Packers quarterback Jordan Love talks about facing the Broncos defense
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love feels the Denver Broncos will be one of the best defenses they’ve played all season.
- Packers coach Matt LaFleur’s game management has been a key factor in the team’s recent four-game winning streak.
- LaFleur’s strategic decisions, such as clock management and aggressive play-calling, have been highlighted in recent divisional wins.
- Despite recent success, LaFleur’s job security could still be influenced by how the team finishes the season.
GREEN BAY – The gears in his mind are turning. Matt LaFleur is stalking the sideline just after the 2-minute warning, three timeouts in his pocket, unwilling to use one as the Green Bay Packers coach lets the clock run down.
His offense is about to get the football back. The Packers are hoping to expand on a small lead before halftime. LaFleur could burn his first timeout, but his offense will be starting the third quarter with the ball. Fifty seconds run off the clock after LaFleur declines to stop it, and if there’s any remaining mystery about his strategy at this point, the coach was willing to bluntly lay out his thinking three days later.
“We scored too quick,” LaFleur said. “So they got the extra possession there at the end of the half.”
The Packers would gladly leave the Chicago Bears with 33 seconds left if it meant connecting with receiver Bo Melton on a 45-yard touchdown off busted coverage. Just as they’d settle for 3 points with a field goal as the first-half clock expired, if it meant Bears quarterback Caleb Williams didn’t touch the football again until after the Packers opened the third quarter with possession. It’s all part of hedging the outcomes, managing a game to find an advantage.
If you haven’t noticed, LaFleur has done an exceptional job of that lately. The Packers have rattled off four straight wins and their players are discussing on the sidelines how this all feels like 2023 again, and their coach consistently pushing the right buttons is a significant reason why. That doesn’t mean there isn’t more work to do for LaFleur to close out this season. The NFL is a week-to-week league based on result. If Jordan Love hadn’t found Melton wide open down the middle of the field, and the Packers settle for a field goal with the Bears in position to send the game into overtime on their final drive in the fourth quarter, LaFleur’s game management late in the first half would be evaluated differently.
What result LaFleur’s team yields from this season ultimately will influence the temperature on his seat entering 2026, the final year of his contract. So it’s silly to consider LaFleur’s status safe for next year midway through December. Just as it was foolish to prematurely consider the coach’s job in jeopardy after consecutive home losses by a field goal to Carolina and Philadelphia in November. The stack of wins his team has built in the past month still could crumble, and suddenly LaFleur is under scrutiny. Or the Packers could continue ascending to a Super Bowl.
That ending has yet to be written, but this is a team that clearly likes where it’s heading as it travels to the Denver Broncos this week, where it will play the AFC’s current top overall seed.
“It definitely felt like old times rookie year toward the end of the season,” receiver Jayden Reed said, sharing a conversation he had with fellow wideout Christian Watson late in the Packers’ win against the Bears at Lambeau Field.
In 2023, LaFleur had to rescue an offense filled with rookies and a first-year starter at quarterback midway through the season. The Packers finished red hot, securing Love’s place as their franchise quarterback, and making a run to the NFC divisional playoff round ahead of schedule.
The journey has been different this season. Two years ago, it was the need to accelerate development for a young core. Injuries handicapped the Packers’ offense at the midway point this fall, especially after tight end Tucker Kraft’s season ended with a torn ACL against the Panthers. A week later, starting center Elgton Jenkins’ season ended with a fractured left leg. The Packers also were missing Reed at the time, Dontayvion Wicks was playing through a calf injury, and they’d yet to discover Watson as their best receiver only three games back from his torn ACL.
But there are similarities. In both seasons, the Packers offense simply wasn’t playing well, and it threatened to tank a season.
“I think it’s one of those things where if we go out and execute,” right tackle Zach Tom said, “it makes him look really good. If we don’t go out and execute, people are going to blame him. It always falls on us. We’re the ones out there playing. So if we don’t execute, it makes everyone look bad.”
At 5-3-1 with a daunting back half of their schedule ahead, things were looking bleak. LaFleur was potentially coaching for his job. There have been enough gaffes from the Packers’ sideline in recent years to make it a legitimate conversation, which isn’t unusual in a league with yearly coaching turnover at about 25%. But if this is what coaching for his job looks like, LaFleur has made some kind of statement.
After surviving a blustery day at the New York Giants, the Packers have beaten each team in their division the past three weeks. LaFleur has been the better coach in all three. He recognized the Minnesota Vikings were crippled against his defense with J.J. McCarthy behind center. So instead of pushing the Packers offense with a short-week trip to Detroit ahead, LaFleur squeezed tighter. He gambled in Detroit, out-Dan Campbelling Lions coach Dan Campbell with three fourth-down attempts. The Packers converted all three, two for touchdowns and the last to clinch a win, a stark contrast to the Lions going 0-for-2 on their fourth-down attempts.
LaFleur was more deliberate picking his spot to be aggressive against the Bears. After letting the first-half clock run, LaFleur called a handoff to Josh Jacobs on the first play of the drive. He didn’t call a timeout after, letting 14 more seconds tick as the clock dropped under 1 minute. It wasn’t until Love connected on a 12-yard pass to tight end Luke Musgrave, pushing the offense across midfield, that LaFleur stopped the clock.
On the next snap, the Packers noticed nobody covered Watson as he ran a vertical route down the left numbers. It would have been a touchdown, except Love checked down his throw incomplete to Musgrave on the right. LaFleur saw an opening. Time to strike.
He called the same play with three receivers aligned to the left, the middle running a vertical route, except LaFleur had Bo Melton replace Watson. The receiver Chicago was most likely to forget about in its coverage. All Love had to do was loft his pass high downfield as Melton fell into the end zone.
“It really just comes down to trust and having faith in everything we’ve built up until that point,” Watson said. “He puts a lot of trust in a lot of different guys to have the success that we do as an offense.”
If Love doesn’t find Melton, if his pass is inaccurate and incomplete, LaFleur’s game management is rendered moot. He needs his players to execute as much as any other coach, but LaFleur’s job – and his future – will be to push the right button as he continues navigating the rest of this season.
His ability to do so has helped turn around what could have been another sinking season.
