It's time for Matt LaFleur to give the offensive car keys to Jordan Love

Matt LaFleur wants to have a balanced offense, but with the way Love is playing, the Packers offense has to be run through the passing game moving forward.

It was a hard year for an impossibly long list of reasons, but 2020 shone for Matt LaFleur in one critical way: he was the most aggressive calling games he’s ever been. He was going for fourth downs, attacking on 2nd-and-short at a historic rate, and that Green Bay Packers team put together one of the best offenses of the century en route to an MVP for Aaron Rodgers and a 13-win season. Jordan Love may not be quite at “2020 MVP Rodgers” levels this season, but the way he’s playing, LaFleur has to embrace modernity and allow Love to be the engine of this offense.

Against the Dallas Cowboys, Love played one of his most complete games as a pro, hanging 40 points on the road against a putrid defense and never putting the ball in harm’s way. His one turnover came on a blindside sack-fumble where Rasheed Walker got beat cold around the edge.

But even against one of the worst defenses the folks who created DVOA have ever measured, the Packers still had a -7% pass rate over expectation, which is a fancy way of saying they still ran the ball more than we’d expect given the situation.

This, of course, after being the most run-heavy team in the NFL last year.

Early in the season, the Packers were hucking it with Love, leading the league in average depth of target, and Love was paying off that faith with efficiency. LaFleur then regressed into conservative playcalling the last two weeks, afraid of his offensive line and, apparently, the opposing kicker.

I wish that were a joke, but LaFleur admitted on Tuesday one of the reasons he didn’t go for it on 4th-and-2 in Dallas territory was how close that would be to Brandon Aubrey’s field goal range if they hadn’t picked up a first down.

That’s coaching scared, and it has to stop.