Paul Bretl | 1/5/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The 2023 Packers entered the postseason on a three-game winning streak and essentially in playoff mode having to win those final games to even have a chance of continuing to play into January.
This year’s Packers team, with two more victories in the win column, will enter the postseason on a two-game losing streak and frequently still dealing with the same issues that have plagued them for much of the season.
“A disappointing loss, for sure,” said Jordan Love after the game. “I think everybody in the locker room feels that. Its obviously not the note we wanted to end on with a loss to the Vikings and then turn around and a loss here. It’s the reality of our situation.
“We’ve got to find a way to improve this week, get better and look forward to seeing Philly. It’s a disappointing finish, a disappointing loss , to end that game right there. But it’s the same thing. Theres a lot of areas that we can clean up and got to get better at. The same kind of message is going through that locker room. Weve got to go out and make these plays and execute. We just have to be better.”
With the regular season behind them, the Packers still haven’t consistently been able to put it all together this season–or at least not for extended periods–and they’ve now reached the point in the season where it’s now or never.
“A couple guys (Xavier McKinney and Rashan Gary) spoke in front of the team and said, ‘Put your pride aside and just work,’ said Sean Rhayn. “Not that we haven’t been working, but coming off two losses, I think we’ve got to get back to the bare bones of coming in, doing our drills, doing them crisp and cool. Honest work is what we’re going to need.”
Hit like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel ‘Paul Bretl’ for more Packers coverage.
In Sunday’s loss to the Bears–Chicago’s first win in the last 12 games against Green Bay–the run game was again productive, totaling 183 yards at 5.5 yards per rush, but it didn’t result in points for the offense. With under five minutes to go in the game, the Packers still had just 13 points before a forced fumble by Carrington Valentine set Green Bay up in scoring position.
While the run game was producing, it’s difficult to put up points in today’s NFL when that is your only means for moving the football. The margin for error then becomes extremely small in those instances, with the offense often in a hole when in those pesky long down-and-distance situations when there isn’t a positive gain on first down.
“I think everybody’s just got to lock in on what we want to do and what we want to accomplish and know that one loss, you’re done, you’re going home,” Josh Jacobs said. “So the sense of urgency and everything is up. We’ve just got to know that coming in this whole week, coming in to prepare, everybody’s got to be willing to give 110% of themselves to what we want to accomplish.”
A steady passing game is needed to complement the run game and the Packers didn’t have that. Of course, not having Jordan Love under center from the second quarter on was an obvious factor in that, but even before he exited the game with an elbow injury, the passing attack was disjointed–again.
Love was 7-for-12 passing for a modest 69 yards–19 of which came on one completion. Malik Willis was 10-for-13 passing for 136 yards, with a long of 41 yards on a completion to Malik Heath. If we take the 6.6 yards per pass attempt that the Packers collectively averaged and compare it to the NFL’s season-long numbers, that figure would rank 31st.
This follows a performance where Love had fewer than 100 passing yards through three quarters against the Minnesota Vikings. As is the case in football, there is never one answer to the problem–it’s a lack of consistency in the pass-catchers getting open, it’s dropped passes, off-target throws, indecisiveness, and the overall timing just not quite being there.
“It’s definitely been a little stagnant,” Love said. “It just feels like were just missing right now. Missing on some of these opps that obviously before we were hitting on. Like I’ve said before, it’s not like were far off. It’s not like everything were running is just not working. Stuffs there. We’ve just got to go out there and make plays. We’ve got to be great, like I said, with accuracy, ball placement, everything, so I think it’s a lot of stuff well clean up.
“I definitely don’t think it’s a problem,” Love would add, “but if this was a playoff game, we’d be going home right now. We’ve got to find a way to make those plays, execute and stay on the field as offense, put up more points than we did tonight. We’ve got to find ways to just be better because like we said in the locker room, if this was a playoff game, we’re going home. So just not good enough.”
In addition to not having Love for a large portion of the game, the Packers saw Christian Watson exit with an injury early and Josh Jacobs had just six carries. In addition to that, Green Bay opted for continuity in the secondary by starting Kitan Oladapo at safety so Javon Bullard could play the nickel. That may not have been a decision that was made–giving the Day 3 rookie his first-ever start–had this been a playoff game.
But on the flip side, just about every one of the Packers’ usual starters played the entire game against a Bears team riding a 10 game losing streak. And perhaps most concerning is that, as mentioned, many of the same problems continue to persist. The passing game is currently out of whack and in all three of the Packers’ post-bye week losses to Detroit, Minnesota, and Chicago, the defense couldn’t get a late stop.
“It’s us vs. us,” said Xavier McKinney. “We need to correct what we need to correct because these are self-inflicted wounds. It’s not anything that the other team is doing to beat us. It’s the things we’re doing to beat ourselves. We gotta get it corrected.”
Certainly not helping things was the special teams unit giving up a punt return for a touchdown, not to mention that It’s also not only the players who have to execute better, but Matt LaFleur, admittedly, wasn’t at his best either. An indecisive moment about whether to kick the field goal late or go for it on fourth down resulted in the Packers’ using a timeout, which left the Bears’ offense with additional time.
“At the end of the game, that’s squarely on me,” LaFleur said. “Just got caught in a situation where we were planning on going for it. They felt like Brandon could make that field goal. Hindsight’s 20/20, and I wish I wouldn’t have taken the timeout because it gave them obviously way too much time to go down and operate. Like I told the team, that’s on me, that can’t happen. So we’ve got to wipe this as soon as possible. It’s a new season now. Everybody’s 0-0.”
During the bye week, GM Brian Gutekunst mentioned that the goal is to be playing your best football come January. Last year’s team was doing just that, on the aforementioned three game winning streak while in playoff mode, and operating on the field as one of the more effective offenses in the game, despite having to claw their way to nine wins.
This year, that isn’t the case. A switch is going to have to be flipped if the Packers are going to find any playoff success. While a year ago at this time, the team was riding a wave of momentum into Dallas, this time, Green Bay will have to head into Philadelphia in search of it.
So how do the Packers accomplish that?
“I don’t think anybody has to do anything out of the ordinary, any superhuman effort,” LaFleur said. “It’s just, guys have got to be dialed in and doing their responsibility. We always talk about doing your 1/11th and it’s so true in these playoff games because the margins are thin enough in this league as it is. Each week, it can go either way. But I would say specifically with the playoffs, when it comes to that, the energy, you’ve got to stay focused, you’ve got to stay dialed in, you’ve got to play it like truly play each play as if it were your last. And that’s the approach we’ve got to take.
“And we’ve got to have a great week of preparation, no doubt about it. Guys have got to rest up, we’ve got to recover, some guys are pretty beat up right now, and who knows when we play, so that could affect things as well. Everybody has to handle their business, take care of what they need to take care of and we’ve got to go and put our best foot forward.”
With the talent that this team has, and as we’ve seen from this group both this season and last, they do certainly have the ability to flip the switch. This season has also been far from a disaster–I mean, the Packers did get to 11 wins and are top 10 in scoring on both sides of the football, and not that long ago, put up 30-plus points in five straight games. It’s not as if things have been all bad by any means.
Inside the locker room, the belief that a run can be made still very much exists.
“I got all the confidence,” said McKinney about getting things corrected. “We got the right guys to do it. We just gotta do it, though. Like I said, we have the guys and we got the coaches. We got everything that we need right here. Mentally, we have to be ready to lock in and ready to go. That’s as simple as it gets.”
However, having said that, we’ve seen middling teams get bounced from the playoffs early and others who finished the regular season strong go on a run. The current lack of momentum hasn’t sealed Green Bay’s 2024 playoff fate by any means, but getting back on track, correcting the same issues that have pestered them for much of the year, and finding that elusive consistency while doing all of that on the road against the best teams in the NFC, is obviously a tall task.
“The guys had some strong words in the locker room,” added LaFleur. “I think their mind will be in the right place, and it all start with our energy, how we attack it coming into the building. We said this way back when during training camp, it’s, ‘Standards over feelings.’ And there’s a standard that we have to approach each day with and you’ve got to come in with that energy and just attack it. And put your best foot forward. Because this is like March Madness from here on out. I mean, anything can happen, and you’ve got to be sharp and you’ve got to be detailed.”