Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings: Second quarter recap and third quarter discussion

They’re heading into the locker rooms at halftime at U.S. Bank Stadium with the Minnesota Vikings trailing the Green Bay Packers by a score of 23-3.

The Packers looked like they might add to their lead, but a pass from Jordan Love on 4th-and-1 fell incomplete to turn the ball back over to the Vikings. Minnesota then put together their best drive of the night so far, pushing into Green Bay territory and setting up Greg Joseph for a 54-yard field goal attempt. He put it through the uprights, putting the Vikings on the board and cutting the lead to 10-3.

Green Bay marched straight down the field on their next possession, getting just about no resistance from the Minnesota defense through the air or on the ground. The drive culminated with a 2-yard touchdown run from Jordan Love, and with just under five minutes to go in the half the Packers found themselves up 17-3.

The two teams then exchanged punts and the Vikings got the ball back with less than a minute left in the half. Then, the Vikings turned it over again, as Preston Smith sacked Jaren Hall with the Packers recovering in Minnesota territory at the 37-yard line. That was enough time for the Packers to cash in, as Love found Jayden Reed for their second scoring connection of the night, this one a 25-yard catch-and-run to make it 23-3 heading into halftime.

This has been ugly. Can’t really say anything else about it. Come on in and join us for the third quarter if you’ve got the guts.

The Green Bay Packers have found their future franchise quarterback.

This franchise has an uncanny ability of finding franchise signal callers that end up playing — and thriving — for the team for a long time.

Jordan Love is playing as well as many of the top quarterbacks in the NFL right now and the Pack will need him and the offense to thrive in a hostile road divisional game with so much on the line.

With two games remaining in the regular season, the Packers first-year starter Has 3,587 passing yards. 27 passing touchdowns, a passer rating of 91.8, three rushing touchdowns and just 11 interceptions.

In terms of stats, Love has already surpassed Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre for performance in his first season starting.

One of the keys to the Packers offensive success has been the strong play of their young offensive weapons.

From rookies like Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft, to second-year WR Christian Watson, the youngest offense in the NFL has struck gold at their skill positions.

It may sound like common sense, but anyone that watched Green Bay early this season could obviously see the head coach didn’t have full faith in Jordan Love, but that has changed drastically as the Packers have made a run toward the playoffs.

Former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky is widely respected for breaking down the intense details that the average fan may not grasp at first glance, and agrees LaFleur and the Packers’ coaching staff has adapted to set Jordan Love and the youngest offense in the NFL up for success.

In a piece written by ESPN Packers’ beat reporter Rob Demovsky, he highlighted these same points based on Orlovsky’s film study of Love.

Demovsky noted Orlovsky noticed two major differences in the Green Bay Packers and Jordan Love over the last month.

Matt LaFleur’s use of play-action as a means to protect Love, and Love’s ability to (despite some mechanical issues that Orlovsky said can be fixed) complete more of the basic throws.

“Do I think he is where he needs to be mechanically with his feet right now?” Orlovsky asked. “No. But I think that they’ve realized that if he’s clean or protected, they can get to the mechanics and his feet in the offseason a little bit with his balance and base. They’re really doing a good job trying to keep him clean in that regard.”

Then Orlovsky explained the second thing he’s noticed that’s made a major difference.

“The second thing, from Week 3 to about Week 8 or 9, the glaring thing for me outside of — I’ve talked about his feet and the hoppy-ness — he would either have a ‘9’ throw or a ‘2’ throw, meaning if you were grading the throw 1-10, he’d have three, four, five a game that were 9s, and then he’d have three, four, five a game that were 2s,” Orlovsky said. “He didn’t have many 6s. On the box score, it might even be a completion. But instead of it being an 11-yard gain, it was a 4-yard gain because it was low or he stopped the receiver or something like that. A lot of great throws, not enough good throws.”

Former Green Bay Packers backup QB Kurt Benkert noticed a similar adjustment from LaFleur to maximize Love’s talent.

My shout out today goes to Matt LaFleur. His willingness to adapt and change his play calling over the last few weeks has been really cool to see and he has the entire team playing at a championship level,” Benkert said.

“The trust that he has put into Jordan on critical 3rd and 4th downs + the red zone is so evident now. I’ve obviously been critical of him when I felt like it was warranted and will be equally as quick to say that he is coaching the best ball of his life right now with the youngest team in the NFL.”