Two plays that show why Matt LaFleur's confidence in Jordan Love is growing

Jordan Love hasn't been perfect this season, but what the Green Bay Packers needed most was evidence of his ability to grow. The head coach now has concrete examples.

While the Green Bay Packers defense attempts to drive the season off a cliff, Jordan Love has steered his season vertiginously up. Love’s predecessor under center in Green Bay was fond of pointing to players who rarely made the same mistake twice; mistakes are part of the game, but the best players learn from them and avoid them in the future. After 16 weeks, Matt LaFleur can now point to specific examples of Love’s evolution, learning from his mistakes, fixing them, and thus creating crucial points for his team.

“I think we can all agree that he’s come a long way and there’s still a lot to improve upon,” LaFleur said Thursday of Love.

“And that’s what's so exciting because he’s playing at a really high level right now and I still think there’s more out there for him.”

For LaFleur, a coach particularly fond of coach speak, this wasn’t just the usual platitudes. He pointed to one example of Love’s improvement unprompted: the throw Love missed against the New York Giants to Samori Toure in the right corner of the end zone. Love dodged trouble up the middle, stepped up, then escaped to his right, torqued his body and threw a gorgeous ball to Toure sprinting to the sideline.

Toure couldn’t get his feet down (LaFleur even described the outcome as, “we” couldn’t make the play, a subtle implication maybe “we” should have with the collective in this case being Toure), and it cost the Packers a chance at a touchdown.