The Green Bay Packers decided to play their starters against the Chicago Bears in Week 18, and the outcome couldn’t have been much worse. They lost 24-22 and had to handle injuries to some key players — wide receiver Christian Watson, for example.
The silver lining is that Jordan Love suffered an elbow injury, but at least it should not preclude him from playing next week against the Philadelphia Eagles in the postseason.
“Yes,” Love said when asked if he was confident about his chances of playing in the wild card round. “(The doctor) said it should (go away). Not sure when, but it’s feeling better.”
The circumstances of the game made the Packers go with a safer route, playing backup quarterback Malik Willis for the rest of the game. But if it was a win or go home situation, Love could have returned.
“By the time I was feeling my hand again, I would definitely try to get out there. It just comes down to if I can throw or not, grip the ball, things like that,” Love detailed. “Once some of the feel was starting to come back, I would try to push it, for sure.”
In the second half, Malik Willis also had to handle a thumb issue. And head coach Matt LaFleur said Love almost was forced back into action.
“Yes, (Love) was good to go back in. In fact, we thought that there was a chance that he was gonna have to go back in the game, because Malik got his thumb hit and he couldn’t really feel it,” LaFleur said. “But I thought Malik went in there and I thought he played tough. I thought he did a lot of good things to give guys an opportunity.”
Late in the game, there was a realistic scenario in which the Packers could have gotten the sixth seed — the Dallas Cowboys were leading until the final drive against the Washington Commanders. The Packers considered putting Love back in, but the risk was probably greater than the reward.
“Once Malik said he was good to go, we felt like that was the route we wanted to go,” LaFleur explained. “That definitely crossed my mind. I think it’s harder when you start a game, then you come out of the game, then you go back in the game. Just the way it had transpired with Christian (Watson), and we played Josh (Jacobs) limitedly, so just went the other route.”
Everything was different than what the Packers had planned. At least, Jordan Love will be healthy enough against the Eagles, and that’s all that matters at this point.
