Packers Beat Panthers 27-19 on Thursday Night as Love Throws Three Touchdown Passes

The Green Bay Packers beat the Carolina Panthers 27-19 on Thursday night at Lambeau Field, opening Week 8 of the NFL season behind three touchdown passes from Jordan Love. Love completed 30 of 41 passes for 288 yards with one interception, and Green Bay improved to 5-3, four days after a 20-17 loss to the Detroit Lions.

Carolina scored first, and did it off a Green Bay mistake. Coleman Owen fumbled the opening kickoff and the Panthers recovered at the Green Bay 29. The Packers defense held, and Ryan Fitzgerald kicked a 39-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. Love answered on third-and-18, hitting Tucker Kraft for a 12-yard touchdown with 5:08 left in the first quarter. Trey Smack hit the left upright on the extra point, and Green Bay led 6-3.

Chuba Hubbard ran one yard for a touchdown on the first play of the second quarter to put Carolina back in front, 10-6. The rest of the half belonged to Green Bay. Love hit Christian Watson for 53 yards on the drive that followed, a play that sent Watson off with a chest injury. He walked off under his own power, was taken to a local hospital for examination, and returned to the game late in the third quarter. Josh Jacobs scored on a one-yard run, linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper intercepted Bryce Young, and Love found Matthew Golden on a 24-yard corner route with 1:46 left in the half. Green Bay led 20-10 at the break, having outgained Carolina 227 yards to 87, with Love 18 of 24 for 189 yards and two scores.

Jacobs struck again in the third quarter, catching a four-yard touchdown pass that made it 27-10. The catch also carried Jacobs past 10,000 career yards from scrimmage. Fitzgerald answered with a 50-yard field goal, and Carolina trailed 27-13 after three quarters.

Carolina rallies, Green Bay holds

Love threw an interception early in the fourth quarter, and Carolina kept coming. On fourth-and-3 with 5:37 left, Young lobbed a pass to Jalen Coker, who took it 26 yards for a touchdown. The two-point try failed, and the Panthers were within one score at 27-19. Carolina got the ball back once more, but the final drive ended on downs near midfield, with Young's fourth-down throw to Tetairoa McMillan falling low.

Young finished 23 of 41 for 207 yards, one touchdown and one interception, and Green Bay sacked him five times. Hubbard gave Carolina 118 total yards and a touchdown, and McMillan caught five passes for 50 yards. Green Bay turned the ball over three times and still won, because its defense kept Carolina out of the end zone until the second quarter and again until the last six minutes.

The night had one celebration that had nothing to do with football. After the first quarter, members of the Milwaukee Brewers came onto the field with the Commissioner's Trophy, one day after the Brewers won the World Series in Florida, and several players tried a Lambeau Leap to a loud ovation.