Love Throws for 372 and Three Scores as Packers Pick Off Maye Three Times in 45-27 Rout of Patriots

The game was barely a minute old when the tone was set. Drake Maye dropped back on his first pass of the afternoon, and Xavier McKinney was waiting. The interception gave Green Bay the ball in New England territory, and a few plays later Jordan Love was jogging into the end zone himself on a 13-yard run. The Packers never looked back.

By half-time at Foxborough, the story of the day was already written: Green Bay's quarterback was dealing, and New England's was giving the ball away. Love finished 23 of 29 for 372 yards and three touchdowns, adding a rushing score for good measure, as the Packers (6-3) beat the Patriots 45-27 on Sunday.

It was the kind of afternoon every quarterback dreams about. Love spread the ball around with the calm of a man playing catch in the park. Christian Watson, his favourite target on the day, caught seven passes for a career-high 171 yards, including a touchdown. Rookie Matthew Golden was just as dangerous, hauling in ten catches for 164 yards and a score of his own. When a defence has to worry about two receivers running free downfield at the same time, there is not much it can do — and New England found that out the hard way.

The Packers built their lead in layers. After Love's opening touchdown run, Golden took a five-yard pass from his quarterback to double the advantage, and Trey Smack's 41-yard field goal made it 17-0 with more than 13 minutes still left in the second quarter. Maye answered with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Rhamondre Stevenson, a brief flicker of life for the home crowd, but McKinney struck again — his second interception of the half — and Kaleb Johnson punched in a two-yard touchdown to restore the 17-point cushion. Maye's eight-yard touchdown pass to Efton Chism just before the break kept the Patriots within ten, but the damage was done. Three first-half interceptions will sink any team, and New England turned the ball over four times in all.

The third quarter was a procession. Love hit Savion Williams for a ten-yard touchdown, Smack drilled a 51-yarder, and then Love found Watson deep for a 39-yard score that stretched the lead to 41-14. Smack's third field goal of the day, from 38 yards, made it 45-21 early in the fourth, and Corey Kiner's four-yard touchdown run with 3:54 left was the last word.

Maye's numbers tell the story of a young quarterback caught between flashes of brilliance and costly mistakes. He finished 21 of 38 for 299 yards and three touchdowns, but the three interceptions — all before half-time — buried his team before it could find any rhythm. There was more bad news for the Patriots (5-4) after the game: Stevenson, who caught a touchdown pass, suffered a knee injury in the second half and did not return.

For Green Bay, the win was as complete as the score suggests. The offence piled up yardage in chunks, the defence took the ball away, and the kicking game was perfect. Love, who has had his share of uneven afternoons in a Packers uniform, looked every bit the franchise quarterback his team believes him to be — decisive, accurate, and utterly unbothered by the noise in Foxborough. If he keeps throwing like this, the rest of the NFC has a problem.