Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers entered Week 3 action against the Cleveland Browns as huge favorites. The team had been talked about as arguably the best team in the NFL through the first two weeks, but those opinions came crashing down after the Packers lost 13-10 to one of the worst teams in football.
There was nothing good to take away from the game. While the defense played well, the loss was a crushing disappointment.
Every chance that Green Bay had to win the game, it failed to do so. LaFleur’s coaching and play-calling was not good enough. It wasn’t even close.
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With that being said, the Packers have to pick themselves up for next week’s Sunday Night Football showdown against the Dallas Cowboys.
Following the brutal loss to the Browns, LaFleur spoke out with brutal honesty. He started by calling out his team for having 14 penalties throughout the course of the game.
“When you have 14 penalties in a game, that’s going to be tough to overcome that,” LaFleur said. “We have to do a much better job coaching the fundamentals, the details, and we have to lock in at a high level in regards to the controllable penalties.”
After that comment, LaFleur admitted that he himself was defeated by Cleveland defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.
“I have a lot of respect for Jim Schwartz. He was better than us today. Better than me specifically.”
It’s brutal honesty, but it’s completely correct. Everything that LaFleur said was factual and taking responsibility for his poor coaching performance was a must.
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Losing to a team like the Browns says an awful lot about Green Bay. No one should cross them off of the Super Bowl contenders list just yet, but the Packers clearly have a lot of work to do before they received that title in full.
There is no question that Green Bay has the talent necessary to win at a high level. LaFleur is a good enough coach to lead his team to a championship.
However, the issues were glaring against Cleveland. The Packers have a lot of things to fix and they need to do it quickly. Hopefully, they’ll be better prepared next week to take on the Cowboys in a huge primetime clash.
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