I was watching the afternoon slate of games with a buddy of mine when I happened to flip over to see the Seattle Seahawks. It was the beginning of overtime, and Baker Mayfield promptly threw an interception. Of course, this led to an eventual Seahawks victory and spelled the end of the season for the Detroit Lions, an unfortunate revelation heading into their Sunday night showdown against the Green Bay Packers.
I told my friend that this was actually the worst-case scenario for Green Bay. Detroit has been on a roll, but they are a young, inexperienced team that runs the risk of crumbling under pressure in a high-stakes game. Considering the Lions had nothing to play for that night, they could pull out all the stops and let it all hang out in their final showing of the 2022 season. This was a team playing entirely for pride, and there isn’t a single player on Detroit’s roster who doesn’t have a chip on their shoulder.
Packer fans could take solace in the supposed talent gap between the division rivals, but the inevitability of that loss made itself known early on. The four-game run to get back into playoff berth contention was entirely smoke and mirrors. Green Bay reverted to the self-crippling play responsible for the 4-8 record in the first place. It was, in sum, embarrassing.
There aren’t enough cliches to describe the Packers’ play that day. The team was out-worked, out-hustled, out-motivated, out-disciplined, out-everythinged. Perhaps the most damning aspect of the game was the feeling of confusion emanating from the players, wondering why nothing worked in a game they fully expected to win.
Therein lies the problem. The overconfidence of this mediocre ensemble of Green Bay was on full display from the opening quarter. Hubris is not a unique problem to an Aaron Rodgers-led team, but this holier-than-thou mentality was rampant throughout the coaching staff.
A confident psyche is good for a team. However, coaches must be cognizant of their squad’s strengths and weaknesses to develop a plan that works best. The arrogance of Matt LaFleur and his coaching staff begins with the play-calling that routinely did not put his players in positions to win.
Perhaps the most emblematic play of this ignorance is the end-around to Allen Lazard on fourth-and-1 on the Packers’ own 33-yard line. It is a play that has worked in the past. But considering the field position and perhaps the obvious decision to sneak the ball, it was an egregious error that began the eventual swing of the pendulum.
After the Aaron Jones fumble and the sea change of momentum that ensued, many of the players became visibly uneasy and made simple mistakes. Romeo Doubs rediscovered his affinity for dropping the ball in key moments, the defense settled into the all-too-familiar passive coverages, and the lead slowly trickled away as LaFleur and Joe Barry stood helplessly by.
The young guys on the team, like Doubs, were most shaken by the creeping dread that this game was now entirely out of their hands. Quay Walker’s spineless shove of a non-dressed personnel member for the second time this season would be cause for getting cut if he wasn’t such an effective first-round pick. Devonte Wyatt had some physical moments that were not flagged, alongside Jarran Reed’s forearm to the face of D’Andre Swift that should have been flagged for unnecessary roughness. Rasul Douglas had the inexplicable penalty at the end of the first half that made what would have been a difficult field goal a chip shot. Everyone on the team unraveled at their own pace while the adults in charge looked to the sky for answers that weren’t there.
Green Bay’s complete collapse of composure can only be blamed on the coaching staff. These players were not trained to handle any adversity in this game in the slightest. Many often make the argument that it is not the coaches’ job to motivate the players. However, we see just across the border in Minnesota that a coaching change led a relatively unchanged Vikings roster to a 13-4 record and playoff berth in Kevin O’Connell’s first season on the job. The Detroit Lions players play hard as hell for Dan Campbell, even when their shot at a title is vanquished.
LaFleur has the winning record, but his poor history in big games may start to call his leadership into question. Perhaps even more concerning are his ties to defensive coordinator Barry, who he said will likely return next season. Barry coached one great game against the Vikings this season. Otherwise, he was mediocre at best at organizing a defense that spent the second-largest amount of money in the NFL this last year. That kind of unwillingness to change gets you and your entire staff sacked.
To be clear, LaFleur’s job should not be in jeopardy. Barry should have been axed years ago, but LaFleur’s excellent regular-season record has bought him time to learn how to lead this team in meaningful scenarios. However, LaFleur has to learn how to admit enough is enough and face reality before he can take the next step as a head coach and a leader. Surrounding himself with competent coordinators is a good start. If that procures dominant results, that trickle-down effect should have the players competing at their best every week, regardless of circumstance. This will allow him to instill confidence in a locker room full of young guys who will need all the positivity they can moving forward. A new era is almost upon the Green Bay Packers, and it is imperative that the new culture gets started on the right foot.
