Jordan Love struggling after strong start to season
Jordan Love is a very talented quarterback. One capable of making the jump to the NFL and making a meaningful impact in a league filled with very talented quarterbacks.
Right now, however, Love is not playing like a future NFL Draft pick and potential Pro Bowl QB.
Through the first three weeks, Utah State’s star quarterback was mostly living up to his billing as a darkhorse Heisman candidate. Love completed 88 passes (third in the nation), averaging 334.3 yards per contest (seventh-best nation-wide) with a 68.2 completion percentage. The only worries surrounded his somewhat low touchdown total of four (tied for 98th in the country) and his three interceptions.
The last two weeks, however, have been little short of a disaster for the junior QB, at least in terms of statistics. His combined numbers against Colorado State and LSU amount to 32-of-63 passing (50.8 percent), a pair of touchdowns, five interceptions and 334 yards (167.0 average).
Perhaps the most worrying trend among all that is the interceptions since it spans both the three good games and the two awful ones.
In the 13 games he played in during the 2018 season, Love threw six interceptions. Cast among the 417 total throws he attempted as a sophomore, the INTs amounted to a mere 1.4 percent of his attempts. Furthermore, Love was one of just five QBs in 2018 to attempt more than 400 passes and finish with six or fewer picks.
Cut to now — and through five games Love has eight interceptions to his name, already a career-worst total and on pace for what would be a historic 20 interception campaign. Only one Aggie quarterback has ever reached that total, Brent Snyder in 1988 when he had 21.
Love’s interception rate has tripled this season, skyrocketing from 1.4 percent last year to 4.2.
Where did this tripling of interceptions come from? Well, there are perhaps a dozen factors that play into any given interception. Saying it’s merely a quarterback stat isn’t fair at all. Love’s head coach, Gary Andersen, explained as much after USU’s win over Colorado State where the junior QB threw interceptions four and five on the year.
“You’ve got to look at the tape,” Andersen said. There’s guys pushing down the pocket, there’s maybe hands in his face, there might be this or there might be that. Who knows what the situation is. Could be a wrong route. The thing about it is, is when the quarterbacks turns it over and makes a mistake, or we all think he makes a mistake from the sidelines or watching as fans or as media people, we don’t know the whole big picture. There’s a lot of things that can go into that.”
Some of the buck on these interceptions and even poor play fall into the laps of the offensive line, wide receivers/tight ends and even the play calling from the offensive coaching staff. Though while that may sooth the minds of Aggie fans who are invested in the NFL prospects of Love, it still leaves Utah State with a worrying fact. At some level, mistakes are being made that are leading to an increase in poor results through the passing game.
Andersen firmly defends his quarterback, stating that Love is “our guy and he’ll always be our guy.” So nothing’s changing there. But change needs to happen. Not necessarily personnel-wise, but in the performance at quarterback, the offensive line, receivers and coaching staff.
Otherwise, it could be a long season.