Right before Ed Policy took over as Green Bay Packers president and CEO in July, he spoke in June about the contracts of head coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst.
Policy made it clear that he wouldn’t extend either at the start of this season. However, he also noted that, with two years remaining on both deals, he wasn’t a fan of lame-duck scenarios.
After the debacle against the Carolina Panthers and a dud offensively against the Philadelphia Eagles, a lot of the same issues keep popping up for LaFleur’s squad. Fair or not, he’s coaching for his job the rest of the way this year.
Over the last two weeks, Green Bay’s defense has allowed 23 total points combined. The Packers are 0-2 in those games. In those same contests against Carolina and Philadelphia, LaFleur’s offense has crossed midfield on 11 possessions. They’ve accumulated 20 total points from those opportunities.
That’s not a misprint, and it’s nothing to gloss over. The week before the Panthers played Green Bay, the Buffalo Bills put up 40 points against Carolina’s defense. However, LaFleur’s offense mustered only 10 points in defeat. Against the Eagles, Green Bay doubled down with its offensive futility, putting up seven points in another defeat. That isn’t the sign of an offense that’s going through minor struggles. It feels like an offense that is a complete shell of itself.
Of course, there are many layers to these struggles, and a repeat offender this year — and in the LaFleur era — are brutal penalties that wipe out momentum-shifting plays and drives.
Take the first drive of the fourth quarter, for example.
Trailing 3-0 at the start of the final frame, Green Bay was piecing together an effective drive. On a second-and-six from Philadelphia’s 35-yard line, quarterback Jordan Love zipped a pass to Christian Watson for a gain of 22 yards down the Eagles’ 13-yard line.
But wait!
An illegal formation penalty wiped out the play and eventually the drive for Green Bay. Three plays later, the Packers punted. Instead of first-and-10 at the Philadelphia 13-yard line, the Packers were lined up with a second-and-11 back at the 40. Not because of a holding call or something questionable, but because of an illegal formation penalty.
Those types of back-breaking penalties are happening far too often under LaFleur.
Go back to the first play of the second quarter. The Packers had a fourth-and-one at their own 45-yard line and decided to roll the dice. Love ran a quarterback sneak for the first down, but it was wiped out by a false start against Aaron Banks — because, of course.
None of this is new.
Two weeks ago, the Packers were at Carolina’s 14-yard line, knocking on the door. What followed was a complete disaster. From the 14-yard line on a second-and-six, LaFleur’s offense went: False start, sack on a clear blown assignment up the middle, false start, dropped pass, field-goal attempt.
In the snap of a finger, things blew up, and it keeps happening in critical spots.
When asked after the game Monday night if LaFleur felt as though he was coaching for his job, he didn’t dive too much into it, deflecting the thought back to the masses.
I’ll leave that for everybody else to decide. I’ll just focus on the day-to-day … I feel like you’re always coaching for everything in this league, you know? That’s just my mindset. It’s always been that way. You can’t ever exhale. You got to always be pushing. That’s just my mindset and that will be my mindset ’til they tell me not to coach anymore.
Supporters will highlight his 72-36-1 record and 66.5% win percentage. Doubters will point towards an undisciplined team that continues to rack up silly penalties and an offense that’s stuck in neutral again.
Of all the hoopla surrounding LaFleur and the loss on Monday, a perfect glimpse into how predictable things have gotten was on a late fourth-and-one call.
Trailing 10-7 with 1:30 left and facing a fourth-and-one at their own 44-yard line, Love and the offense hurried to the line after a nine-yard completion to tight end Luke Musgrave. Musgrave came up just short of moving the sticks, and the Packers needed to capitalize on fourth down.
Hindsight is 20/20. But as someone who was at the game, I can tell you with certainty that as Green Bay scattered to the line and set up in the shotgun, fans were imploring them to simply run a quarterback sneak to move the chains. Instead, Green Bay went inside zone, and as the field mics picked it up, the Eagles knew exactly what was coming.
Before Love even took the snap, Eagles defensive tackle Moro Ojomo screamed twice, “Inside zone, this way! Inside zone, this way!” He pointed to exactly where the Packers were going.
Instead of checking out of it or trying a quarterback sneak that worked twice successfully earlier in the game on fourth-and-one situations (a false start negated one of them), LaFleur and the offense stuck to their guns. Philly blew up the play, which never had a chance, and bottled Jacobs up in the backfield.
It was the perfect bow to put on another horrific offensive display.
Afterwards, Jacobs acknowledged the Eagles knew exactly what the Packers were doing.
They called it out. We called our play. They (said it’s an) ‘inside zone, it’s coming right here.’ So I kind of like didn’t want to run right there, but you know … yeah, that’s just how it played out.
It’s hard to defend that type of coaching.
Pre-snap penalties. Procedural penalties and the ones that kill drives. A defense calling out your exact play at the most critical time with 90 seconds left on a fourth down. Continuing to run it on first down in a predictable manner despite the ineffectiveness. All of it has led to a stagnant offense for LaFleur and Co.
Just to back up that previous point, on first-down plays this year, the Packers have run it 133 times for an average of 3.86 yards per play. They’ve thrown it on first down 109 times for an average of 8.23 yards per play. Yet for one reason or another, LaFleur and the rest of the braintrust continue to slam their heads on the wall, hellbent and determined to keep running it on first down even with a lack of effectiveness.
Many teams would immediately sign LaFleur as their head coach. That won’t deter Policy from doing what he believes is in Green Bay’s best interest after this season. There’s no doubting the obvious at this point: Matt LaFleur is coaching to save his job the rest of the way in 2025.
