Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers IN DANGER of missing the playoffs? | NFL on FOX Pod

Keep it in the NFC North with the bears biggest rival, who, for very unfun reasons, you could argue had the worst week one of anybody in the league. Not only do they lose to the Eagles in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but Jordan Love hurts his MCL on basically the last play of the game. I think there was one more snap after his injury. But basically, when this game was concluded Jordan Love goes out, MCL sprained. They did-- they dodged a bullet enough that it looks like he's only going to miss a few weeks, maybe even less than that. Matt LaFleur is in Green Bay on Monday evening, saying they're going to give him every opportunity to play on Sunday. I'm going to go ahead and say I think that's definitely a lie. But with this new with this new development that Jordan Love could miss some time, a lot of people worrying that the Packers maybe aren't a playoff team anymore. Carm, do you think that's legit, or do you think it's a lie? I think it's a lie. I don't think they will miss the playoffs. I still-- again, you talked about it. And the Packers are hoping to get Jordan Love back more on that two to three week scale, I think. I know that Matt LaFleur is saying that they're going to give him every opportunity to play. I think that's just for the opponent's sake, to make sure that you're having to prepare for multiple different scenarios because that makes it harder on opposing defenses. The fact that they're not bringing in anybody else, though, really makes it-- solidifies it for me that they really are optimistic about Jordan Love's timetable. And I'm not going to glean a ton off of that game, given the playing surface. But if you look at that defense, which you were hoping you were going to be able to rely on this year, I said it all off-season, that Green Bay Packers were going to go as far as the defense let them, because I'm not worried about the offense anymore. And we saw that. Before Jordan Love got hurt, this offense is still great. It added Josh Jacobs, who didn't really have his footing quite yet. Quite literally, he didn't have his footing quite yet because of the playing surface in Brazil. But you look at a guy like Xavier McKinney, who the team acquired this off-season at a pretty hefty price tag, that pays off almost immediately. Second third snap of the defense is game of the night, Xavier McKinney gets an interception. Like, this is exactly what you wanted from this defense now led by Jeff Hafley. It's a complete scheme change for the Green Bay Packers. They are now a 4-3 base defense for the first time in 15 years. But it seems like there hasn't been much. The transition has been seamless. So I'm really hopeful that the defense can keep them afloat. And don't forget, I mean, this Eagles team, with the coordinator changes they made, this is supposed to be one of the best teams in the conference, not just, you know-- this is this is who Green Bay is going to be going up against later in the season to make it down the line through the playoffs. So if you did this well against an Eagles team when your quarterback goes down and conditions are less than ideal, I'm not worried about the Green Bay Packers from here on out. I am going to agree with you and say, I think this is a lie. I don't know how we can-- now that we know Jordan Love will be back at some point relatively soon, how can we freak out too, too much when, just last year, the reason why the Packers are a hot team heading into this season, it's because they dug out of a three and six hole last year? Jordan Love averages 270 passing yards, 18 touchdowns to one pick basically over the second half of the season to get them into the playoffs. So I'm not worried about them potentially digging out of a hole. But, Carm, can I point this out to you? It all sounds well and good when you're rallying the troops and circling the wagons and Malik Willis and Sean Clifford are going to be the guys. That all sounds really good. But I've seen this song and dance before when these backups get into games, and it's like, oh, my god. We need Jordan Love back immediately. I know it's been a little bit of time since Malik Willis started for the Tennessee Titans as a rookie. We all think very highly of what Matt LaFleur can do as a developer of talent. But last time we saw Malik Willis, he was second to last in the league in success rate among quarterbacks who played at least 100 snaps, and he was dead last in EPA per play. So, like, all I'm trying to say is that this can go sideways very quickly. Yeah, notice I didn't talk about how I thought the backups were going to be able to keep this thing afloat. I talked about the defense keeping it afloat. You did do that. I'm very well aware of the fact that Malik Willis has not shown up into this point that he is a viable passer in this league. I do think that with the addition of Josh Jacobs and the fact that the Packers should have some more continuity on the offensive line or have figured out their offensive line starters, because that was a big point of contention this off-season and this preseason, you have Jordan Morgan who now got some snaps at right guard. The Packers were also rotating. I feel like we saw that a lot in week one, where there were multiple teams, like, rotating their offensive line, which is just-- it just seems like a cardinal sin to me. I don't know why that we keep doing these things. But that should settle in. And then you can get the ground game going. I think Malik Willis can be a factor in the run game, especially when you saw what Emanuel Wilson was able to do in that game now that AJ Dillon is hurt. So you have Josh Jacobs. You have Emanuel Wilson. You have Malik Willis now, that kind of factors into that. This just has to kind of turn into one of those run-the-damn-ball type of offenses. But I think the Packers have the personnel to do it, especially when you include the tight ends and how much they can block and be a factor in creating mismatches, all that kind of stuff. So I'm not super optimistic about Malik Willis stepping in, especially when he doesn't really know the system. They just traded for him at the end of the preseason. But you need to kind of lean on the other phases of the ball if you're a Green Bay to get you through the next couple of weeks. And hopefully, it's only a couple of days. Which, fortunately for the Packers, the next few weeks at least look manageable. Colts, add Titans, Vikings-- I'm not trying to say these are bad teams, but these are at least teams with-- we'll call them uncertain quarterback positions. So winnable-looking games coming up in the next few weeks, but it does get a lot tougher after that. So hopefully, Jordan Love can hurry back. But I'm with you. I'm not freaking out about the Packers yet. I'm calling this a lie.