GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers are officially in crisis.
It’s not the first of Matt LaFleur’s coaching tenure – that would be when the franchise’s rift with Aaron Rodgers blew open in the 2021 offseason. But this is LaFleur’s first true in-season crisis. And it’s real.
The Packers’ 27-10 loss to the New York Jets at Lambeau Field on Sunday was abysmal, especially on the offensive side of the ball, where things are getting worse, not better, as we get into the guts of the NFL season. Coming after the second-half collapse on both sides of the ball last week against the New York Giants, it’s no exaggeration to say the Packers are in trouble.
They re-signed Rodgers last offseason for $50 million a year to contend for the Super Bowl in the here and now. Instead, a little more than a third of the way through the season, they’re reeling at 3-3 with an underachieving defense and unmitigated mess on Rodgers’ side of the ball.
LaFleur was talking about his offense but conveyed the sense of the whole team when he said after the game: “We’re in a pretty bad predicament right now.”
The Packers had major failures again this week on both sides of the ball, in fact, in all three phases. Rich Bisaccia’s special teams allowed a blocked punt for a touchdown and a blocked field goal. Coordinator Joe Barry’s run defense broke in the second half.
But it’s the Packers’ punchless offense that was the story of this game. It turns out their scoreless second half last week against the Giants wasn’t a wake-up call, it was a sign of things to come.
Rodgers, playing with an injured thumb, had more than his share of bad throws and finished with an 88.1 rating. The Jets’ defensive line in general and Quinnen Williams in particular dominated the interior of the Packers’ offensive line. And Aaron Jones finished with a criminally low 12 touches. He’s the Packers’ best player on offense. There have to be ways to get him the ball more than that, in the passing game if not on hand-offs.
So what’s the problem? Well for starters Rodgers this season has not been anything like the NFL MVP he was the past two seasons. Some of that’s to be expected because of the personnel turnover on that side of the ball. But the Packers surely expected Rodgers to get them through some of the early-season bumps, and he hasn’t elevated the play of his teammates enough to do that the past two weeks.
“I’ve got to raise my game probably a little tick in order for us to come out on the winning side in some of these games,” he said.
It’s hard to know how much Rodgers’ injured thumb affected his throwing Sunday. He said it was a factor on a couple throws, “but not too many.” LaFleur for his part seemed to exonerate Rodgers because of the thumb.
“He battled through it, and I know he was hurting,” LaFleur said.
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Regardless, we can only judge by what we see on the field, and the Packers’ offense has been a disaster now for its past six quarters. In that time, it’s scored only 10 points. Against the Jets, it put up only 278 yards, and the play on the field looked a lot worse than the stats suggest.
“That’s about as frustrating of a game as I’ve ever been a part of in terms of an offensive prospective and trying to get something going and you can’t and you’re looking for answers,” LaFleur said.
What was of greatest interest after the game was hearing what the coach and quarterback had to say about what ails their offense.
LaFleur said a serious self-scout of his scheme and play calling is coming, as well as the potential for personnel changes, presumably something on the offensive line. One possibility is moving Yosh Nijman to right tackle and Elgton Jenkins to guard in place of Royce Newman to shore up the interior of the line, which struggled handling the Jets’ pass-rushing stunts.
“I think everything’s on the table moving forward in terms of trying to get our best people out there,” LaFleur said.
Rodgers, on the other hand, seemed to be talking to LaFleur when he called several times for “simplifying” things on offense. He didn’t detail what simplify means, though he suggested it ranged from plays to the size of the game plan.
“It has always been when we struggle, we are doing too much,” Rodgers said at one point. “So, whether it is with Davante Adams out there, or no Davante Adams, when we get into problems is when we maybe try to do too much.”
And at another point: “The simplest plays are the best plays. The smartest players are the best players. That is what I’ve always believed in. There are times where we get out there and scheme can look really amazing. And, there’s times where we are not executing the scheme and – the scheme is good, really good. But even the best scheme takes good execution. (When) we are not executing the way we are capable of executing, or the way we believe we should be capable of executing, then it might be time to reel it back in a little bit and simplify some things.”
It feels like the Packers are hitting an inflection point in their season. Yes, it’s still early for that kind of talk, but that’s how it looks, and you have to think that’s how it feels in the locker room and among the coaching staff, too. This team was built to win now, and its problems are getting worse, not better. The past two weeks have been the worst two-game stretch in LaFleur’s four seasons as coach, by far.
So LaFleur will be tested like he hasn’t been tested. One thing about his predecessor, Mike McCarthy, until his final season, McCarthy always found a way to keep the team together when things looked bad. And now, things look bad for LaFleur’s team despite its good core of talent on both sides of the ball.
“Wobbly?” Rodgers said when asked if this team is in crisis, or wobbly, six weeks into the season. “Only if people are breaking rank. I think it will be interesting to look at the comments from all of our guys and coaches. And, hopefully we stick together, that is the important thing. Until I see us breaking ranks, I’m not going to say there’s any wobbliness going on.”
He might not say it, but the Packers are more than a little wobbly. And LaFleur now faces the biggest test of his head-coaching career.
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