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The Green Bay Packers had a huge collapse in the Wild Card Round against the Chicago Bears that cost them the game, even though they were leading 21-6 at one point. Yes, the Bears turned things up in the second half to help them get back into the game, but the Packers didn’t do themselves any favors with how they managed the clock. That’s where head coach Matt LaFleur comes in.
With around four minutes left in the game, the obvious thing for the Packers to do was to run some clock, even though the Bears had all of their timeouts. That led to some anonymous coaches calling out LaFleur and his decision to run a normal offense down the stretch, according to Mike Sando of The Athletic.
“The smugness of playing your regular offense, with huge air-yard plays, in a four-minute situation,” a coach from another team said to Sando. “Of course you are not going to have (the clock moving). They are trying to score an explosive touchdown. Who does that?”
Instead of making plays in the middle of the field to keep the clock moving, the Packers were running perimeter and outbreaking routes. That would lead to players running out of bounds, therefore stopping the clock.
“Where is ball control, short passing game?” the coach said. “Where are the angle routes?”
It was one of the biggest reasons why the Bears were able to win in a thriller, and it was another game this season that the Packers had a lead and blew it.
Now, everyone has questions about LaFleur and his future as the head coach, and it looks like he may be returning. On the other hand, some think that the Packers should move on from LaFleur, and look into finding another head coach to lead the team.
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