Green Bay Packers 33, Carolina Panthers 30
Q. Keeps your playoff hopes alive. How do you feel about that?
JORDAN LOVE: Feels good. Um, I think any time you can get a win, you know, we're going to celebrate that. Obviously, like you said, keep the playoff hopes alive. So, we found a way tonight, and then obviously now it's on to next week.
Q. Were you wondering if you'd have any receivers left by the end of the night? (Inaudible). How did you, you know, function with these guys, some of whom, you know, you've only played a little bit with?
JORDAN LOVE: Yeah, I mean, it's what I always say, next man up. Guys stepped up and made plays. I think Bo Melton obviously just stepping into that role, had a huge day today. Did a good job, but obviously, you know, things happen in football, injuries happen. So, just got to keep going, keep fighting. The next guy up got to step up and make those plays.
Q. Jordan, can you take us through the two plays on the final drive where you hit Doubs on the sideline and the one after that to Tucker, just what you saw and the reads you had and how you made those plays?
JORDAN LOVE: Yeah, the one to Romeo, we got one high coverage, man coverage, we ran a stamp route with him, and he made a fantastic catch right there on the sideline, which was a huge play in that drive, and then, you know, coming back later, the one to Tucker, was able to fit it in between two guys, and he was able to bounce off 'em, pick up some more yards. So that was a huge catch by him and a great way to finish that drive, but two huge plays by those guys.
Q. Do you know how many they blitzed on that throw to Doubs?
JORDAN LOVE: No, I do not.
Q. They brought a lot, right?
JORDAN LOVE: I mean, it was man coverage so probably brought six, five or six. Yeah.
Q. So, was there an adjustment, like, when you saw they were going to blitz, is there an automatic adjustment or did you know as soon as you saw that, that that's where you were going? Because it was third down so you really needed to keep that drive alive.
JORDAN LOVE: Uh-huh. Yeah, just the way the play was set up, the coverage we got. One high man, we love that option to Rome. He's just got to go outside and win on that route, and that's what he did. But if not, we had some other in-breakers coming from the right side, but I think O line was able to pick that up, they did a great job with that. The running back stepped in and handled that protection, but like I said, the play was kind of designed for that coverage and it worked out.
Q. So when you see that, are you looking to see if he's in step or do you just have to say one-on-one it's going out there?
JORDAN LOVE: Yeah, I look out there, peek over there to see if he won or just what might happen over there, if he's getting jammed up, things like that, to see if I want to throw it or not.
Q. What difference does it make, obviously big, but to have Jones not just back, but producing so much almost every time you give him the ball?
JORDAN LOVE: Uh-huh, that's huge. Obviously we all know what type of player Aaron Jones is, and, you know, just being able to get him back 100% healthy was huge and he had a great day rushing the ball, made some plays in the pass game, too, but, you know, just whenever we can get him back to 100% trying to get him the ball as much as possible. We know what type of player he is.
Q. So how is life different for you with ... with all the defense plays when he's doing that and the downs and distances and the defense and everything?
JORDAN LOVE: I mean, it's huge. When you can run the ball on first and second down and get huge gains and just kind of convert and keep those drives rolling, it's huge. It takes pressure off the pass game and keeps the defense on their heels finding ways to stop the run. But I think just the way we started running the ball in those first couple of drives was huge and got us going.
Q. Three total touchdowns on Thanksgiving. Three today. Should we reed into how you play on holidays?
JORDAN LOVE: (Laughter) Yeah, man, I guess but, you know, it's obviously complete team game right there, like, guys out there just making plays for us, and you know, credit to Matt trusting me to put the ball in my hands in some of those critical situations and we executed some plays at a high level today, but the guys around me helped me make those plays.
Q. Jordan, you guys were in such a rhythm through three quarters. Then you have the back-to-back three-and-outs. What'd you feel was going wrong there and then how do you kind of regroup and put together that last drive?
JORDAN LOVE: Yeah, you know, I think starting the game, we started out fast. We were able to move the ball. Then obviously coming out the first drive of the second half, had a three-and-out. You know, credit to them. They had some good calls that got us and then obviously later in the game, having those three-and-outs, it just hurt us, you know? We weren't able to stay on the field, putting the defense in a tough position right there. So going forward, we got to find ways to just get over that hump right there and stay on the field, bleed the clock down, whatever we got to do, but, yeah, it's got to be better.
Q. So the touchdown to Wicks, so that's a third down, right?
JORDAN LOVE: Uh-huh.
Q. You had a lot of green in front of you. What goes into the decision to throw up rather than just try to run it and get a first down?
JORDAN LOVE: Yeah, whenever a play goes off schedule and I kind of get out of the pocket, I always just -- first thought is keep my eyes down field, see if anybody is able to pop open and Wicks did a really good job. He was running an in-breaker, saw me breaking out and he was able to break out and he was wide open so just got him the ball. Obviously the DB from the right side was able to come and get a hit on him, but it was a great catch by him to finish that off. It's not an easy catch getting hit like that. So, like I said, I'm always keeping my eyes down the field.
Q. A big part of Wicks going into this game, are you guys seeing some match-ups there and then when he went out how did that change things for you?
JORDAN LOVE: Oh, yeah, I think just with Christian being out and Jay Reed being out, yu know, guys had to step up. Rome had to step up. Wicks had to step up. Just having more opportunities in that role with the guys injured and then obviously with him getting hurt, more guys got to step up, so Bo, Malik, those guys were in there making some plays.
Q. On one of those three-and-outs, it looked like just a curl route to Bo. Did that guy kind of jump to the outside or do you recall the play I'm talking about?
JORDAN LOVE: Mm-hmm.
Q. What happened in that play?
JORDAN LOVE: Yeah, we were in a curl concept and I was trying to throw before he came out of his break and we weren't kind of on the same page with the angle coming out of it, and the DB made a great play to sticky coverage and was able to break it up, so that's just good play by the defense.
MODERATOR: Anything else?
Q. Jordan, what do you think of this team's playoff chances right now? You got two games left. Obviously you need some help elsewhere and all that. Just what are the thoughts of the guys in the locker room on that whole situation right now?
JORDAN LOVE: Yeah, we know exactly what's out in front of us. We got to go finish the season off. We have to win these last two games. Like I said, we're going to do the same thing we've been doing all season, take it one game at a time, but we know to deep those hopes alive, we got to give ourselves a chance we got to win these last two. We all know what's in front of us and we know what we're capable of, so we're going to finish this thing off, take it one week at a time. Thank you, guys.
Q. Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports