Trial By Fire: Jordan Love vs. the Bills' Defense

    

When the news first broke that Jordan Love had sustained a shoulder injury during his promising preseason debut against the Texans, I was hopeful that he wouldn't be sidelined for long. The postgame messaging from him and his coaches seemed optimistic. As the week went on, however, that hope proved to be short-lived. As most Packers fans will know, Love was forced to sit out the team's joint practices with the New York Jets, as well as the subsequent preseason game. This was disappointing on several levels. As a fan, seeing Love play is much more compelling than watching Kurt Benkert and Jake Dolegala. I don't mean any disrespect to those quarterbacks; I'm a big fan of Benkert. However, Jordan Love's play has potentially huge implications for the future of the franchise. With higher stakes come higher levels of interest.

    More importantly, every preseason snap is valuable to a developing quarterback like Jordan. If all goes well during the regular season, he will never see the field aside from performing clean-up duty at the tail end of lopsided victories. Thus, his opportunities to develop as a quarterback during the preseason are vital, especially if he hopes to eventually become the successor to Aaron Rodgers. The more experience he gets in the preseason, the more he'll be able to grow and mature as a quarterback and as a professional.

    Considering all this, his absence against the Jets both in practice and in the game was regrettable. However, I don't think it needs to be a debilitating blow to his development. He has still benefitted from opportunities to take snaps with the Packers' #1 offense while Aaron Rodgers was absent over the summer, and got a significant number of snaps during the Packers first game of the preseason. Moreover, all signs point to Love playing a half or more against the Bills, a matchup that may hold the greatest developmental opportunity out of all three preseason games. 

    Over the past couple weeks, I've been able to watch the Bills play their first two preseason games against the Lions and the Bears. In both games, the aggressiveness and talent of the Bills defense was evident. Even when backups entered the game, Buffalo's defensive unit played tight man coverage, blitzed, and even threw in the occasional coverage disguise. With these factors in mind, Jordan Love's game against the Bills may be a considerable challenge. It could also be an opportunity for Love to be thrown into the fire a bit, in such a way that he can learn and grow from adversity. The game will provide an interesting opportunity for analysts and fans to get a glimpse of the stage that Love's development is at.

    Going into the game, there are three aspects of Jordan Love's play that I am going to be watching.

    #1: How Will Love Handle His Protection?

    As I mentioned before, the Bills defense has regularly deployed blitz packages through its first two preseason games. Although these have mostly been quite simple as far as blitzes go, they will force Love to work with his center to identify potential threats and adapt accordingly. While Josh Myers is in the game, the load on Love should be eased; Myers has been lauded for his intelligence and ability to make protection calls, and he handled most of the line calls when he was in college.

    However, Love will still be able to gain experience in identifying pressure and adjusting his protection, especially if/when the Packers switch Myers out with a backup. This video of the Fields hit from last Saturday is a good look at what Love will have to contend with. The Bills set up a linebacker blitz off the edge, with Cover 1 (man coverage with a single-high safety) behind it. Fields never sees the blitz coming and gets blasted. Luckily, he is uninjured, but this is exactly the kind of situation that Matt Lafleur will be hoping to avoid. Love needs to be able to see defensive looks like this and adjust.

    Protection is more than just sliding the offensive line one way or the other, however. Even when protection adjustments are made, QBs still need to know where their hot routes and checkdowns are and get the ball out accurately and on time. Lions QB Jared Goff does a good job of this in the face of a blitzing DB.

 

   

    #2: How Will Love React to Pressure?

    Buffalo's defensive front is both talented and deep, with players like Gregory Rousseau, Carlos Basham, A.J. Epenesa, Ed Oliver, Vernon Butler and Mario Addison. Even when the Bills' defense only sends a four-man rush, Love may have to deal with a collapsing or congested pocket. 

    Can Love keep his head and go through his progressions? Can he navigate the pocket wisely and efficiently? Can he avoid panicking and making dumb decisions? The Bills' front should help us show us his the status of his development in these areas. There were positive indications of his ability to handle pressure during the Houston game, but the Bills' defensive front is a very different beast.

   

#3. How Will Love Deal with Disguised Coverages?

    Another defensive wrinkle that the Bills pulled out over the first two weeks of the preseason was disguised coverage looks. Several times during both games, they would have a safety rotate in or out of the box in order to affect the quarterback's read. In this example from their game against the Bears, they initially show a single-high man coverage look, but then rotate to a two-high coverage.

    The Bills also used similar rotations against the Lions. Here they again use a single-high man look, then rotate into Tampa 2 coverage.

    Especially for a young, inexperienced quarterback like Love, coverage disguises like these can make make life very difficult. He will need to be able to avoid predetermined throws, adjust on the fly, and be able to quickly see and process the new coverage. These difficulties could be exacerbated if the Packers turn to play-action in order to generate chunk plays or delay the Bills' pass-rush. If the Bills time their coverage rotations correctly, then Jordan Love's picture of the field could be completely different once he turns around from his play fake. It will be vital for him to avoid panicking or forcing the ball into non-existent windows in these situations.

    Watching these aspects of Jordan Love's performance on Saturday will give us an interesting look at where he currently sits in his developmental path. It will a good experience for Love as well; a baptism by fire of sorts. Ultimately, though, his performance will not make or break him. Even if Love does poorly - and I do think that is entirely possible that he will struggle against the Bills - he has plenty of time and opportunity to learn from his mistakes under the tutelage of Matt LaFleur and (for now) Aaron Rodgers.

Before we close, here are a few other things I'll be watching during the Bills game:

The Packers' OL: Jordan Love isn't the only one who will be challenged by the pass-rushers of the Buffalo defense. The offensive line rebounded from a rough game against the Texans with an excellent showing in the Jets game. Can they continue their success against the Bills? Players like Yosh Njiman, Lucas Patrick, and Jon Runyan can still win spots as starters or backups if they have a strong performance.

The Edge Rushers: With Randy Ramsey out, the fourth OLB spot on the Green Bay roster is still open. Depending on Za'darius Smith's status, the Packers could also roster a 5th OLB for depth. Jon Garvin, Tipa Galeai, and Chauncey Rivers have all flashed at times, but none have stood out consistently. Like with the offensive line, multiple spots could be solidified by good play against the Bills, whether on defense or special teams.