’s hands and was rewarded with a conversion, eventual go-ahead touchdown, and 27-23 victory Sunday at State Farm Stadium.
“It was one of those deals, no matter what we called, this guy’s going to make it work,” LaFleur said of his QB. “That’s what happened.”
Love certainly appreciated the vote of confidence, and he went up to the line of scrimmage with two possible plays called – one against man coverage, the other against zone.
It’s not entirely clear if he chose the right one, as LaFleur said the Cardinals disguised their defense as they’d done all game on the late downs. But that’s the imperfect game of football, and Love worked through his progressions to find the third option on the play, Tucker Kraft heading toward the boundary for 15 yards.
Love had three targets to his left, all with different routes – an out to the sticks, a pivot at the line to gain, and Kraft running the corner further downfield. The first two were covered, so Love went for broke.
“Tuck did a great job going up and being able to win,” Love said. “It’s just a one-on-one route … and when I got to him, I couldn’t tell what angle he would take out of (his break). I just put it out there for him.”
A little extra air under it worked just fine. As for the decision to play for the lead rather than the tie?
“That’s a tough one,” Love admitted, while at the same time knowing what it meant to have the game put on that play. “You don’t have a lot of time to sit there and think about it.”
It couldn’t have been an easy call, not with the offense full of fits and starts all game and never seeming to be in sync.
Whether it was the pre-snap penalties or the difficulty in steadily moving the ball without explosive gains, it wasn’t the offense’s best day. LaFleur credited the Cardinals for “keeping an umbrella” on their defense to make downfield throws a challenge, and he called on himself to either show more patience himself and/or get the offense running the ball better and executing short, quick passes with more efficiency.
But he made the call he needed to make to give the Packers their best chance to win. There was no guarantee it would work out, but realistically he went with the odds.
By playing for the lead, which became a four-point advantage after the go-ahead TD and PAT, LaFleur gave his defense the entire field to defend. Jeff Hafley’s unit just couldn’t give up a touchdown, whereas a field goal would’ve won it for the Cardinals had the Packers played for the tie.
Sure enough, Arizona did get into field-goal range on the ensuing drive, but Green Bay held on. Once the Cardinals got to the 26-yard line, they probably would’ve just run the ball to drain the clock and send out their kicker. Micah Parsons wouldn’t have gotten the chance for his third sack, which wound up being the game-saver.
“Finding a way to win is what makes good teams become elite,” running back Josh Jacobs said. “Finding a way to win in this league is always the most important thing.”
LaFleur fired off the phrase “scared money don’t make money” when answering a question about trying to get in position for a long field goal with only seven seconds left in the first half rather than just take a knee and get into the locker room.
He might as well have been referring to his decision on the fateful fourth down with 2½ minutes left.
Lamenting all the choppiness on offense and the third-and-longs on defense and everything else that went wrong Sunday, LaFleur admitted, “We’re a long way away from being the team we want to become.”
His gutsy call with the game on the line could be viewed as a way to maybe, just maybe, help his team get there a little faster.
It doesn’t necessarily work that way, but time will tell.
“At the end of the day,” Love said, “I’m glad Matt made that decision to go with the offense.”
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