Head coach Matt LaFleur took full blame for not being aggressive
The Green Bay Packers stampeded from their 14-yard line to the Seattle Seahawks’ 45-yard line in about two minutes on the final drive of the first half on Sunday. With two timeouts in hand and 54 seconds left on the clock, everyone expected the Packers to put the pedal to the metal and try to squeeze a touchdown out of the drive.
Then, inexplicably, Green Bay only managed to run two more offensive plays before initiating a game of cat and mouse at the three-yard line. Eventually, they decided to kick the ball with just four seconds left on the clock.
This left many Packers fans asking, “What the heck was that?” Was head coach Matt LaFleur so worried about giving the Seahawks the ball back at the end of the half, because Seattle started the second half with the ball, that he really thought the Seahawks were going to double up even though Seattle had only scored three points at that point?
LaFleur explained that what we all witnessed was actually quarterback Jordan Love handling the play-calling in that situation, something he took full accountability for in the post-game press conference.
“I totally mismanaged the end of the half. That was 100 percent on me, just being too indecisive, putting it on Jordan, giving him a call at the line of scrimmage. It just took far too long. That is something that can’t happen and that can cost us if were a tighter game. That was on me.”
The head coach said that he didn’t want to just get into field goal range on that drive and that he didn’t feel like calling a timeout when he noticed the clock running down, because “too much time” had come off the clock already. In hindsight, he says he wishes he would have rather burned a timeout in that scenario.
On Love handling the play-calling, LaFleur reiterated, “I gave [Love] free reign to get to what he wanted to.”
“I should have been more decisive and had a play called for us. Got on the ball. Definitely didn’t want to give them the ball back before the end of the half, but once we got to midfield, we needed to be more aggressive and that was just lousy play calling,” said LaFleur. Hopefully, the Packers can get a smoother two-minute operation going in the future, be it LaFleur or Love running the show.
