You know it’s been a weird season when you find yourself, as a Green Bay Packers fan, agreeing with Stephen A Smith. But after an ugly 3-3 start, that’s exactly where I found myself.
As the team searches for answers, the national media is giving Titletown even more dramatic attention than normal.(If that’s possible)
On First Take featuring Smith and Dan Orlovsky, Orlovsky mentioned the word soft. That was all it took to light Stephen A’s candle.
It is true, it needed to be said and I’m glad that you said that which brings me back to Matt Lafleur. Because here’s the deal, we ain’t saying Dallas is soft, we’re not saying that Philly is soft okay, we’re not saying that about these teams and we’re not saying Buffalo is soft.We are not saying quite a few teams in the National Football League are soft. We might look at other problems but we are not calling them soft. That is a culture issue when your team is considered soft in the National Football League…Why are we saying that about a Green Bay team that has won 13 games each of the last three seasons and have been to 2 NFC championship games? Why the hell is that happening?
Host Molly Querim then jumped in “So you’re saying that’s on the couch and not the quarterback?”
Stephen A continued.
You’re damn right! That is the coach. It is your culture okay and when I’ve got a great quarterback, and this is just my philosophy, if I’ve got somebody that’s that great the first thing I want is rough riders Because rough riders are going to hold everybody else accountable to do everything they can to maximize his greatness. Because we got a chance. But the greatest quarterback that we may have ever seen has a coach that has a culture with softies. Really? And we’re going to talk about Aaron Rodgers? Nah. Yeah he’s got something to do with it but I’m looking at Matt Lafleur.
Over the last few years the team has received so much hate from major networks that it’s become hard to recognize when a criticism feels warranted. But if we’re being honest, this one feels like it has some truth.
If you don’t want to hear it from Smith and I don’t blame you, Robert Saleh’s post game presser should be enough to infuriate you.
Despite all the success of the Lafleur era, each year has ended feeling like the team got out toughed. The stark contrast between 49ers football and Packers football come playoff time has been frustrating to say the least. Each year it feels like the team puts the better roster on the field yet walks away with a loss. I have die hard Niners fans friends who all week leading up to the game were confident they would “out tough” us.
Although there may be other culprits, Smith is right, the head coach is responsible for the culture. We’ve seen it time and time again with successful organizations, they have successful cultures. The Patriots Way is the obvious one that comes to mind but the same can be said with the Cowboys culture in the 90s(outside all the crime and partying) and the 49ers culture during their run. Great teams that succeed over a long period of time also feel like they can battle through things. Too often during the LaFleur era this team has looked like it’s falling apart during times of serious adversity. You can blame the special teams, you can blame the defense, you can blame the young receivers but the truth is the coach is ultimately responsible for all these things.
Matt Lafluer hired Joe Barry. Joe Barry is soft. Matt LaFleur was the 27th ranked offensive coordinator his one year of doing that job in Tennessee. They were vanilla and soft. This isn’t the first time Stephen A has gotten on Lafleur. Earlier in the week he blasted him for a riding Rodgers coattails.
I had questions as to whether or not Matt Lafleur was deserving because you were an offensive coordinator of a 27th ranked offense in the National Football League and you got the head coaching job in Green Bay. Congratulations on your interview skills. But in the end, what it comes down to is this you ridden the coattails of Aaron Rodgers.
I’m not necessarily going to feed into that sort of conversation, but I certainly am not going to blame Rodgers. Is he moody and a bit petty? Yes. Do I think he’s soft absolutely not. I think Aaron is the sort of guy who wants the ball in his hands with the game on the line and he doesn’t care who is on the other side.
Mike McCarthy was a disaster his last few years and Matt Lafleur came in and has been a wonderful upgrade. But he has, to Smith’s argument, maybe the greatest quarterback of all time. This is the team he helped put together. It should be a tough running game and a tough defense. That’s what he wanted. Right now it’s none of those things. It’s soft. And he hast to take responsibility for that. Good news is we are three and three with a lot of football left to play and he has an opportunity to prove Smith, myself, and any others doubters wrong.
