No Time for Excuses: Time for Packers To Start Winning

Has there been progress? Sure, but not enough to change a familiar formula of playing just well enough to hang around but not well enough to win.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur’s second sentence of his postgame news conference on Sunday in Pittsburgh said it all.

“There are no moral victories in this league.”

He’s right. So why pretend otherwise?

The Packers dropped to 3-6 after a 23-19 loss to the Steelers. Yes, they kept it close against a team that, at this point in the season, is playoff-bound.

So what?

This isn’t horseshoes and hand grenades. It’s professional football. The point of the whole endeavor is to win games. This is Titletown, after all.

I get it, this season is about more than the bottom-line numbers in the standings. Following the offseason trade of Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love inherited the youngest group of pass-catchers in the NFL. They weren’t going to be the 2011 Packers right out of the gate. The hope – no, the expectation – was that Love and those young players would grow week by week by week.

Love threw for a career-high 289 yards against the Steelers. That’s progress. Tight end Luke Musgrave had two catches for a career-high 64 yards. That’s progress. Jayden Reed set career highs with five receptions for 84 yards. That’s progress. Dontayvion Wicks caught three passes for a career-high 51 yards. That’s progress.

But, ultimately, it was the same old thing on offense.

The Packers have failed to surpass 20 points for seven consecutive games. That’s the second-longest streak in the NFL behind the New York Giants, who started an undrafted rookie quarterback on Sunday at Dallas. The Packers haven’t had a longer 20-and-under streak since 1988, when second-year player Don Majkowski and Randy Wright split the quarterbacking duties.

Comparing Love’s First Nine Games to Rodgers in 2008

The Packers finished the day with a season-high 399 yards.

They were a combined 10-of-18 on third and fourth down.

They scored their first first-quarter touchdown since Week 1.

They scored a season-high 13 points in the first half.

They had a season-high eight plays of 20-plus yards.

Who cares, who cares, who cares, who cares and who cares.

The Packers got in the red zone four times in the second half and failed to score a single touchdown.

When it was time to win the game, Love threw an interception.

Given another chance to win the game, Aaron Jones made a rookie move, got tackled inbounds and wasted about half the remaining 51 seconds. All of that led to Love throwing another interception.

And that’s not even getting into the other phases of the game.

Green Bay’s run defense, after two strong performances, was destroyed by the Steelers. After allowing their league-worst third 200-yard game, the Packers have plunged to 27th against the run. Joe Barry’s defense ranks 11th with 20.2 points allowed per game. That’s winning football, though it’s faced only one top-10 scoring offense, Detroit, which scored 34 points and gained 401 yards.

“It’s the National Football League. You can’t rest on what you’ve done lately,” LaFleur said. “Every game’s a new challenge. Need all 11 on the same page and we had a ton of missed tackles. And then if you get cut out of gaps, you’re not doing yourself any favors.”

Green Bay’s special teams, with the esteemed coordinator Rich Bisaccia running the show, gave up a blocked extra point that changed everything about the second half. Josiah Deguara appeared frozen in concrete as Patrick Peterson raced past him for the block. At this point, Bisaccia’s units are barely better than those directed by the likes of Maurice Drayton and Ron Zook.

Youth, at this point, is an excuse.

To be sure, this is an apples-to-oranges comparison, but the Houston Texans are 5-4. They have a rookie quarterback in C.J. Stroud. Among their receivers, third-year player Nico Collins and rookie Tank Dell are the leaders in receptions. And yet they’ve scored at least 30 points in four games, including in victories over Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

Green Bay’s defense, obviously, isn’t young. Most of the players on special teams aren’t young, either.

Pittsburgh's Keanu Neal picks off Jordan Love :: Photo by Philip G. Pavely/USA Today Sports Images

Ten weeks into the season (nine games and the bye), it’s time for the Packers to produce results rather than show potential.

Problem is, that window of opportunity might have slammed closed.

The Packers had a chance to win in Week 2 at the Falcons (4-6) but Love threw four consecutive incompletions. After the Packers were routed at home by the Lions on a Thursday night, they had their mini-bye but lost at the Raiders (5-5) on Love’s late interception. After their bye, the Packers lost at the Broncos (4-5) on Love’s late interception.

The Packers returned home to face the Vikings (6-4), who were without All-Pro receiver Justin Jefferson and lost quarterback Kirk Cousins for the final 10 minutes to a torn Achilles, but lost 24-10. After beating the Rams, the Packers outgained the Steelers (6-3) by 75 yards but couldn’t beat an opponent with a statistically bad quarterback and mediocre running game.

So, the Packers are 3-6. They’re legitimately a handful of plays from being 7-2. Of course, that’s a loser’s mentality. The reality is they didn’t make those plays and, really, haven’t made those plays all season.

“When you’re focused on your process,” LaFleur said, “you’re focused on improvement, getting better each and every day, just maximizing your opportunities. I think our guys are getting better. Now, we’ve got to capitalize on some opportunities.

“You’ve got to give Pittsburgh a ton of credit. They made the plays and they made more big plays than we did. There’s a lot of plays in all three phases [and] they all add up. It’s tough to overcome when you have too many missed opportunities.”

After a half-season of wasted opportunities, the Packers have to climb out of the kiddie pool and jump into the shark tank.

On Sunday, the Packers will host the Chargers, who are 4-5 but have as much field-tilting talent as most teams in the league. Then, it’s Thanksgiving against Detroit, which manhandled Green Bay in Round 1. After that, it’s back home to face Patrick Mahomes and the Super Bowl-champion Chiefs.

Those teams, with their high-powered offense, could sweep through Green Bay and sink the Packers to 3-9.

The final five games are soft – at the Giants (2-8), home against the Buccaneers (4-5), at the Panthers (1-8) and Vikings (6-4, and home against the Bears (3-7) – which would allow the Packers to close the season on a strong note.

In 2006, Mike McCarthy’s debut season, the Packers lost three in a row to fall to 4-8. But they swept their final four games. Sure, the Packers lost out on draft positioning, but McCarthy thought the momentum from those games carried over into 2007, when the Packers won 10 of their first 11 games, finished 13-3 and reached the NFC Championship Game.

That’s what this Packers team needs. It needs results. It needs confirmation that it’s got the right players and right philosophies in place.

And if the positive results don’t come? Then the right players and right philosophies aren’t in place, and the hoped-for quick reload could turn into an excruciating rebuild.

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