PackersCoverage Weekly: 10/29/2025

The highly anticipated matchup between Aaron Rodgers and his former team was truly a tale of two halves. Almost nothing went right for the Packers in the first, aside from a single scoring drive. The offense looked stale, filled with penalties, drops, and two missed field goals from Brandon McManus in his return made things worse. The 16-7 halftime score could have been even worse if Pittsburgh hadn’t settled for three field goals instead of touchdowns.

Everything changed after the break. The momentum flipped when Jordan Love connected with Tucker Kraft on a gutsy jump ball that resulted in a 59-yard gain while still trailing by nine on 3rd down. That play was just the start of a dominant 28-9 second half from Green Bay, quickly flipping the script from disappointment to maybe their best half of football all season.

Love was surgical all night, delivering one of the best performances of his career. The passing game found its rhythm, and Micah Parsons and co. were a nightmare for Aaron Rodgers. Matt LaFleur and his staff deserve plenty of credit for the adjustments they made at halftime. By the fourth quarter, “Go Pack Go” chants were echoing through Acrisure Stadium as Green Bay reminded everyone just how dangerous they can be.

It was always going to be a game Packers fans remembered. Thankfully, it will go down as a happy memory.

All anyone in the sports world seemed to want to talk about heading into the Packers-Steelers matchup was Aaron Rodgers. But if you ask me, this game was more consequential for Jordan Love, and that is why I was so annoyed at halftime.

The Packers losing is bad in and of itself. But I was especially upset on behalf of Jordan Love after two quarters on Sunday night because he showed up in the first half, while his teammates and coaching staff on offense seemed to be mailing it in.

The team always comes first, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't like most fans who cheer extra hard for the QB to succeed and get his flowers among the 53 players on the roster. Quarterbacks play the most important position in all of sports and, as a result, are the face of the team, even if they still have limited control over the outcome of a game.

Football is a sport where entire careers can be driven by narratives. It’s stupid, but it’s the world we live in since not everyone can watch every single game and base their opinions on what actually happens. One of the worst aspects of that reality is how fans can treat every game as a quarterback vs. quarterback battle, as if the other 20 players don’t even exist. In reality, there are countless variables that decide who wins, but that’s usually ignored when evaluating quarterbacks. I accepted that a long time ago after years of trying to explain that measuring greatness by rings doesn’t work in football. Ironically, I most often made that argument about Aaron Rodgers — someone I still consider the best ever — because his playoff losses were usually the fault of his defense, not him. I felt like I was speaking a different language; this point is seemingly never understood.

But unlike that past version of me, I understand the world we live in now. So I knew how important it was for Jordan Love to show up and lead Green Bay to victory with America watching. The narrative is already written on Aaron Rodgers' career, but there is still no consensus at all on what the Packers have in Jordan Love. He had way more to gain. A game that has been anticipated since Rodgers left Green Bay after the 2022 season was going to be a significant piece of the narrative on Love, whether he liked it or not.

I knew people would start saying crazy things about him if the Packers lost, no matter how he actually played. If Green Bay fell out of the NFC driver’s seat, fans and media alike would question whether he was truly the long-term answer. After all, how could he bring a Super Bowl back if he couldn’t even beat the 41-year-old he was meant to replace?

Thankfully, he had one of the best games of his career. After six years of answering questions about replacing Aaron Rodgers, he was able to win the duel against him in primetime. It was great to see Matt LaFleur finally take the training wheels off. He let Jordan Love push the ball downfield like the $220 million QB they’re paying him to be.

Although the outcome of a singular game was never going to have any additional effect on my personal opinion of Jordan Love, I may have gone crazy trying to fend off the critics whose opinions it did.

In the end, Love controlled everything he could control, and the things out of his control went his way too. Good for him.

The Packers will return to Lambeau Field on Sunday to host the 4-4 Carolina Panthers. They will face *checks notes* Andy Dalton at QB if Bryce Young is not cleared to play after missing last week due to injury.

There’s not really much to say about this game. The Packers should win, and handily, even if the Panthers’ record is a bit better than I thought before checking.

Please don’t make me have to come on here and dissect a shocking loss, Matt LaFleur.

If there were any questions about the Packers being a fraudulent leader of the NFC going into Sunday night, most of them are now vanquished.

The Packers are right where they belong. As I said last week, there will be highs and lows along the way. No team is impeccable on a week-to-week basis. The Packers finally showed the Super Bowl-caliber form on Sunday that we hadn't seen since early September. That's the standard going forward. It is who they should and can be. They might not show it every week, but as long as that kind of performance is in their arsenal, they’ll remain strong Super Bowl LX contenders.

Till next time,

Brian Pedretti