Packer offense looks dismal for a second straight week, Packers suddenly in 3rd place and fighting for their playoff lives.

Cue the Dammit Doll footage:

Let’s do a good ol’ fashion Packer recap blog! These were a staple of the blog in the pre-podcast days. Bullet points, run-on sentences, Seinfeld references, and fairly obvious observations pointed out by a man who never played a down of football in his life. A foundational block of the internet. (Spits on baby soft hands that haven’t worked a day in their lives) let’s see if we’ve still got it:

• Before we talk about LaFleur and the offense, let’s get this out of the way: The defense came to play last night. Allowing only 10 points to the defending Super Bowl champs HAS to result in a win. In their three losses this season, the defense has given up 13 points (7 not really their fault) to Cleveland, 16 to Carolina, and 10 to Philly. They are ranked 5th in the NFL in terms of yards given up per game, and 6th in terms of points given up per game. The Cowboys game was a debacle, but beyond that, this seems to be a championship caliber defense. If Rodgers had this defense from 2012-2020 he’d have 3 more rings. I feel like they need a Robin Williams Good Will Hunting hug after last night:

• Matt LaFleur calling run plays to Josh Jacobs for 3 yards a pop in the first half:

• When the ESPN cameras caught LaFleur leaning over his playcall sheet and an iPad on the sideline while the game was going on, I knew it was going to be meme gold:

• There were SO many great photoshops of other things he was watching on the iPad. If you’re LaFleur you simply can’t get caught looking that desperate as a head coach. Guy looked like me huddled over a pile of loser pull tabs at 1am on a Saturday night.
• Nick Siriani bitching to the refs in the first quarter about the Packers getting away with a false start would be like me getting angry at a co-worker for ignoring an email. The height of hypocrisy.
• If you took a shot every time they said ‘tush push’ on the broadcast you probably are the only one who didn’t go to bed angry.
• It’s time to either put Brandon McManus on the IR and move to Havrisik, or have a legitimate competition this week. I’m not even mad he missed the 64 yarder as badly as he did at the end of the game. That was in a swirling wind and 25 degrees. Outside of Brandon Aubrey I’d say ANY kicker in the NFL would have had a low probability of actually making that kick. But the Packers passed on 58 and 57 yard attempts last night as well. If you can’t count on him in those moments, when the offense is struggling the way that it is, then why is he the only active kicker on gameday.
• ^Related, “McAnus” was trending again last night.
• I know people are going to be hyper focused on LaFleur, the playcalling, and Jordan Love this morning. But it’s worth mentioning that the offensive line has been a disaster this season. And any football coach or podcaster will tell you, it all starts up front. Aaron Banks has been a bust so far. Elgton Jenkins has been a bust moving to center, and now it looks like his season might be done with a leg fracture last night. They can’t find a home for Jordan Morgan either. It’s been a mess. It’s the #1 reason they can’t get the running game going consistently and also why it feels like Jordan Love is rushing in the pocket.
• Speaking of Love, he’s been pretty rough the last few games. Can’t turn the ball over late in the first half when you’re solidly (?) in field goal range, and needs to figure out a way to be more accurate on deep balls. Drops didn’t help him either, though. He hit Bo Melton between the ‘1’ and the ‘6’ on that 4th and 9 in the 3rd quarter, hit Doubs in the hands the play before that, and Wicks had two slip right between his mitts as well. This offense has a thin margin right now, you’ve got to make plays when the passes are there.
• Is it good when the entire defense (and stadium)(and viewing audience) knows EXACTLY what you’re going to run on a crucial 4th and 1:

• Unfathomable that THAT is the playcall in that situation. Run from under center, run a quarterback sneak (which actually worked a few times last night), short passing game, ANYTHING but a run from the shotgun on 4th and 1.

All in all, two ugly performances in back to back weeks. The defensive strategy for both the Panthers and Eagles the last two weeks has been to keep everything in front of them, and force the Packers to go on 10+ play marches down the field. They’re banking on the Packers not being disciplined enough to execute for that many plays in a row, and they’ve both been correct. Sometimes it’s a dropped pass, other times it’s an illegal formation penalty, other times it’s a sack or predictable run call, our offense simply can’t execute for 10 consecutive plays at the moment. And the result is a 5-3-1 record with back-to-back home losses. Now you’re sitting in 3rd place in the division, and in the 7th and final playoff spot in the NFC. There’s a lot of time to get it spun back in the right direction, but I wouldn’t say we have a green arrow ‘up’ at the moment.

PS: I’ll give credit to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic last night for asking LaFleur point blank if he felt like he’s coaching for his job. Here was LaFleur’s response:

Ed Policy didn’t give either LaFleur or Gutey an extension before the year started for a reason. He’s not going to let either go into next year as a lame duck. Decisions are going to be made at the conclusion of wherever this season ends up. This team went all in with the Parsons trade before the year started, you’re paying Love top dollar, if they fall short of the playoffs or in the playoffs, I think they move on from LaFleur. The seat warmer in his car is a 3 out of 5 at minimum right now.