It looked all too familiar for Green Bay Packers fans who have been around for the long haul: a quarterback plays sensational football in the playoffs, puts up what should be enough points, but loses anyway.<\/p>\n
It happened in the Aaron Rodgers<\/a> era plenty of times, and now Jordan Love<\/a> gets a sour taste of it. It should\u2019ve been a defining chapter in Love\u2019s book, but people will forget about his performance because the Packers fell short against the Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n Love quickly eased any worries about him being rusty after three weeks off. On an opening drive that went nine plays for 85 yards and chewed up nearly five minutes, Love connected with wide receiver Christian Watson<\/a> on a seven-yard touchdown pass to put Green Bay up 7-3. Love orchestrated two more touchdown drives in a row, making it a three-for-three start for the offense and an impressive 21-3 lead.<\/p>\n Imagine still thinking that Jordan Love isn’t one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL pic.twitter.com\/drxFQnT7Qg<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Tyler Brooke (@TylerDBrooke) January 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n He finished with 323 yards, four touchdowns, and no turnovers. Even when Green Bay\u2019s offense was in a dry spell in the second half \u2014 mainly due to Matt LaFleur getting conservative \u2014 Love navigated a touchdown drive late to put the Packers up 27-16 with 6:36 left. It should\u2019ve been 28-16, but Brandon McManus<\/a> missed the extra point in addition to two field goal misses. But I digress.<\/p>\n In almost any playoff setting, 323 yards, four touchdowns, and no turnovers should win you the game. It should be a runaway victory. However, that wasn\u2019t the case for Love, just as it wasn\u2019t for Rodgers in so many brilliant individual postseason performances that ended in defeat.<\/p>\n On what ended up being the final play of the game, Jordan Love botched the snap and had to scoop it up off the turf. By that time, enough chaos had ensued that the original plan \u2014 a quick pass to the boundary to Romeo Doubs<\/a> \u2014 needed to be aborted. Love danced around, bought some time, and lofted a pass that fell incomplete and sealed defeat for Green Bay.<\/p>\n As social media would have it, that final play is circulating as a way to troll<\/a> Love and the Packers. However, it\u2019s Green Bay\u2019s fault for not slamming the door when they had multiple chances.<\/p>\n Love discussed<\/a> what that play was supposed to look like.<\/p>\n We had a play called to be able to take a shot to the end zone. And then, depending on the coverage they were playing, how soft they were, trying to pick up an easy couple yards to the sidelines, that\u2019s what we went to. When I fumbled the snap, couldn\u2019t get that, it kind of turned into last-second Hail Mary.<\/p>\n It was one of the only blemishes, and a minor one at that, in what was otherwise a top-tier performance from Love.<\/p>\n Still, all of it goes to waste because of the end result. It might not be a fair way to put it, but that\u2019s the nature of the beast. Just like nobody ever talks about the 2011 team that went 15-1 because it lost immediately in the Divisional Round, nobody will ever look back on this game in the years to come and discuss Love\u2019s performance. It won\u2019t even be a secondary topic. It\u2019s a damn shame.<\/p>\n Instead of preparing for the Seattle Seahawks and praising Love\u2019s rock-solid play, Green Bay\u00a0quickly turned the page to\u00a0watch LaFleur<\/a> praise the job he has and the\u00a0one he hopes to keep.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of one. I love this place. I love the people,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cI love our players, the locker room, everybody in our organization. This is a unique place. The community has been outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n What was not outstanding: the slew of mistakes across the board that caused Green Bay to cough up a 21-3 lead. Love isn\u2019t absolved of all blame; he was the maestro of an offense that went ice cold for the entire third quarter and part of the fourth. At times, it felt like they took the ball out of his hands, but he did struggle to find solutions coming out of the halftime break. Still, his stat line isn\u2019t deceptive. He played a terrific game.<\/p>\n The painful loss will be the first thing that comes to mind three, four, five years down the road when we look back on the 2025 season. Of course, the Micah Parsons<\/a> injury<\/a> that threw Green Bay\u2019s defense off its orbit will be a core trauma memory.<\/p>\n Perhaps later on in the thought process, we will remember how awesome Jordan Love looked. Four touchdowns and 323 yards weren\u2019t enough, and that is a narrative Packers fans have gotten used to in the playoffs far too often.<\/p>\n \t\t\t