Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers have a lot to be happy about heading into their highly anticipated rematch with the Detroit Lions in Week 14.
For starters, the Packers notched their third consecutive victory this past Thursday night, dominating the Miami Dolphins on both sides of the ball en route to a 30-17 win.
Jordan Love played one of his best games of the year thus far, completing 21 of 28 passes for 274 yards with two touchdowns, both of which went to Jayden Reed.
Josh Jacobs added his eighth rushing touchdown of the season in between Love's two passing scores, and Brandon McManus made all six of his kicks (three field goals, three extra points) to up his make percentage for the year to 96.3%.
The Green Bay defense certainly deserves its flowers as well, as Jeff Hafley's unit shut down the Dolphins' high-octane offense for much of the game, holding Tua Tagovailoa & Co. to just three points in the first half. Miami ended the game with 375 total yards, but many of those came in garbage time when the game was well out of reach.
With the win, the Packers improved to 9-3 and are in a great position in the NFC playoff picture, as they're nearly a lock to clinch a wild-card berth. While still two back of the Lions in the NFC North, Green Bay can close that gap with a win on Thursday Night Football to open Week 14.
So, again, the Packers have a lot to be happy about right now.
That said, however, LaFleur is very unhappy with one aspect of his football team, which he shared with the media on Friday.
Matt LaFleur is furious with the Packers' penalty problems on defense
While the Packers played a great game from an overall standpoint against Miami on Thanksgiving night, Green Bay accrued four offsides or encroachment penalties.
One was on Rashan Gary, which negated a play in which Gary and Kingsley Enagbare combined to take down Tagovailoa for a sack. And another on Tedarrell Slaton came during a field-goal attempt, which allowed Miami to move up five yards and successfully convert on fourth down.
Thankfully for the Packers, neither ultimately ended up mattering. But that didn't stop LaFleur from sending a clear message to his team on Friday.
"It's really annoying," LaFleur said. "You've got to be conscious. I guess we’ve got to drill it more. I got to get refs out there in practice to tell when a guy is offsides. I've told those guys, and obviously, just telling isn't enough."
"We've got to start checking with the officials because it's become such a problem. It's going to kill us. It hurt us (Thursday). That's one thing from the defensive side of the ball that we absolutely have to get corrected."
Green Bay was able to get away with this against Miami, but that might not be the case with the Lions, who certainly don't need any extra advantage, given how well they're playing at this point.
The Packers lead the league in offsides penalties with eight and are tied with the Philadelphia Eagles for the most encroachment infractions with three. So, LaFleur certainly does need to nip this in the bud soon.
