Being forced to throw in difficult passing situations — such as second-and-long and third-and-long — is at least one reason why Jordan Love’s completion percentage is so low through the first five games of the 2023 season.
Entering Week 7, Love ranks last among the 33 qualified quarterbacks in completion percentage at 55.6.
Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich pointed to the difficulty of passing when playing behind the sticks on offense as a major reason why Love has struggled to complete a high number of passes.
“We’ve just got to help him with what we’re doing, making sure that we’re staying efficient as an offense to allow him to get a better completion percentage,” Stenovich said Monday. “Because anytime you’re in these second-and-long situations, things like that, it’s not a high percentage of completions. Third-and-long, we’ve had way too many third-and-longs, and again you’re not going to have a very high completion percentage. So, we definitely do need to do a better job, first and second down, keeping those manageable situations so we can be more efficient as an offense. I think that completion percentage kind of tells the tale of just our offense isn’t very efficient now, for sure.”
The numbers support Stenavich’s conclusion. On 1st-and-10, a completely neutral passing situation, Love is completing 65.4 percent of passes (34/52). It’s the difficult passing situations that are killing his completion percentage.
On 2nd-and-7 or longer, Love has completed 13 of 33 passes (39.4 percent).
On 3rd-and-7 or longer, Love has completed 14 of 30 passes (46.7 percent).
In any game situation other than 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-long, Love is completing 63.6 percent of his passes.
A few things: Passing in the NFL in obvious passing situations is difficult, even for great quarterbacks and great offenses. Defenses are too good, secondaries are too fast and pass-rushers are too disruptive to consistently win on obvious passing downs. Also, the combination of Love, a young group of skill position players and an offensive line still trying to find its footing after losing David Bakhtiari isn’t nearly good enough to consistently operate on second-and-long and third-and-long.
The Packers must start playing better on early downs or Love and the passing game will continue struggling to execute. It usually all ties together. The Packers are averaging 3.6 yards per run on first down and have committed too many penalties and produced too many negative plays on early downs. Love’s completion percentage will remain low if he’s constantly facing second-and-long and third-and-long over the course of the 2023 season.