GREEN BAY, Wis. -- If the questions about Jordan Love's repeated interceptions have become "annoying," to use Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur's word, perhaps he and his quarterback could spend the upcoming bye week working on a solution.
Love threw his 10th of the season -- and his second pick-six -- at a critical moment in Sunday's 24-14 loss to the Detroit Lions at a rain-soaked Lambeau Field.
The second-year starter has thrown an interception in every one of the seven games he's played in this season, and with one more interception, he will match his entire 2023 season total.
"I understand," LaFleur said of the line of questioning about Love's interceptions. "It's really annoying up here, though. Obviously, he's fighting, he's competing and we know that we've got to take care of the football. But I don't question anything about what he's trying to do. We just got to do it better."
Love became the first Packers quarterback to have multiple interceptions returned for touchdowns within the first nine games of a season since Brett Favre in 2001.
And Love's seven-game interception run is the longest single-season streak by a Packers quarterback since 2005, when Favre had one in 10 consecutive games on the way to a career-high 29 picks. Love found himself in a similar interception rut early last season, but then threw just one more -- to go along with 18 touchdowns -- over the final eight regular-season contests.
"It's definitely disappointing," Love said. "Putting the ball in jeopardy way too many times and definitely something I have to clean up. I've talked about it week after week, so something I've just got to learn from these mistakes and clean it up. But definitely something that I'm gonna make a big focus on going forward, of just finding ways to take care of the ball better."
The Packers trailed 10-3 when they took possession with 58 seconds left in the first half. On the second play of the drive, Love was flushed from the pocket and tried to dump off a short pass to running back Josh Jacobs. Instead, Lions safety Kerby Joseph snagged Love's throw and returned it 27 yards for a touchdown that made it a 17-3 advantage at halftime.
"You always teach in the rhythm of the play," LaFleur said. "When it goes off-schedule, you've just got to be smart. You've got to be smart with the football in a one-possession game. I know he's doing everything in his power to make the play, but sometimes, again, I got to go back and look at it before I can give you a good answer on that."
The Lions scored on the opening possession of the second half to take a 24-3 lead -- a deficit the Packers couldn't overcome.
On Sunday, Love played despite a limited week of practice because of the groin injury that knocked him out of last Sunday's win at Jacksonville, but he said he "felt fine" and that his play wasn't impacted by the injury.
It was the first time Love, who completed 23 of 39 passes for 273 yards, did not throw a touchdown in a game that he started and finished this season.
The Packers were charged with five dropped passes, committed 10 penalties, and there were several mishandled or off-target shotgun snaps from Elgton Jenkins, who had moved from guard to center in place of the injured Josh Myers. Jenkins said keeping the ball dry was nearly impossible.
Meanwhile, the Lions, who were playing their first outdoor game of the season, seemed to manage the rainy conditions with ease.
"I feel like the team that executed today won," Jenkins said. "The best team didn't win, honestly. Yeah, I just got to be better. We got to be better as a whole."
The Packers fell to 6-3 heading into their bye week and have lost their only two NFC North games, both at home to the Lions and Vikings.
"Obviously a disappointing game," Love said. "Been a couple disappointing losses, but we are still a really good football team, and I think some of the stuff is more self-inflicted -- the mistakes, and the penalties and the turnovers. All stuff that we can clean up. Like I've said before, we haven't played our best game.
"We have a lot of football left in front of us when we come the bye week, so just hit the ground running when we get back."