Matt LaFleur, now in his seventh season as the Green Bay Packers head coach, struggled with clock management in the Packers’ 40-40 tie with Dallas on Sept. 28.
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All gas, no brakes?
Or perhaps you slam the brakes, then drive in first gear?
After 6 ¼ seasons and 112 football games, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur still has an identity crisis.
At times, LaFleur sticks out his chest and plays with reckless abandon, ala Riverboat Ron Rivera. At others, he turns into Captain Conservative like Marty Schottenheimer was for 2 ½ decades with four teams.
Because LaFleur still seems unsure of himself, so are his Packers.
And right now, the identity of the 2025 Packers is sloppiness, confusion and a lack of discipline.
In a year where general manager Brian Gutekunst stressed “urgency”, then proved it by trading for Micah Parsons — the franchise’s biggest deal since acquiring Brett Favre in 1992 — LaFleur isn’t holding up his end of the bargain. And he could be the one person preventing these Packers from greatness.
Let’s examine the latest string of debacles from Green Bay’s 40-40 tie with Dallas on Sept. 28, a game that dropped the Packers’ record to 2-1-1.
1. End of first half
The Packers were clinging to a 13-9 lead with 21 seconds left in the first half. They had a first and 15 at their own 27 and no timeouts.
The odds of moving the ball roughly 33 yards to get into field goal range for kicker Brandon McManus were slim. And while it’s easy to second guess, the best play here was certainly to run the football and take your four-point lead to halftime.
“At that point, should have just shut it down and I didn’t,” LaFleur said.
Instead, LaFleur was looking for a chunk play and sent four receivers downfield. Working out of the shotgun, quarterback Jordan Love dropped seven more steps.
Love held the ball 3.45 seconds before defensive end James Houston beat left tackle Rasheed Walker, had a strip sack and recovered the loose ball at Green Bay’s 15 with 15 seconds remaining.
On the next play, Prescott hit George Pickens with a 15-yard TD and Dallas surged to a 16-13 halftime lead.
LaFleur’s gamble failed miserably, and the Packers were in a 16-13 halftime hole.
“We were trying to be aggressive and it backfired and it killed us,” LaFleur said.
2. End of regulation
The ultra-reliable McManus saved LaFleur’s bacon here.
Trailing, 37-34, Green Bay drove to the Cowboys’ 40 with 17 seconds left.
Someone should have been telling LaFleur that McManus has made 90.6% of his career field goals inside of 50 yards, and 57.5% from outside of 50. That’s a gigantic swing of 33.1%.
Either LaFleur didn’t know or care and ran Josh Jacobs on back-to-back carries for a total of 5 yards. McManus then delivered with an extremely clutch 53-yard field goal to force overtime.
Still, LaFleur should have tried helping his kicker out even more. Green Bay had a timeout left and was moving the ball at will.
LaFleur’s conservative approach could have been costly, but thanks to McManus, it became an overlooked part of the game.
3. End of overtime
This was the worst clock management moment in LaFleur’s tenure.
In fact, LaFleur himself said this was, “like watching a slow-motion car crash in front of your face.”
Unfortunately for LaFleur and the Packers, he was the driver.
Green Bay had a first down at the Dallas 25-yard line with 1:15 left and another first down at the Cowboys’ 12 with 32 seconds left. That should have been plenty of time to attack the endzone and try winning the game.
Instead, LaFleur was worried about leaving Dallas time if the Packers had to settle for a field goal. So his play calling turned ultra-conservative and Green Bay’s 2-minute offense had a Keystone Cops feel.
The end result was the Packers were an eyelash away from not having time to attempt a field goal.
“Obviously the play calls sucked,” LaFleur said.
First, a screen pass to Matthew Golden lost three yards to the 15, and the Packers called their final timeout with 28 seconds remaining. On second-and-13, Love’s check down to running back Emanuel Wilson in the right flat lost a yard to the 16.
Green Bay was painfully slow getting organized as precious seconds ticked away. Love finally took a third down snap with just 6 seconds left, and fired incomplete for Matthew Golden in the endzone.
When the ball landed, there was just one second on the clock. Yes, one second.
That’s how close the Packers came to losing this game.
“I’m just looking at the clock and I’m like, ‘Oh my god …’ (long pause) “… there’s going to be no time left.’ It’s a very humbling experience to go through that and it’s unacceptable quite honestly,” LaFleur said. “And there’s nothing we can do about it now other than we’d better learn from it — everybody. I’m sure it’ll be a teach tape for around the league to be honest with you.”
Imagine that?
Being a “teaching tape” for ineptitude.
Love certainly deserves his share of the blame for his lackadaisical approach during the chaotic final seconds. But everything begins and ends with LaFleur, who communicates directly with Love through his headset and should have been screaming at his quarterback to pick up the pace.
“Dissecting that whole end-of-game process, there’s been a lot of conversation on that and where I need to be better for our team is just communicating in that situation,” LaFleur said.
LaFleur also admitted he needs to devote more practice time to those end-of-game situations.
“It’s a tough learning lesson for us, but it’s one of those things that you can’t just practice every once in a while,” LaFleur said. “That needs to be a part of practice every week if you want our guys … because in those critical situations you’ve got to be flawless.
“When (those situations) come up, they matter because it’s the most critical point of the game. To not execute that in that situation, that was tough to watch.”
Fall from grace
LaFleur had the magic touch early in his Green Bay tenure.
He started 28-7 with an aggressive, hard-hitting approach. At the biggest moment of his coaching career, though, LaFleur lost his nerve and the Packers lost the 2020 NFC Championship Game on their homefield.
Trailing, 31-23, Green Bay drove to Tampa Bay’s 8-yard line, where it stalled with 2:09 left. Instead of going for a potential touchdown and game-tying two-point conversion, LaFleur elected to attempt a field goal.
Packers kicker Mason Crosby drilled a 26-yarder to pull Green Bay within 31-26. But the Packers never got the ball back and lost by that exact score.
Months later, LaFleur remained steadfast in his decision to kick a field goal, saying the analytics supported it. What analytics can’t fully factor, though, is that Tom Brady — the greatest quarterback in NFL history — was on the other sideline.
Since that painful loss to the Buccaneers, the Packers have just one playoff win, have been passed in the division by Detroit and arguably Minnesota, and are 43-31-1 overall (.580).
Green Bay’s special teams under LaFleur and fourth-year coordinator Rich Bisaccia remain a mess. The Packers have had kicks blocked in consecutive weeks, they seem confused by the new kickoff rules and McManus was forced to make two tackles against the Cowboys.
The Packers are tied for the third most penalties in the league with 9.3 per game. Green Bay was in the top-10 for most penalties in 2023 and 2024, as well.
Most importantly, though, the team lacks an identity.
LaFleur, who has just one year left on his contract after this season, wasn’t given an extension by new team president Ed Policy last offseason. That means this is likely a “prove it” year for LaFleur.
He has 13 games left to sink or swim.