CHICAGO — Matt LaFleur couldn’t have made it a lot clearer: He desires to stay the Inexperienced Bay Packers coach.
However after blowing an 18-point lead in Saturday evening’s NFC wild-card playoff loss to the Chicago Bears, LaFleur declined to say whether or not he anticipated to return subsequent season for an eighth 12 months.
“With all due respect to your query, now’s not the time for that,” LaFleur mentioned shortly after the Packers’ 31-27 loss. “I am simply hurting for these guys. I can solely take into consideration what simply occurred, and there shall be time for that.”
LaFleur and common supervisor Brian Gutekunst every have yet another 12 months left on their contracts. First-year workforce president Ed Coverage mentioned earlier than this season that he would favor to not have a coach or common supervisor go right into a so-called lame-duck 12 months.
That ramped up the strain this season, which started with a 9-3-1 report solely to see the Packers lose 5 straight video games to finish the season, though in a type of video games — the regular-season finale — they rested most of their starters.
LaFleur has a 76-40-1 regular-season report and has led the Packers to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons, however Inexperienced Bay has not reached a Tremendous Bowl throughout his tenure and has not been to a convention championship recreation for the reason that 2020 season, the second of back-to-back appearances in LaFleur’s first two years.
Thrice after Saturday’s loss, LaFleur was requested about his job safety, and every time he mentioned it wasn’t the time to debate it.
Nonetheless, he defined what the Packers’ job means to him.
“It means every thing to me,” LaFleur mentioned. “That is the best group on this planet, in my view. It’s totally humbling. I am actually dissatisfied proper now, dissatisfied principally for — nicely, not principally — I am dissatisfied for everyone that is related to the Inexperienced Bay Packers. I am dissatisfied for our locker room. I am dissatisfied for our followers. I am dissatisfied for our management, all our workers, everyone concerned with the Inexperienced Bay Packers proper now.”
A playoff loss like this might have long-term implications, and a number of other gamers acknowledged that risk.
“I am not going to leap to any conclusions or something,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love mentioned. “We’ll see what occurs going ahead. That is the case for each finish of the season, and going into the offseason, that is all the time the case. We’ll see if something comes ahead, if something. So, we’ll see.”
Love threw his assist behind the one head coach he has had within the NFL.
“I undoubtedly assume Matt needs to be the pinnacle coach,” Love mentioned. “I’ve acquired a variety of love for Matt, and I believe he does a superb job. And that is it.”
Second-year security Evan Williams concurred.
“He is our chief,” Williams mentioned. “I am going to inform you that a lot. We’ve got full religion in him, in all of his selections. I am unable to communicate on any extension or something that is in his future. I do know enterprise is enterprise, however he is been my solely head coach and actually the one one which I see needing shifting ahead. Really feel like he is completed an awesome job of placing us in positions to win and in eventualities like immediately, we have simply acquired to discover a approach to end.”
Saturday’s loss was rife with errors and miscues. Love and the offense, of which LaFleur is the playcaller, managed solely six factors after scoring touchdowns on the primary three drives of the sport to take a 21-3 lead into halftime.
LaFleur mentioned Love “performed his ass off” however added that they “clearly did not do sufficient round him.”
It was the second time this season that the Packers blew a lead in opposition to the Bears. Their time beyond regulation loss at Soldier Area in Week 16 appeared a lot the identical as this one. That one value the Packers the NFC North. This one value them their season.
“We have simply acquired to do a greater job of preserving our composure as a soccer workforce and going on the market and doing the elemental issues that we observe on a regular basis,” LaFleur mentioned. “I believe whenever you get into most of these large video games, when you do not execute easy fundamentals, it comes again to chew you. That is precisely what occurred.”
Their skid to complete the season coincided with defensive finish Micah Parsons’ season-ending knee harm. The Packers didn’t win a recreation after Parsons acquired harm, and their protection suffered. Inexperienced Bay allowed simply 19.0 factors per recreation and 287.2 yards per recreation in its first 13 video games. These numbers spiked to twenty-eight.8 factors per recreation and 402.6 yards per recreation in its final 4.
The Packers gave up 25 factors within the fourth quarter, solely the third time in NFL historical past {that a} workforce has allowed that many within the fourth quarter of a playoff recreation.
“When you may have a workforce on the ropes, it is simply ending them,” Packers linebacker Isaiah McDuffie mentioned. “It is so simple as that.”
Particular groups, which have value the Packers within the postseason earlier than, value them once more when kicker Brandon McManus missed an additional level try and a area objective strive within the fourth quarter. McManus known as it the “greatest disappointment in my profession. Simply a humiliation of a efficiency.”
After final 12 months’s playoff exit, Gutekunst mentioned it was time the Packers acquired again to competing for championships, however after a second straight first-round loss, the Packers acquired no nearer.
“It is going to take a variety of work, a variety of work,” LaFleur mentioned. “And we’re not the place we need to be. I do know we fought by means of a variety of adversity this 12 months. Sadly, we did not do sufficient to beat that adversity. That is all of us collectively. We have got to do extra. We have got to be higher as a result of it is by no means an excuse. I do know we misplaced some key gamers, however you have to discover a approach to overcome that as a result of I believe we do have a variety of expertise on our workforce. It is simply, it is disappointing.”
