Conservative decisions and another week of special-teams implosions underscore how far the Packers still have to go in order to reach their potential in 2025.
So many shots at a touchdown in OT, and we played for a tie. I'm not an emotion-driven fan but I am legit questioning, for the first time, if LaFleur is the guy. Would the other coaches in the NFC North have blown that opportunity to go for the win (and almost lose in the process)?
Matt LaFleur's handling of the game is worthy of critique, and it was one of his weaker coaching performances in my estimation. At the same time, we should keep these things in perspective. The Packers played without multiple starting offensive linemen for the second time this year, didn't have their leading receiver from the past two seasons, and still scored 40 points. Even against the Cowboys defense, that kind of output isn't a given.
That doesn't negate the cowardly punts, the end-of-half sequence, the end-of-overtime sequence, etc. It remains a bad coaching performance by LaFleur (among others on that staff). But you can find these sorts of blemishes on a lot of coaching résumés, including guys who have multiple rings.
All of which to say, we can use this game as context for what the Packers do after the bye. If the process looks better, then this game was probably an aberration in the non-Bisaccia areas. If the game-management issues remain, then I think these criticisms of LaFleur start to hold more water.
So many shots at a touchdown in OT, and we played for a tie. I'm not an emotion-driven fan but I am legit questioning, for the first time, if LaFleur is the guy. Would the other coaches in the NFC North have blown that opportunity to go for the win (and almost lose in the process)?
Matt LaFleur's handling of the game is worthy of critique, and it was one of his weaker coaching performances in my estimation. At the same time, we should keep these things in perspective. The Packers played without multiple starting offensive linemen for the second time this year, didn't have their leading receiver from the past two seasons, and still scored 40 points. Even against the Cowboys defense, that kind of output isn't a given.
That doesn't negate the cowardly punts, the end-of-half sequence, the end-of-overtime sequence, etc. It remains a bad coaching performance by LaFleur (among others on that staff). But you can find these sorts of blemishes on a lot of coaching résumés, including guys who have multiple rings.
All of which to say, we can use this game as context for what the Packers do after the bye. If the process looks better, then this game was probably an aberration in the non-Bisaccia areas. If the game-management issues remain, then I think these criticisms of LaFleur start to hold more water.