They have offensive linemen who can’t block, wide receivers who can’t catch and a kicker who can’t kick. They have an offensive coordinator who can’t call plays and a Head Coach who won’t change what he’s doing even if it’s not working.

Other than that they’re doing okay.

Al, do you realize that Matt may have learned his lesson? In all his previous "winning" seasons he's showed everything in the scheduled games and had nothing left for the games that really matter and the playoffs. As you said, the Ds can call out the plays before they run them. Heck, I can call them even. Now, he's just trying to sneak into the playoffs and surprise everyone with his outstanding strategy.

There's my glimmer of hope to get me through the rest of the season.

Critical mental mistakes in critical moments across the board on offense and by the coach have submarined this team's season.

The responsibility for both fall upon the same narrow shoulders.

"provide Love with quick throws he can complete and not have to wait for downfield routes to develop."

Bingo. Especially with substitutions on the offensive line. Up the tempo. Be decisive. Get rid of the ball.

MLF - Shake and No Bake.
Too Late - The writing is on the wall.

So when your blasting MLF on being to conservative.
Bombs away; replaced any misdirection and
commitment to his " complicated scheme".

I'm Convinced that Love isn't Rodgers period.
Rodgers would be all over these WRS for dropping balls.
And if he had any surgeon skills, forget going deep.
So I ask you and others again.
Was the wait worth it?

Banks and Morgan must go.
Lombardi knew-how important
Guards were to the run game.
The scouting reports were correct.
Why didn't Gute realize that when he
wanted them.

Sometimes it takes injuries to fully demonstrate
who really should be playing. ----
I've realized that in the 4th Quarter
when Jenkins went down.

Al, I think MLF is at the point where he needs to go on a performance improvement plan. He seems to have fallen into an entrenched defensive position and is stubbornly holding off from obvious solutions in order to justify past decisions. Here are some points of emphasis I'd guide him towards.
1. First things first. What are the top issues that are causing the offenses poor performance? List three and address them. Possibly...
a. Settle the offensive line. Best guy at each position are the starters and that's it.
b. Predictability. Recognize that we've reached a point where the defense is dictating play calls and change it up. Every time the Eagles went into a two deep look the Packers ran the ball. Jordan even canned into a run multiple times. Just what the defense wanted. Change it up!
c. Be yourself and have fun. It really seems that Matt is trying hard to live up to something that isn't him. As the leader he is so worried, stressed and grim that his team can't play loose. Take the reigns off, ask the team how they want to do things and bring back the fun!
2. Be proactive. Don't react to everything, dictate. You have a good and talented team, use them to their potential.
3. Keep the end in mind. Where do you want to go and how do you and the team get there. It starts with your positive attitude every single day. Be consistent about what is important andstay that course.
Easy peezy! GPG!

Love looks like he is a million miles away when he’s on the sideline. His head isn’t in the game. Reminds me of another 1st round QB who never panned out, Marcus Mariota.

All those first half handoffs really did have the feel of "trolling." I remember Bill Bellichick doing an even more extreme version of that tactic one time. On the Patriots' long opening drive, every single play was a handoff. The difference was that the Patriots scored a touchdown and the Packers punted. That's a big difference.

I try to imagine what the Packers do when they self scout. How could they do that, with any integrity, and keep putting this product on the field?

am i wrong to notice that it seems many of the usual comment-makers over the years are posting less and less, that Al's and the Great Reynaldo's incisive articles elicit fewer comments. i see it in myself, that fans are just plain so disgusted with the Packers' performance, with a coaching staff that continually lets its players down, with the utter lack of competence at the GM level with Gutekunst's consistent strike outs with first round picks. Jordan Morgan? Poor Josh Jacobs asked to smash into opposing d-linemen who meet him a yard deep in the backfield on what everyone knows is a run up the middle on first down and second and long, after the first down run goes nowhere. I have had four season tickets in my family since the early 50s and i am finally in my old age thinking of unloading at least three of them. it costs too much to watch this kind of shameless incompetence.

It is hard not to type anything negative about this team after that game. Although they did surprise me with a great defensive performance. I thought that Barkley would have run through our D and their WRs would have feasted on our secondary. Hafley and the boys played championship D.

The rest boils down to our O-line. A solid run game, consistent QB play and effective play calling stand on the foundation of your O-line. Runs got blown up, Love had minimal pocket to step up into and execution of plays collapsed early. Lafleur obviously needs to redesign his gameplan to recognize this weakness. But he, Steno, Butkus and whoever need to rework the pieces to find a better combination. We have guys (albeit they are all tackles) we just need 3 strong interior players not called Morgan and maybe not called Banks.

I used to criticize MLF for not having a Plan B, and now I beginning to think he doesn’t have a Plan A. There was a moment the camera caught MLF working on his tablet when the play went awry. He wasn’t watching the game, in fact had his back to the field of play when he could have been communicating his concerns to an assistant. In short, micromanaging and losing the big picture. At the risk of being hyper repetitious, Policy is watching this stuff.

The Bo Melton(down) absurdity made me ill. It reminds of people who wish to prove how clever they are. Clever like Meyer’s over Creed Humphrey, …Dillon, Mo Drayton and a 100 more examples. The first rnd pick standing on the sidelines as Meltdown drops a critical pass. C’mon already.
My expectations were exceedingly high this season, but despair is knocking on the window.
Beat the Giants
Go Packers!!!

I’m one who thought above the. 80% confidence level. My early confidence in Jordan Love is waning slightly. He has immense talent, but the mental errors shouldn't still be happening this far into his career. The 4th and 1 gaffe was terrible, and while it was a collective failure, it shines a light on Matt LaFleur's poor game management and play-calling. That said, Love isn’t the main problem, that falls onto the OL and injuries to the WR/TE room.

LaFleur has to give up play-calling. Period. The offense is stagnating. Is Brian Daboll a realistic replacement for the OC role? His work with Josh Allen is legendary, but his recent results in New York are a red flag. We need an offensive mind who can truly unlock Love's potential. Any thoughts on a replacement?

I’m starting to think that Love does not have the in game ability to become an elite QB. The physical talent is there. It was a no brainer to call a time out on 4th and one. Please can someone explain to me why Watson gave up on tracking the ball earlier in the game. If he does that, he’s in perfect position to make the catch, OMG!!!

As a Packer fan in 49er territory I'm sick as hell of hearing about the Shannahan Coaching Tree and all of its success, but I do have some advice for MLF!

Instead of spending your early week watching game film of your latest fuck-up, watch the weekly game films of your former counterparts from that 'Coaching Tree', many of them seem to be fairly successful!
Maybe, just maybe, you could get some ideas on how it actually works! We don't need a 'Genius', just a Head Coach and O/C that knows Football!

Always appreciate Al's assessments and I've been very critical of MLF. But, though MLF is a problem, I still don't
see a comparable analysis/critique of Gutekunst. He seems to get more of a pass. I have been very concerned about his poor roster construction, particularly the current O-Line. He was supposed to improve an already struggling O-Line. That task was very critical to the competence of the entire team and we now have a failed
foundation, an exorbitantly expensive failure that cannot be corrected for several years because of Cap pressures.

I also try to imagine how it feels to be Love and Jacobs-both are severely limited in what they can produce on the field because of that failed Line.Their professional reputations are being impacted-Love is being excoriated by fans.
Yes, he's jumpy, 'can't seem to see the field' etc but he was pressured 40% of the time. Rodgers was very average when under pressure. He had the luxury of a competent Line, an All-Pro LT and exceptional receivers.
We need to have the courage to learn about and openly discuss the impact Murphy had on this team-this includes the type of GM and HC he chose and why. We can't allow ourselves to pile on one person (MLF) while we give a pass to 2 additional contributors to the decline of the Packers-Gutekunst and Murphy. Murphy is gone-we should not be so tentative about discussing his influence and how it harmed the team. Open, fair discussions will help with the anger and hopefully help us recognize and not accept another of his type in the future.
This experiment was bound to fail but it has been accelerated and exposed by the resurgence of the Northern division.

MLF needs to take a long look in the mirror. There was a story earlier in the week about Dan Campbell after the Lions loss to the Queens. He felt like the offense needed something to get them in rhythm, so he decided to take over play calling duties against Washington....lo and behold 44 points!

Mike grow some onions and be bold. What you're calling is not working and it's not going to work unless West Texas A&M is on the schedule. You better make a change or Policy will make if for you.

"He's surely aware of the all the fan and media yelling and screaming about his underperforming and conservative Packers offense..."

I think there's a total lack of awareness of anything outside the bubble, He is so focused on his perception of what he believes is the answer. Any legit self-scout should provide guidance to change, but continues hammering that square peg into a round hole after telling the opposing team, "watch, I'm going to hammer this square peg into a round hole."

Then, game-time reality hits. His internal dialog must be excruciating. Via facial expressions and body language we see paralysis takes control, then it's as if he's going to cry or he's looking for the 101st Airborne to drop in to help. Sometimes there's a hint of a confused Bret Bielema staring into the sun on that well-groomed face. If only he could integrate the Mike Sherman aw-shucks crossbody air punch.

Matt is drowning and he can't see the rescuers in the boat next to him. If he were playing a video game, I'd expect him to shake the controller and yell "why isn't this offense working!"

Still not giving up on this team. GPG

Jeff Hafley for Head Coach. Vote here!

Shotgun running plays should be banned by the league

When Lafleur was OC in Carolina, he relied heavily on a "run first" offense. Now that he has Love, rather than Rodgers (who was much more independent, and would change plays as he looked over the defense), he has gone back to that game plan. But because someone doesn't seem able to develop or understand the best position for their OL (I have to give major blame to both Butkus and Stenavich for the performance of the OL), there are no holes for Jacobs, the offense stubbornly runs the ball on something like eight of the first twelve offensive plays of the game, and almost always on first down, they become predictable and easily defended.
Add in that a four man rush was constantly getting pressure on Love. and the total lack of adapting new approaches to make life easier for Love, as usual, and this is reminding me more and more of late career McCarthy.
It has been seven years, and Lafleur has not grown or evolved as a coach. Instead, he has gotten more stubborn, doing the same thing again and again and hoping for different results. And we all know what that defines. Time to move on, put Stenavich back in charge of the OL, get a real OC who can help make adjustments during the game, and reverse the underperforming this team has displayed again this year.
'

How long ago was it that most were behind MLF and wanted Rodgers gone, and believed Love to be the next HOF. Are those thoughts haunting you these days, as MLF proves again, and again he isn't what you thought, and neither is Love, no matter how many stats use for comparison to Rodgers. Love is far from being a Rodgers, period, in fact, his demeanor is closer to being a Jay Cutler, yikes.

It's time to accept that what ever juice MLF and Love were supposed to supply has likely already been squeezed out of them. Their heads have hit the ceiling and the floor might still drop some. Will they win more games? Sure, However, that the prospectus for the future with them as a dual is to win some/lose some, a tad above, a tad below .500 ball with so many other teams passing them by, and yes, that includes 'The Bears'. Double yikes!

Having a 'utility' level OL squad is not going to get the job done. You have to have a couple that are masters of a position. Would you have unsure type workers frame and pour the foundation of your house, of course not, then why do so with the OL? Not a single OL player dominates a position, less the opposing player.

Gutekunst wanted his own dude (QB)-he was new to the job and wanted his stamp on the team. He could have traded up for a WR#2 instead of a new QB. and the Packers would have been in better position for several years.

Gameplan-
The only part that bothered me was the run to pass ratio. The 2nd and long handoffs. While it felt like they were trying to catch them off guard and trying to get into managable 3rd downs, it was not working. I get that they are really trying to establish the run. But they are not making it work right now. And that comes down to the OL play. The OL has not been playing well enough. Just being honest, I think it maybe time to make some changes there. Banks has not played well. Walker has not played well either. I think Morgan is playing out of Position. I think they need to make some changes on the OL to get the best out of them.

Also I think they just need a little more creativity.

Jordan Love -
Love is the guy. But he is inconsistent. We have seen his great play, we have seen his bad play. This game he could have been much, much better. The deep throw to Watson later, if he throws it towards the sidelines more only Watson can get it. There were a few other plays that he had Watson open, just trust him to make the play. Also there were a number of other plays that he has guys open. He got happy feet though. The OL to me was the root of the problem. He didn't trust their blocking.

And there were plays where Love threw perfect passes and WR's didn't do him any favors. The throw to Watson on the opening drive. The throw Melton on 4th down. The throw to Wicks on the final drive. The throw to Jacobs where he turned the wrong way. There were a lot of great throws that ended up incomplete and ended drives.

Said it before and I will say it again. MLF sucks! I pray to the football gods Policy doesn't extend him! A handoff out of the shotgun on 4th & 1. Instead of 1 yard now it's 4 yards to run after securing the ball, not to mention the Eagles knew the play which says a lot. I was in disbelief watching the offensive play calling in the 1st half, like there's no way he is actually doing this again? Watson on the sideline with 4th & game on the line? And on and on and on...............

Absolutely nothing Lafleur does makes sense, from having an injured kicker on the field when you have a healthy one on the bench, to running 3 WR sets the entire game when your entire WR room is banged up, to using Wilson solely as a 3rd down back when he pass catches no better than Brooks or Jacobs and is the weakest blocking back of the three. At this point his tenure is a comedy of nonsensical errors. Can anyone please explain to me how someone can be an NFL offensive coordinator for several years then be a playcalling HC for 7 and still not know how to attack 2 high safety looks? Teams now have gotten to the point that even if they don't normally play two high and are not very good at what they normally play they will just play two high against Lafleur and hold him to a TD and a FG for the game because he has no clue how to attack two high looks. That is beyond pathetic for any offensive coach in the NFL.

I would like fans to give concrete advice to a coach who has to play-call with no Run Defense and marginal Pass Pro.

MLF has lost this team wait until the Bears sweep us its gonna get a lot worse.