With Jordan Love as their offensive leader, the Green Bay Packers missed a golden opportunity to start the season with a win.

Now they are waiting for news as to whether they will be missing their franchise quarterback for a longer period of time.

Love was helped outside the field with an obvious injury to part of his left leg in the last seconds of the Packers’ 34-29 defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday in Brazil. The Packers had no immediate comment on the severity of Love’s apparent injury.

“Obviously you don’t want the leader of your team to get hurt,” running back Josh Jacobs said after the game.

Love, 25, played his first regular season game since signing a four years, $220 million contract extension this summer. The Packers started the season with Super Bowl ambitions, mainly due to the emergence of Love, who The youngest team in the NFL to a surprising playoff berth last season as a starter in his first year.

They can’t afford a serious injury to Love because they lack an experienced replacement.

Malik Willis, a 2022 third-round draft pick from Liberty, is the only other quarterback on the Packers’ 53-man roster. He is widely considered a much more polished runner than passer. Willis has made three starts in his career – all in his rookie year – and has not thrown for 100 yards in any of them.

Willis also just joined the Packers less than two weeks ago, when they acquired it from the Tennessee Titans for a 2025 seventh-round pick, so he may not have developed much rhythm with this offense.

Another possibility is Sean Clifford, a fifth-round pick in 2023. The Packers released Clifford and rookie Michael Pratt, a seventh-round pick, after signing Willis, but later returned Clifford to the practice squad.

It would have helped the Packers if they could have gotten an early win on Friday in a game that Love started, but they were unable to capitalize when they gained 414 total yards on offense. Penalties, red zone mistakes and an inability to slow down Saquon Barkley were too much to overcome.

“There’s a lot to work through,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “I think it was definitely a sloppy game from us. Honestly, we did some uncharacteristic things as a team and it affected our players. So at the end of the day, we all have to take a hard look at ourselves and find ways to improve because obviously tonight wasn’t good enough.”

What works

The Packers intercepted two passes from Jalen Hurts, an encouraging sign for a defense that had just seven interceptions last season, second to last in the league, only better than Tennessee. The Packers struggled to gain much ground up the middle early on, but still finished the game with 163 rushing yards on 21 carries.

What needs to be processed?

Green Bay committed 10 penalties. …The Packers scored just one touchdown on four red zone attempts and were forced to settle for three field goals. …Green Bay’s defense forced three turnovers but otherwise struggled to stop Philadelphia. After forcing Philadelphia to gain possession on its first two possessions, the Packers allowed three touchdowns and a field goal on the Eagles’ next four drives.

Stock up

WR Jayden Reed showed his impressive rookie season was no fluke. The 2023 second-round pick from Michigan State had a 33-yard jet sweep and a 70-yard reception. He also caught a 38-yard touchdown that was nullified by penalties. Reed finished with four receptions for 138 yards. … TE Tucker Kraft was on the field for 64 of the Packers’ 67 offensive snaps, a sign he has risen in the rankings ahead of fellow second-year player Luke Musgrave. Kraft caught two passes for 37 yards. Musgrave played 17 offensive snaps and had no catches.

Inventory is decreasing

LT Rasheed Walker was penalized twice for holding and once for a false start. … WR Dontayvion Wicks did not catch a pass any of the three times he was targeted.

Injuries

On the same play that Love was injured, C Josh Myers was also slow to get up. Myers said after the game it was just a case of leg cramps. “I had really bad cramps the whole second half of the game,” Myers said.

Key figures

30/70 – Reed is one of five players since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 to have a touchdown run of at least 30 yards and a touchdown catch of at least 70 yards in the same game. The others were Delvin Williams of the San Francisco 49ers in 1976 against Washington, Curtis Dickey of the Baltimore Colts in 1983 against Buffalo, Herschel Walker of the Dallas Cowboys in 1986 against Philadelphia and Ezekiel Elliott of Dallas in 2016 against Pittsburgh.

Next Steps

The Packers open their home game on September 15 against the Indianapolis Colts.

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