The Green Bay Packers are spiraling.
The Packers started the season with two convincing wins over 2024 NFC playoff teams — the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders. The promising start to the season has been overshadowed by three disappointing losses and a heartbreaking tie in the weeks to follow.
Green Bay has now lost three games by a margin of three points in each contest.
In each of the Packers’ losses this season, the defense has held its opponent to 16 or fewer points.
Good teams do not lose football games when their opponent fails to score more than 16 points.
The Packers have lost three such games this season, despite only losing two such games in the past six seasons.
Struggling to Score
Head coach and play caller, Matt Lafleur, has placed himself in the sights of critics everywhere. The coach who has been celebrated for his offensive acumen in years past continues to find ways not to score points.
What is most frustrating, is that the Packers’ offense has found success moving the ball. Quarterback Jordan Love ranks within the top 10 of most major passing categories and the Packers lead the league in third-down conversion rate.
Lafleur’s team is capable of playing good offense. They are also capable of failing in critical moments of games that separate good and bad teams.
Miscues and penalties during these critical moments are largely to blame for the Packers’ struggles. Packers’ kicker, Brandon McManus, has recorded a failed field goal attempt in each of the team’s losses this season. McManus has been successful on less than 70% of his attempts this season.
Through nine games, Green Bay has turned the ball over on downs five times, missed seven field goal attempts, and managed seven turnovers.
The Packers offense continuously finds creative ways to not score points.
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Sub-Par Coaching
Green Bay is playing sloppy and undisciplined football. Coach Lafleur and his staff must take responsibility for the team’s early season shortcomings. The Packers are an above-average team in terms of number penalties, with over a third of their penalties occurring before the snap. These penalties kill momentum challenge a young Packers offense with unfavorable down and distance situations. The worst part are that these penalties are entirely avoidable.
The 2025 season has included several examples of Packers players being placed in poor positions to succeed. Lafleur criticized his own play call that led to a momentum shifting interception in a Week 3 loss to the Cleveland Browns. The following week, Green Bay fans were quick to challenge Lafleur’s clock management following a whimsical pace in the game’s final minutes. In losses to the Panthers and Eagles, Lafleur’s fourth down play calling ensured Love and the offense left without points.
Lafleur said it best himself: “In those critical moments … the money down, third down, fourth down, we just malfunctioned”. The coach’s predictable play calling was most noticeable this past week as Eagles defenders called out the Packers’ play call at the game’s most critical moment.
Lafleur’s Hot Seat
Media members have already confronted Lafleur with the possibility that this could be the beginning of the end as his time as a head coach. Lafleur recognizes that expectations are sky high in Green Bay. “I feel like you’re always coaching for everything in this league, that’s just my mindset. That’s always been that way. You can’t ever exhale” said Lafleur.
The seventh-year coach will need to get the most out of the team’s offense in the coming weeks to regain the trust of the fan base. Luckily, the Packers are still in position to compete for a championship this season. However, they will need their offense to find a spark to have a chance.
Lafleur has proven capable of creating that spark, and it is time for him to do it again.
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