GREEN BAY — Kyle Brandt had a pretty good idea of what the Green Bay Packers coaches must’ve been feeling about quarterback Jordan Love’s bruising — or should we say, “angry,” instead? — 14-yard run in last week’s win over the Washington Commanders.
And, as a connoisseur of 1980s and 1990s sports movie classics, the NFL Network host and analyst channeled the greatest baseball manager in cinema history, Cleveland Indians skipper Lou Brown in Major League, and guessed what Packers head coach Matt LaFleur might’ve told Love afterwards.
“Nice run, Love,” Brandt imagined his LaFleur-as-Lou Brown saying. “Don’t ever [expletive] do it again.”
Brandt was right. According to Love, the Packers coaching staff’s collective reaction was just that — almost verbatim.
“Man, everybody said it was nice, but don’t do it again,” Love relayed at midweek. “That’s kind of what I heard from everybody.”
That said, while LaFleur, offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich and quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion all agreed that their QB had put himself in harm’s way — a perilous thing to do after Love’s 2024 season was derailed by knee and groin injuries that robbed him for much of the year of his ability to make plays with his legs — a part of all of them absolutely loved it, and loved what it did for Love’s teammates, on offense and defense alike.
“I mean, sometimes you just got to do what you got to do,” LaFleur said with a smirk last week. “Obviously, that was a huge play, getting us down there and leading to a touchdown.
“Yeah, ideally, in a perfect world, [I] give him a better play for the coverage, so he does not have to do that, and you can get somebody open. But, we had nobody open on that.
“The thing that I really liked that he did was he was really decisive when he decided to take off and go. There was no hesitation. And I think that’s what you got to do. And, you know, since he came out healthy, I feel really good about it.”
The play came with the Packers facing third-and-9 at the Washington 19-yard line with about 5 minutes left in the first quarter of what was at the time a scoreless game. Working from the shotgun, Love got the snap and saw no one open as he scanned the field. With pressure starting to hem him in, Love looped around right end and bee-lined for the first-down marker at the Washington 10.
Standing between Love and the first down were Commanders cornerback Trey Amos and a split-second decision: Cut out of bounds a yard shy of the first down to set up fourth-and-1, or go through Amos and risk injury for that crucial yard.
“Split-second decisions like that, you don’t really have too much time to process,” Love explained. “I’m going to always try and go out there and get that first, but who knows what I would’ve been feeling last year?
“I could see the sticks on the sideline, knew I was going to be short. I saw the corner coming, so I knew I was going to have to try and lower my shoulder, try and make that play, get the first. It’s third down right there.
“I’m a competitor. I’m going to try and go out there and get it no matter who’s out there. But you’ve got to always balance being smart. But I’m a football player. I’ve been doing this my whole life. I’m not scared of a little contact.”
Which is why Love, of course, chose the latter, lowering his right — throwing! — shoulder and trucking Amos to finish off the run.
Jordan Love bounces off a defender and picks up the first down 💪WASvsGB on Prime VideoAlso streaming on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/LHLue1zrKB
— NFL (@NFL) September 12, 2025
On the next play, Love hit Romeo Doubs for a 5-yard touchdown and a 7-0 Packers lead.
Asked what would have happened to Love on the play if he would’ve been the tackler closing in on Love, Packers star edge rusher Micah Parsons replied, “Night, night. [And] LaFleur [yelling], ‘Jordan, what the [expletive] are you doing?’
“But I was super impressed. I was probably one of the first ones that got up and was like, ‘Hell yeah!’ At the same time, he’s a professional. He knows how to protect his body and protect the football. That’s all that matters. He knows when to take shots, he knows when to slide. It’s all a part of being football savvy and IQ.”
Added right guard Sean Rhyan, one of the offensive line’s resident tough guys: “Shoot, you have quote-unquote ‘The Guy’ who’s supposed to take care of himself the most just dropping that [expletive] shoulder — it’s like, ‘All right. We can get behind that. We can gut it out just a little bit more. If he’s doing that, we can do it too.’”
Asked if he might do it again, regardless of the coaches’ pleas not to, Love replied, smiling, “We’ll see. Who knows?”
According to Mannion, who coaches from the sideline instead of the coaches’ box upstairs, the Packers sideline absolutely erupted after Love’s hit — especially core defensive players like Parsons.
“As his coach, when you see him take a hit on a run like that, you try to tell him, ‘Hey, if there’s a chance to avoid it …’ but I will say this: The guy’s a total competitor,” said Mannion, who spent seven years in the NFL as a player, primarily as a backup.
“I know being on the sidelines, the juice that that brought our guys, seeing him compete like that, going for a first down, for a big conversion, that gives your whole team a jolt.
“I love the way he’s been using his legs and that was a great example of it. [But] you just want to be super, super selective about when you’re going to pick your spots for that.”
The play earned more than just the respect and admiration of Love’s teammates. It also got him Brandt’s “Angry Run” award for the week, which comes with a scepter and t-shirt, which Love happily showed off after his care package arrived.
JORDAN LOVE 😡😡😡😡😡😡 pic.twitter.com/eWzVNB7NXZ
— Kyle Brandt (@KyleBrandt) September 18, 2025
“I never thought I’d be winning something like that — Angry Run,” Love said. “But it’s cool.”
Brandt thought so, too. He said it’s been “pretty rare” for a quarterback to win the award, which he started giving out on “Good Morning Football” in 2017, with various tweaks along the way.
But when a quarterback does do something like Love did, it has a totally different vibe to it.
“They’re some of my favorite ones because you don’t expect it,” Brandt explained in a telephone interview Saturday afternoon. “It’s kind of frowned upon. It’s kind of naughty. It’s kind of bad boy. It’s kind of rock ‘n’ roll. I like that every once in a while, a quarterback just says, ‘Enough of this [expletive],’ and they just go for it.
“What I liked about the Jordan Love one it was, there was nome this nonsense at the sideline. There was no consideration of sliding at all. And I know that Matt LaFleur’s heart was probably in his throat, but for the teammates and the fans. their fists were in the air, man. It was awesome.”
For his part, Brandt has no idea if Love will ever win another Angry Runs scepter. What he does know is that, with one of the NFL’s emerging top-flight defenses, the Packers’ postseason fate likely rests on Love — not him carrying the team like his quarterbacking predecessors, but rather delivering in a few critical moments.
“It’s incredibly cool because I think we know what time it is, even after two games,” Brandt said. “This team’s destiny is going to be Jordan Love making a handful of plays in the big games in January.
“If you were trying to describe an ‘angry runner,’ you could go for an hour and I don’t think Jordan Love’s name would come up. He is a guy who seems really respectful, seems soft spoken — his name is literally ‘Love’ — and he’s, like, nothing at all what we’re looking for with ‘Angry Runs.’
“But maybe that’s a new side of him.”
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