The Green Bay Packers took their worst home loss of Matt LaFleur’s eight-year run on Thursday night, getting flattened by the Atlanta Falcons 35-14 and dropping to 1-2 on the season.
LaFleur didn’t sugarcoat it afterward.
"It was a butt-whooping," LaFleur admitted, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "That was at least a three-quarter butt-whooping right there."
The defeat stung even more because of what the Falcons had just done a week earlier, when they were blown out 34-3 by the Carolina Panthers. Green Bay, meanwhile, is already in a shaky spot after needing overtime to beat the New York Jets on Sept.
- The Packers have been living dangerously, and Thursday made that impossible to ignore.
The biggest problem was on the ground. ESPN stats had Green Bay last in the NFL with 48.7 rushing yards per game entering the night, and that number won’t look any better after what happened against Atlanta. Bijan Robinson ran wild for the Falcons, piling up 194 rushing yards and two touchdowns, while the Packers mustered only 17 rushing yards on nine carries as a team without Josh Jacobs.
Jacobs is on the commissioner's exempt list, and LaFleur made it clear the Packers are feeling his absence.
"I mean, I think we all saw a dynamic running back on the other side, and I think Josh is a dynamic running back," LaFleur added during his postgame comments. "But it is the situation, it’s the circumstance.
And it is what it is right now. And we’ve got to find a way just to either - well, one, we’ve got to put them in a better position, and then those guys gotta go do it."
LaFleur signed a contract extension this past winter, and Florio noted that nobody within the Packers "is getting fired" anytime soon. But with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers up next on Oct. 4, Green Bay is already staring at a season that could start slipping fast.
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The Thursday night mismatch in Atlanta had already turned into a long evening for Green Bay, with the Falcons building a 35-14 lead behind Michael Penix Jr.'s sharp season debut and Bijan Robinson's dominant night on the ground. For a Packers team trying to hold together in a rough start, the scoreboard only added to the frustration as the game slipped further away.
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Micah Parsons Had A Brutal Sideline Moment During Packers Meltdown
The Packers Thursday night trip to Atlanta has turned into a long, uneasy watch, with the Falcons in control and Michael Penix Jr. and Bijan Robinson powering the gap on the scoreboard. Green Bay has had little answer on either side of the ball, and the frustration has been obvious as the game has slipped further out of reach.
Micah Parsons has been part of that sideline scene as well, watching from the Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform list while his knee injury keeps him out of action. For a team already trying to steady itself in a lopsided loss, seeing one of its biggest defensive names reduced to a spectator only sharpens the sense of how thin the margin has become. [Read more 🡒]