SPORTS LINE

Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers bring in another win.
After back-to-back crushing losses, the Packers finally saw momentum swing their way on Sunday. It’s still early, but Jordan Love is beginning to show the poise and big-play capability that seem to be prerequisites for a Green Bay Packers quarterback. Green Bay was able to survive a scare from the two-win Panthers, though the team’s struggling defense didn’t offer much inspiration. Love threw for two touchdowns, ran for one, and made two big completions to set up Anders Carlson’s 32-yard field goal with 19 seconds left, and the Packers survived a fourth-quarter rally by Carolina to beat the Panthers 33-30.

Thanks to some poor (but hilarious) clock management, however, time ran out on Carolina, and the Packers avoided their playoff hopes just about vanishing. The Packers (7-8) remain one game behind the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams in the NFC wild-card race. The Packers improved to 7-8 with the win on Sunday, but they still need plenty of help to reach the playoffs in the first season of the Jordan Love era. Green Bay sits ninth in the NFC, still a full game out of a wild-card spot trailing both the 8-7 Rams and Seahawks in addition to the eighth-seeded Vikings.