Matt LaFleur’s biggest problem right now isn’t just the blown leads. It’s the way his team keeps trying to play as if the modern NFL still rewards caution. That’s the lesson hanging over Green Bay after another second-half collapse, and it’s exactly why Ben Johnson’s approach in Chicago looks so sharp by comparison.
Johnson said at the start of the season that he wanted to set the all-time scoring record. Plenty of people rolled their eyes at that.
Then the Bears hung 59 on Carolina, and the joke didn’t sound quite so funny anymore. That kind of ambition might read like coach-speak in a lot of places, but Johnson seems to mean it.
More important, he seems to understand something the Packers keep ignoring: you can’t just “manage the game” anymore.
Green Bay’s latest loss played out in the most frustrating way possible. After building a double-digit lead, the Packers were outscored 29-3 in the second half.
On their first possession after halftime, they moved a little bit with a Marshawn Lloyd run and a pass to Tucker Kraft, but then the drive went nowhere fast. A Chris Brooks run lost a yard, an incomplete pass followed, and then on third-and-11 the Packers called another Chris Brooks run that gained one yard.
Daniel Whelan finished the sequence with a 22-yard shank of a punt.
That sequence tells the story. It wasn’t aggressive.
It wasn’t even trying to win the game in the way the modern NFL demands. It looked like a team hoping to freeze the clock and limp home.
There are caveats here, of course. This loss was not all on LaFleur.
The Vikings’ defense was a bad matchup for the Packers’ guards, and the officiating was strange. But none of that changes the larger point: Ben Johnson is not out here calling surrender runs on third-and-long, even with a lead.
He gets that the league doesn’t work that way anymore.
The old idea of “managing the game” was built around avoiding mistakes once you had a comfortable cushion. Run the ball, chew clock, punt, and trust the other offense to go the length of the field. That was never as smart as coaches made it sound, and it looks even worse now.
The NFL has tilted further toward offense in almost every way. Field position is friendlier now, with the average drive starting beyond the 30 instead of the 27 from ten years ago.
Kickoffs can still create real returns, and the touchback rule helps fuel that. Field goals have changed too; a 52-yarder used to feel long, while 60-yard kicks are now routine.
On any drive, a defense usually only has to survive a couple of first downs before the opponent is already in scoring range.
Coaches also understand fourth down better than they used to, and the rules keep favoring the offense. That makes defense harder, scoring easier, and “calling off the dogs” far riskier unless the lead is truly enormous. Anything less than that and you’re asking for trouble.
LaFleur has plenty going for him, but his commitment to the run game and the slow pace of the offense are a rough fit for this environment, especially with the Packers’ current offensive line issues. The problem is not just style.
It’s math. When the offense moves that slowly, Green Bay doesn’t build the kind of lead that actually protects you.
And when LaFleur feels compelled to keep feeding the run, particularly with a lead, the Packers end up wasting a drive or two almost every game. That’s usually enough to sink them.
Johnson has also taken some shots at LaFleur, and that clearly bothers at least some Packers fans. But football always comes back to the scoreboard. Right now, Johnson owns it.
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