Thursday LaFleur: Is Offense Making Progress?

It’s been a struggle on offense for the Packers through the start of training camp. Coach Matt LaFleur talked about that and other topics before Thursday’s practice.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur isn’t focused on the “end result” of plays at this early stage of training camp.

Nonetheless, it’s been a rough start to training camp for the Jordan Love-led passing game. Every practice features several competitive periods, including one in which the winning unit dictates the punishment for the losing unit.

The offense has been the loser all five days, including on Tuesday, when Love went 1-for-5 in a red-zone drill and the offense failed to get a first down during a 2-minute drill.

Again, it’s early. Schemes are being installed on both sides of the ball, so it’s not surprising that a veteran defense is ahead of an offense that will feature a first-time starting quarterback, three second-year receivers, a rookie receiver and at least one rookie tight end. 

But has LaFleur seen progress?

“I think we’ll have a better indication the longer we go throughout camp,” he said before what’s going to be a tropical Thursday practice. “I think there’s been some good moments. There’s been some tough situations. There’s going to be another tough situation for the offense today.

“Anytime you get in those 2-minute, end-of-game situations where you need to score a touchdown, that’s a challenge. What I’d like to see is the ability to execute when plays are there. It takes everybody and if one guy isn’t perfect with his technique and there’s pressure in the quarterback’s face, then he can’t see what’s going on downfield.”

There have been some positive moments almost every day. Love hit Samori Toure with a beautiful deep ball on a 2-minute drill that reached the 1-yard line and got the required field goal, and Love hung in a collapsing pocket before finding tight end Luke Musgrave for a touchdown. The perimeter running game seems to be off to a good start.

But, in totality, it’s been a slog. With a young quarterbacks and young receivers facing Green Bay’s standout cornerbacks, Love has finished at less than 50 percent passing three out of five practices (not including a jog-through last week).

“I think it’s just that consistency,” Love said on Tuesday. “I don’t think we are being consistent in all the rules in the offense, as consistent as we can be on the plays. It just comes down to us being on the same page and I don’t think we have that right now. We’re still kind of growing, going through those growing pains right now.

“I think there’s definitely spurts of it and it’s awesome to see and then it sucks when we have days where we’re just not putting it together. Obviously, there just wasn’t a lot of juice out there from us. It’s disappointing when you’re not able to put those plays together, but we’ve just got to find a way as a whole to be able to come together and turn that around right there.”

Here are two more highlights from LaFleur’s pre-practice news conference.

Jordan Love (Photo by Sarah Kloepping/USA Today Sports Images)

With the starting center position perhaps up for grabs between Josh Myers and Zach Tom – Tom got some first-team reps on Tuesday – what is LaFleur looking for at that position?

“Just a level of play that is consistent and up to a standard that we have for that position. Certainly, I think that's a key part. They're the guy talking to the other five, getting everybody on the same page. Josh has done a really good job, but we need more consistency. [We’ve] got complete confidence that he's fully capable of doing that and we've seen that from him. But it's just like every other position that we have. We need to pull out the best of everybody.”

This was LaFleur’s final time talking to reporters until after Family Night. How big of a benefit is it practicing in front of so many fans?

“I think it’s fantastic. I think it’s great for our young players to get into Lambeau. It gets the adrenaline going. It feels more like game-like, so I think it’s a great opportunity for them to experience that before they go into a preseason game. I’ve never experienced anything like this, quite honestly, at any other place I’ve ever been. It’s more similar probably to a big-time spring game at one of the big-time schools. It is a really cool experience for our guys to have their first experience at Lambeau and kind of get the jitters out of the way.”

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