Jordan Love will grow from his egregious playoff error against 49ers

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love will grow from his playoff failure against the San Francisco 49ers — that much is certain.

In a season that started with so much uncertainty for the Packers, it become evidently clear that Love is not the kind of player to let the lows get him too low. 

Like a great quarterback, he showed the ability to put both the bad and good behind him and just play the next play.

That's one of the reasons why he had an unprecedented turnaround this season. From a first half that saw him as a middling quarterback who looked unprepared to be the heir to Aaron Rodgers' throne in Green Bay to a second half that saw him throw 21 touchdowns compared to three interceptions. 

Love was arguably a top 5 NFL quarterback over the second half of the season and against the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round, he looked like an absolute superstar — throwing for 272 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.

That's what made his final throw against the 49ers such a shocker. Down 24-21 with 1:07 to go in the fourth and all three timeouts left, Love threw an ill-advised pass across his body that resulted in a game-ending interception. It was a throw that he called a "mortal sin" after the game.

“I haven’t looked at it yet, haven’t looked at any pictures,” Love told reporters, according to Sports Illustrated. “Looking back on it, yeah, throw it away. I don’t know if I had an opportunity to be able to run, maybe get out of bounds. But, you know, force it across the middle late, which is a mortal sin, and it cost us. So, it’s something I’ll look at, but that’s an area right there where I’ll be able to look at, grow from and get better in the future.”

And that's the key for both Love and the Packers.

This season he made mistakes typical of a first-year starting quarterback in the NFL but he also learned from those mistakes and ended up flashing superstar potential by the time it was all said and done.

He's proven in the past that he can do that in a way that is, frankly, atypical for most young players. He'll learn from this. That much is guaranteed, and he'll be better off for it.