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Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff WriterOct 27, 2024, 07:00 PM ET
- Rob Demovsky is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Green Bay Packers. He has covered the Packers since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2013. Demovsky is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the NSSA. You can follow him on Twitter at @RobDemovsky.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jordan Love got hurt again, and Malik Willis did the unimaginable again.
Thanks in part to Willis, who went 2-0 as a fill-in starter after Love’s Week 1 knee injury, the Green Bay Packers pulled off a last-second 30-27 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
While the Packers left EverBank Stadium at 6-2 and impressed that their backup quarterback, who wasn’t even with the team until the start of the regular season, engineered a walk-off, game-winning drive, their starting quarterback limped away with a groin injury that left his status uncertain for next Sunday’s NFC North showdown against the Lions (6-1).
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Love, who sustained a groin injury on the game’s opening drive, finished the first half and after taking the first snap of the third quarter, limped to the sideline and did not return.
The Packers never ruled him out, but he spent the rest of the game on the sideline. Love, who threw his ninth interception of the season two series after the first sign of the groin injury, did not speak with reporters after the game.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur said he had “no idea” about the severity of the injury to Love, who missed Weeks 2 and 3 after he sprained the MCL in his left knee on the final series of the season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Love is expected to undergo tests on Monday in Green Bay.
“Obviously high level of concern any time a guy’s [not] in there,” LaFleur said. “And he did it early in that first drive and I think you guys, I think everybody could see him struggling to move around. And it got to a point where we didn’t feel like, and he didn’t feel like he could protect himself.
“So, went with Malik and you can’t say enough great things about Malik Willis, the job that he’s able to do to go in there.”
The highlight play for Willis was a deep ball to Jayden Reed that went for a 51-yard completion to set up a game-winning, 24-yard field goal by Brandon McManus, who in two weeks with the Packers has kicked two last-second winners.
While Willis threw just five times with four completions for a total of 56 yards (including a 3-yard touchdown pass to Tucker Kraft) and had a 20-yard scramble to set up a Josh Jacobs touchdown in the third quarter, his mastery of the offense on the play to Reed was what everyone was raving about after the game.
“We ran a play earlier that kind of countered it a little bit and we just seen the opening,” Reed said. “So, we ran it. I already knew I was going to be open before the play was even called. Just great playcalling by Coach and great execution by us.”
The Packers used the same offensive alignment on the first two plays of the final drive. On the first, Reed stayed in to block from the right slot, and Willis handed off to Jacobs (25 carries for 127 yards and two touchdowns) for a 6-yard gain.
Just before the snap on the second play, Willis made a pre-snap adjustment — what the Packers call a “can” — and it worked like a charm. This time, Reed delayed his release, perhaps to make the defense think he was staying in to block again, and then turned his crossing route up the field.
“Not only was it a ‘can’ play, but it was a play that we didn’t have up in the game plan,” LaFleur said. “We talked about it on Tuesday. We thought that there might be something there, decided against it, and then we ran the keeper earlier in the gamer and [passing game coordinator Jason] Vrable suggested it. He’s like, ‘Hey, it looks like the play is there.’
“And so we put it in on the sideline. So, no reps in practice. I think that’s a big-time credit to our guys, to be able to go out there and execute it. Jayden Reed, Tucker, the O-line, the backs, everybody’s selling it. And then ultimately Malik making the throw. So, that was a pretty cool one. Probably one I’ll never forget.”
Not only was it a play the Packers never ran in practice last week, but Willis never took a single snap with the starters in practice, either.
“The starter, he needs all the reps,” Willis said. “You get your reps on scout [team], you get your reps in [individual drills], and you just do as you can to use those mental reps and do whatever you can to be ready if called upon.”
All three of Willis’ extended appearances have come against teams from the AFC South. He won a start against the Titans, the team that traded him to Green Bay on Aug. 26 for a seventh-round pick, a start against the Colts and now a relief appearance against the Jaguars.
“It’s been pretty damn impressive,” LaFleur said. “Impressive is the word.”
