• READ RELATED ARTICLES HERE 

Lions’ coverage bust frees up Christian Watson for WR’s first TD of ’23

READ ALSO 

Jordan Love’s Bomb to Christian Watson Set Tone as Packers Beat Lions
The big play from Jordan Love to Christian Watson that set the tone against the Detroit Lions almost didn’t happen.

DETROIT – Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love went to bed on Wednesday night knowing the opening play call for Thursday’s game at the Detroit Lions.

He woke up having to convince coach Matt LaFleur to stick to his guns.

Call it Jordan Love’s first full-blown audible as the team’s starting quarterback.

“I almost changed that first play call,” LaFleur said after a 29-22 victory over the Lions on Thursday. “I was kind of mulling it over quite a bit and I texted Jordan this morning and told him I was going to change it to something else, and he said he wanted this call, so I said, ‘OK.’”

The Packers, notorious slow-starters this season, wanted to set the pace against one of the best teams in the NFL. So, after winning the opening coin toss, LaFleur took the unorthodox approach of taking the football to start the game.

“We wanted to start fast,” Love said. “We wanted to put the offense out there and set the tone. And that’s what we did.”

On the first play from scrimmage, with a capacity crowd raising the decibels to deafening levels, Love took the snap and fired deep to Christian Watson. The pass was a little underthrown but Watson made the play for a leaping catch for 53 yards to set up the opening touchdown.

Good thing Love’s power of persuasion was as good as his overall performance in toppling the first-place Lions.