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Packers coach Matt LaFleur says Jordan Love’s 53-yard start almost didn’t happen
Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur wasn’t sure he liked an early play call that ended up with a huge gain for his team.
On Thursday afternoon, Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers improved to 5-6 on the 2023-24 NFL season with an impressive Thanksgiving Day road win over their divisional rival Detroit Lions. While not many expected the Packers to come out on top against a revamped Lions squad that leads the division by a country mile, Love played arguably his best game of the season (and his career) en route to the 29-22 final margin of victory.
Love and the Packers wasted no time getting to work on Thursday in Detroit. In fact, on the very first play of the game, Love hit wide receiver Christian Watson with a 53-yard bomb to immediately set the Packers up deep in Lions territory. They would go on to score a few plays later.
Still, despite that play’s success, head coach Matt LaFleur was very hesitant on whether his team should go for the home run shot that early in the game.
“As a matter of fact, I almost changed the first play call. I was mulling it over quite a bit,” said LaFleur, per Mike Spofford of packers.com. “I texted Jordan this morning and told him I was going to change it to something else, and he said he wanted this call.
“So I told Christian right before the game, hey, there’s a good chance this play is going to go to you. Just go up and attack the football, and he did exactly that.”
