Tucker Kraft didn’t hide from the mess after Green Bay’s 39-22 loss to Minnesota. If anything, he leaned right into it, putting the burden squarely on the Packers after a game that flipped hard after halftime.
Green Bay walked into the break with a 19-10 lead and then watched it disappear. The Vikings took over from there, piling up 22 points in the fourth quarter to finish the comeback. Matt LaFleur addressed the defeat afterward, and Kraft used his postgame availability to send a blunt message about where the loss really came from.
“We need to realize that it’s us versus us all the time,” Tucker remarked during his post-game availability.
“Teams can’t beat us as long as we’re locked down and you saw that, that momentum swing was due to our own fault. We allowed that to happen.”
Kraft’s numbers were one of the few bright spots for Green Bay. He caught three passes for 65 yards and finished third on the team in receiving. The Packers also piled up 419 total yards to Minnesota’s 239, but that advantage meant little once the mistakes started stacking up.
Twelve turnovers and two penalties helped turn a statistical edge into a 17-point loss, and Kraft made it clear he sees the game through that lens. He didn’t point the finger outward.
“The only people who can beat us are us. That’s it. We’re the best team in the NFL, but if we don’t go out there and play like it, no one’s going to believe us.”
Jordan Love came close to 400 passing yards and connected with Christian Watson for 147 yards, but he was also sacked four times. Those negative plays kept Green Bay from settling in and fed into the breakdown that let Minnesota seize control late.
The loss leaves Kraft and the Packers alone at the bottom of the NFC North, with Minnesota, Detroit and Chicago all starting the season with wins. Green Bay now turns to Week 2 and a trip to face the New York Jets, where avoiding the kind of costly mistakes that sank them in Week 1 will be the obvious priority.
In Other News...
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Special teams added to the frustration. Rookie kicker Trey Smack had a mostly steady day by putting through three field goals, but the missed extra point stood out in a one-score game where every point mattered. For Green Bay, the loss did not just show up in the final score - it exposed how thin the margin can be when the pass protection falters and a simple kick gets away. [Read more 🡒]
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The Packers Week 1 loss to the Vikings did more than spoil the start of the 2026 season. After Green Bay surrendered a late lead in Minneapolis, the conversation around Matt LaFleur shifted fast from frustration to something bigger, because it fit an uncomfortable pattern that has followed this team through too many finishes. When a game slips away like that, fans do not just ask what went wrong in the fourth quarter - they start wondering whether the bigger problem sits on the sideline.
Marcus Freeman, Brian Flores, Davis Webb, Steve Sarkisian and Sean McDermott have all surfaced as names worth watching if Green Bay ever decides a change is needed. None of that means a move is imminent, but it does show how quickly the discussion around LaFleur has turned from one bad loss to a broader search for answers, with the Packers now facing questions about not just how they finished Sunday, but what direction they might choose if the late-game issues keep piling up. [Read more 🡒]
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 🡒]
