The Green Bay Packers outperformed the Detroit Lions in yardage, with 411 yards to the Lions’ 261 on Sunday. They achieved 20 first downs to the Lions’ 17.
Yet, Green Bay fell 24-14, and it was 24-6 until a late touchdown in the fourth quarter. While Jordan Love’s pick-six played a role, head coach Matt LaFleur is more worried about another issue.
The Packers reached the red zone four times but managed only one touchdown.
“You can’t find yourself in a position where you’re forced to throw on nearly every play. That’s not a formula for winning, especially in these ele I’mments,” LaFleur noted.
“We put ourselves in too deep of a hole, and when we get there, we don’t finish in the red zone. Going one for four isn’t good enough. We’ll need to examine this over the next week to improve. We’re not making plays when we have the chance, so we need to review what we’re asking from our players and do a better job.”
LaFleur attributed the offensive struggles to mistakes from the entire team, not just Jordan Love.
“Penalties are a big part of it,” LaFleur said. “We had consecutive snaps where the ball was on the ground. We didn’t capitalize on that.”
LaFleur believes the Lions’ ability to avoid penalties and errors was key to their victory at Lambeau Field.
“They played a cleaner game than we did. I was disappointed by the number of penalties—self-inflicted wounds,” LaFleur stated. “You can’t afford that against a solid team. When you consider they scored before the two-minute mark, followed by a pick-six and a second-half touchdown, that’s a tough deficit to overcome.”
Mistakes have been a recurring issue for the Packers this season. Now, with a week off, they’ll need to evaluate and make changes. Green Bay is 0-2 in the division, with home losses to the Vikings and Lions, making the next game against the Bears critical—mistakes can’t be part of it.
