Packers quarterback Jordan Love is about to have another Toyotathon masterpiece.
A few things are true about the second half of the NFL season, and it’s pretty consistent. The first is that sometimes it’s not the best team that wins, but the most healthy team. The war of attrition is real. The second is that when the playoffs are on the line, NFL football really can be a game of inches.
The third is a rather new phenomenon, but it’s as true as the freshly driven snow on the bleachers at Lambeau Field, and that’s Jordan Love surging during Toyotathon.
For the uninitiated, Toyotathon is a yearly car sales event that runs from mid-November to early January. Last season, during Toyotathon, Love led the Packers to a 6-2 record while throwing for 2,150 yards and 18 touchdowns with just one interception. Before 2023’s Toyotathon sales event, Love had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 14-to-10 and the Packers were 3-6.
Green Bay’s overall team is better in 2024 so the regular season record was a bit different heading into Toyotathon. In fact the Packers were a cool 6-3.
True to form, though, Love has heat up right on time for the Pack. His interception-to-touchdown ratio over that first chunk of games was 13-to-10 and for a time, he was tied for the league lead in picks despite having played in two fewer games than the other two “leaders” in that category.
Sure, Love got healthy during the bye week, and that’s most likely the key to his tremendous turnaround, but the Toyotathon magic has stayed true. Love’s touchdown-to-interception ratio over the past five games is eight-to-one and he hasn’t thrown a pick in Green Bay’s last four games.
There’s enough evidence here to prove that Toyotaton Love is a real thing, but here are three more reasons why the New Orleans Saints will be Love’s next victim in Week 16.
Jordan Love, Packers will exploit a bad defense
Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
This Saints defense simply isn’t good, and the Packers have more than enough weapons to make them pay for it.
The Saints are giving up 22.3 points per game, which is middle of the pack, but the tertiary numbers do paint a bleaker picture. New Orleans is giving up 242.2 points per game through the air, which is the fifth-worst mark against all NFL teams. The Saints also give up 134.4 yards per game on the ground.
This is the same Saints defense that recently let Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers offense go three-for-three in the red zone in early November. Simply put, this iteration of the Saints on defense is not capable of keeping up with Love and a Packers offense that is scoring 27.1 points per game.
Saints offense won’t be able to stay on the field
A big part of having a good defense is having a good offense. It’s called “complementary football” for a reason, and the teams that are good in this league are able to complement each side of the ball.
The issue for the Saints is they’ve been playing ring-around-the-Rosie at quarterback with Derek Carr dealing with a concussion as well as a fracture in his non-throwing hand.
Carr could come back for this one because it’s on Monday Night Football, which will give him an extra day of rest. At the very least, interim head coach Darren Rizzi does believe he’ll be cleared to return before the end of the season, via team reporter John DeShazier.
“I don’t think that’s a reach,” Rizzi said recently, discussing whether or not Carr could make it back before the conclusion of the 2024 season.
Still, it’s not like a rusty Carr coming off an injury would be much better than Spencer Rattler or Jake Haener at this juncture of the season. The Saints are scoring just 15.6 points per game over their last three games and they went just 3-of-11 on third downs in their 20-19 Week 15 loss to the Washington Commanders.