Matt LaFleur didn’t sugarcoat what went wrong for the Packers after Sunday’s collapse against Minnesota. Green Bay had a 19-10 lead at halftime and looked positioned to control the game, especially with the Vikings down starting quarterback Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz in at the controls.
Then the fourth quarter turned into a full-blown unraveling. Minnesota piled up 22 unanswered points and walked away with a 39-22 win at U.S. Bank Stadium, while the Packers were left staring at another blown lead and another loss.
LaFleur pointed directly to Brian Flores’ pressure looks and admitted Green Bay struggled to find answers once Minnesota started crowding the line of scrimmage.
“It’s really hard, but that’s what they want,” said LaFleur, via Zach Jacobson of The Packer Dispatch. “They want you to play 11 personnel and get behind the sticks, and now it opens up Pandora’s Box. They’re just lining up everybody on the line of scrimmage, and that’s tough to deal with.
“We had some good answers early, but ultimately, coaching, playing-it’s all of us. We have to do a better job of putting plays in position, and when we are in position, we have to execute.
We have to play cleaner football. Far too many penalties tonight.”
That’s the part that has to sting in Green Bay: this wasn’t just one bad quarter, it was the latest chapter in a six-game losing streak that keeps getting uglier. During that stretch, the Packers have coughed up double-digit leads to the Denver Broncos, twice to the Chicago Bears, and now to the Vikings.
There’s no hiding the fact that the offensive line remains a real issue. But Sunday also put the spotlight squarely on LaFleur and the offense’s inability to adjust when the game tightens up. The Packers moved the ball well for most of the afternoon and finished with a 419-239 edge in total yards, yet none of that mattered once the fourth quarter arrived.
Green Bay’s final three drives told the story. Two ended on downs, and the other died on a Jordan Love strip sack.
Now the Packers have to turn the page quickly. In Week 2, they’ll see a New York Jets defense that held the Tennessee Titans to 10 points on Sunday and produced three sacks.
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Packers Fans Have Seen This Matt LaFleur Problem Before
The Packers opened the season with a frustrating collapse against the Vikings, turning a 22-10 lead late in the third quarter into a loss after being outscored 22-0 in the fourth. For Green Bay, the hard part was not just the finish but how familiar the finish looked, with another late-game slip leaving fans and analysts to question how a game that seemed in hand got away.
Matt LaFleur drew the most heat for a key fourth-quarter sequence, declining a defensive offside penalty and choosing a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 that came up empty and led to a turnover on downs. LaFleur has acknowledged the teams issues closing out games, but this latest setback has only sharpened the criticism, because for Packers supporters it felt less like a one-off and more like a problem they have seen before. [Read more 🡒]