There was no hiding the suffering on the faces of Dallas Cowboys fans throughout AT&T Stadium as Jordan Love put on a clinic during the Green Bay Packers’ 48-32 playoff win on Sunday.
But was there another fanbase feeling the misery as they were watching that game, too?
Well, maybe Chicago Bears fans.
The Bears have long been searching for a franchise quarterback who can make their team a consistent winner. They’ve drafted and traded for so many over the years, it’s hard to keep track of the number any more. They haven’t found the answer.
The Packers have had the answer at this position for the last 30 years with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. Now, Love has shown he can be the next guy to lead the franchise with his star-studded performances one week after another.
Love’s near-perfect game on the big stage of the playoffs Sunday left Chicago media and Bears fans in agony.
Here’s one example via the Chicago Sun-Times.
The headline in Steve Greenberg’s column on Sunday night: “Face it: Jordan rules. Jordan Love, that is, whose Packers playoff debut was scary-good.”
Greenberg went on to write: “The foulest thing about the weekend wasn’t the miserable weather, but rather our collective mood after watching Packers quarterback Jordan Love go from promising first-year starter to budding superstar in a 48-32 dismantling of the Cowboys.”
As Greenberg notes, the Bears again are in a pivotal point in their franchise as they decide whether to take another quarterback in the draft with the No. 1 overall pick or stick with Justin Fields, a first-round pick in 2021 who some appear already ready to move on from after posting a 10-28 record in three seasons.
Would a new quarterback matter in this rivalry? It may not. Bears fans must be thinking “Good God, we’re never going to beat the Packers again,” Greenberg writes.
Well, he has a point. The Bears have lost to the Packers 10 straight times, with the most recent two coming with Love as the quarterback in 2023.
In two games this season — in Week 1 and then in Week 18 — Love was spectacular and picked up where Rodgers and Favre left off before him. He completed a combined 42 of 59 passes for 561 yards and five touchdowns with a blazing 125.9 passer rating in the two victories. The win in the regular-season finale earned the Packers a trip to the playoffs in Love’s first year as the starter.
Love will now go up against another top-five defense this weekend when the Packers play the San Francisco 49ers in a divisional round playoff game. If he can go on the road again and get the Packers to one win from the Super Bowl, there’s no doubt another NFC fanbase will be suffering with the Cowboys and Bears.
And if he does, you can expect the reaction by the 49ers to be what it was by Bears fans and others on Sunday as seen below (viewer discretion on the first video):
Bears and Vikings fans watching Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers take down the Cowboys on Sunday.
