Jeremiyah Love is the good soldier as Cardinals continue botching his rookie year

While Malachi Fields scored his first career NFL touchdown and helped the New York Giants win another game in what has been a surprisingly good season so far, one of his former Notre Dame teammates seems to be having a frustrating rookie season. Jeremiyah Love isn't smiling or having fun the way he did in South Bend, though he's doing his best to keep the blame off his Arizona Cardinals.

After the Cardinals' latest loss on Sunday, the team took a lot of heat for Love not even being in the game as the offense drove for what could have been a game-winning drive. That drive ended when Jacoby Brissett threw an interception at the Giants' 2-yard line that was returned 98 yards to put the game away. The loss was bad enough; Cardinals head coach Mike Lafleur's explanation for why Love wasn't part of the final drive, despite leading the team in rushing with 63 yards on 14 carries, was worse.

LaFleur said Love wasn't in the game at the end because they were in their two-minute offense, and they weren’t using the running back in the passing game. That ignores that Love isn't just any running back but the team's first-round choice who was No. 3 overall. It also ignores that Love is very, very good at catching the ball and even worked out as a wide receiver with Notre Dame from time to time.

While Lafleur and the Cardinals coaching staff continue to take heat for how they're using their rookie running back, Love has tried to explain it away by saying the team needs to manage his workload.

Jeremiyah Love shields Cardinals coaches after questionable late-game usage in Giants loss

"You know, it's just the whole thing. It's been a long year for me," Love said in the locker room after the Cardinals fell to 1-3 on the season. "Like, body sometimes is down. My body is sometimes tired. So, like, it's just managing those things. And coaches know that. Like, this is probably going to be the longest year of my life, you know. And I just want to manage that workload."

Some fans took his comments about the "longest year" meaning he's not happy about the losses or not being used correctly. Instead, it's more about Love understanding that he's never played a 17-game schedule plus, if the Cards somehow figure things out, additional playoff games.

At the same time, he wanted to make sure he wasn't out of the lineup when the Cardinals needed their best players, since he was hurt.

"But I didn't go out there and hurt anything or anything like that. It's just, you know, they're doing what they need to do to keep me up so that I can finish the season."

For his part, Love deserves credit for trying to make excuses for a coaching staff that keeps misusing one of its best weapons. Jeremiyah Love was "the man" at Notre Dame, and he clearly doesn't like being overlooked in big moments. However, Love has always been a great teammate first.

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