Jordan Love’s midseason opportunity mirrors Aaron Rodgers’ game against Cowboys in 2007

Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love are already experienced at being comparable NFL stories: Rodgers knows a thing or two about a quarterback drafted in the first round joining the team, presumably to replace a Packers legend.

The parallels will now include Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. When Love suits up at Arrowhead, it will represent an eerily similar circumstance to how Rodgers saw his first major action, a massive Thursday Night Football battle against the Dallas Cowboys in 2007.

On Nov. 29, Rodgers — in his third NFL season playing behind future Hall of Famer Brett Favre — was pressed into duty in a clash between two 10-1 teams when Favre left the game with a shoulder injury.

The Packers lost the game at Texas Stadium, 37-27, but Rodgers acquitted himself well by going 18 of 26 for 201 yards, with a touchdown and no interceptions. Rodgers had seen a good chunk of time in blowout losses to Baltimore in 2005 and New England in 2006 (during which Rodgers was lost for the rest of the brief season with a broken foot), but this was his first substantive action in a meaningful matchup.

It was also conducted with the understanding that Favre would likely return the following week, which he did. Both the Cowboys and Packers finished the year 13-3, and though Dallas garnered the higher seed, the Packers went on to host the NFC Championship game that year after the New York Giants upset Dallas. The Giants, of course, also upset the Packers in Favre’s final game at the helm, after which Rodgers became the every-day starter.

Now, with Rodgers sidelined by COVID-19, Love also gets a chance to show what he can do, on the road, in a meeting against another of the league’s premier quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes. And with the cushion of expectation that Rodgers will return for the weeks ahead.

A look back…